Diamonds of Stardust

by Lulamoon-Crystal

In The Night

Late that night while packing up the party, two royal guards approached Trixie who was on the ground finishing the cake. “Mfff?” Trixie questioned, wondeiring why two guards were approached in her. She knew she didn't do anything wrong.

”Excuse me, ma’am. There’s a food thief around... they have been stealing fruit from the stores and fruit only. So please let us know if you see anything and stay safe,”

Trixie nodded, mouth full of cake. “Mmmhmmm, foo- theeef no mapth fuh tah greath and powuh-fall Twickfie!” She boasted.

The guards nodded and walked away. Ignoring the fact that her mouth was stuffed with cake. Minty walked out of her tent happily, planning to go to the shops to buy some fresh food. The food supply was going low so it wouldn’t hurt.

“Minty?” Asked GC, “Where are you going, dude?”

“Oh!” Minty exclaimed, “I’m just going to buy some fresher stuff at the shops, there is one that is still open for another hour,”

”Okay, be safe, but... there’s a food theif out there, dude,” GC informed with concern.

”I know...” Minty smiled, “Ill be careful!”

GC sighed as she watched Minty go into the dark. Hoping she wouldn’t encounter the food thief, who knows what it would do to her! The kingdom was lit up by glowing crystals and streetlights, but Minty had her horn glow anyway.

It was a bit of a walk away, but it was still a nice one. A beautiful set of stars were soon in the sky, and the streets were quiet. It was such a cool and peaceful night. Many homes were turning off their lights. A few still had theirs on. There was also a stray cat running through the streets chasing a mouse.

Soon Minty made it to the stores. A pony walked out as she happily walked in. After buying what she felt needed to be brought she made her way to the counter and out the doors. As soon as she exited, she could have sworn she saw something whoosh by her, it made her feel a bit uneasy but she kept walking.

Three paper bags filled with food peacefully floated in her magic. Minty walked at a pace as she felt a breeze behind her, then something dashed in front of her making her jump back. Her heart was racing, she stood there and looked around. “H-hello?” She called, “Anyone out there?” She asked.

There was no response and she didn’t see anyone. “Strange,..” She whispered before a shadow flew right past her. She felt the breeze as the mysterious stranger took her paper bags in one swoop. “Hey!” She called out as she gave chase, “Those aren’t yours!”

---

She chased the thief down the street. Soon it dashed into an alleyway, Minty dashed into the alleyway as fast as she could. “Got you now!” She shouted before realising it was empty besides some boxes at the end. “Hiding in a cardboard box?” She questioned as she walked towards them. Soon the boxes were engulfed in her magic aura and thrown to the side, “Aha!” She said before realising no one was there.

”Oh c’mon...” She muttered to herself before turning around just to meet face-to-face with an upside down set of orange eyes. Minty jumped back and exclaimed in shock when the being’s tongue licked her in the face. “Uh-“ she was about to ask a question before she noticed the pony’s pupil’s were slits. On further inspected Minty noticed that it was hanging upside down on a thin bit of crystal coming out of a building.

The strange pony had a dark blue body with dark purple wings. “Bat pony...” Whispered Minty who had heard of them but never seen one in person. The one she was looking at was a male around her age. Dark blue-ish green mane with slightly lighter streaks, plus turquoise streaks in it. The bat pony fluttered down and curiously stared at Minty as he crawled up to her.

”Uh... hello?” She greeted, confused. The batpony got into her face, she moved her head back, confuse. Quickly it let out a large, angry hiss. As a result a horrible smell from his mouth filled Minty’s nostrils, making her cough, she stepped back and waved the smell away. “Oh geez- you need a mint-“

He jumped over her and went to the paper bags. Minty knew they were hers, since they had the store's logo on them. She watched as he stuck his head into one and took out a banana, eating it aggressively. “Is it okay if I have my stuff back, please?” She asked politely only to get hissed at.

The bat pony aggressively ate the fruit. His ears perked as Minty took another step forward. “Please may I have-“

The bat pony aggressively tackled Minty to the growled and hissed in her face. Sending out more smelly breath. Then suddenly he lifted his head. He seemed to smell something. Minty noticed his eyes widen and ears twitch, he let out a bat noise.
He jumped up onto some of the cardboard boxes, allowing a Minty to get back up. Bat pony sniffed the air again before rushing out the alleyway, he rudely knocked Minty over as he rushed past her and dashed into the night sky. She wasn’t hurt, just annoyed.

“Rude...” Minty muttered as she got up.

Soon the alley way she was in was lit up. “Hey you!” She heard two voices shout. Minty nervously turned around to see two guards shining torches right at her, she winced at the light in her eyes.

She didn’t know what to do or say, “Is there a problem, guards?”

Minty gasped as she saw one take out hoof-cuffs. “Hooves up!” He shouted angrily.

”I-I didn’t do anything-“ Minty responded, scared, she put her hooves up.

“Likely story,” The other guard scoffed, “The evidence behind you does say otherwise...”

Minty gasped as she turned around and saw all sorts remains of fruit. Not just the ones she had brought, but plenty of others.

Minty put her hooves down, “I-It wasn’t me, I just found myself here when-“ Minty said before the guard interrupted her.

”Likely story!” A guard shouted, “Hooves up!”

Minty whimpered as she sat on her rump putting both hooves in the air.

”Tell that to the princess!,” The guard grumbled.

She sighed, she wasn’t expecting to be arrested. That bat pony was so rude! Minty decided to follow the guard’s orders.

---

Minty found herself standing in the throne room, a collar around her neck that stops the use of magic. She felt sorry for herself as she looked at the two guards on either side of her. She looked up to see the princess of the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadence, looking down upon her as she sat on her throne.

Standing next to her was Shining Armour, Princess Cadence’s husband. She had read about him but thought he had red hair. He had a serious and annoyed look on his face. Minty noticed all the guards bowed, so she did too, for respect.

“Minty... do you mind explaining what happened?” Asked Cadence, who didn’t look very impressed. She knew her name from Twilight after she had been at the party. Twilight wouldn’t shut up about meeting an actual kirin.

Minty sighed, “I had my paper bags filled with snacks, veggies and fruit stolen from me... luckily I saw the theif running away and chased after them and ended up in the alley. But as soon as he heard the guards coming he took off and left me there,”

Cadance didn’t know if to believe the Kirin or not. She didn’t know much about Kirins but decided to ask another question, “What did the thief look like?”

”Batpony.” Minty noted, “And he... seemed quite young...”

Cadence wasn’t really sure what to respond with. Then she remembered Luna has a few batponies in her guard. She remembered when she first met a batpony, Luna explained to her not to be scared and that the particular one she saw was usually grumpy. But that wasn’t all, she also explained to her that batponies usually only eat fruit, and have a strong craving for it.

It sort of made sense for it to be a bat pony instead of a kirin. But she wanted to question it a bit more.

Shining armour watched her think deeply. Wondering if it was a bat pony then how’d one get to the Crystal Empire? It’s so far compared to their normal habitat.

”Can you explain this batpony?” Cadence asked.

Minty had a moment to recall what he looked like. ”Purple wings, orange eyes... spiky hair and it wore a bandana around its neck that matched the turquoise streaks in its mane...” Minty informed.

Shining armour spoke up, “And we’ll need proof on this bad pony before you go!” He was more stern, he wanted proof! It wouldn’t be right to not get every detail out of the accused.

A guard held out a fake orange that had many bite marks. The bite marks were clearly done by a creature with fangs, like a bat pony. “Say AAAH,” explained an earth pony guard. Minty opened her mouth, so the guard could see her teeth. Kirins didn’t have fangs, niriks do but not Kirins. So it was easy for them, to see it wasn’t her that bit the fake fruit.

Another guard held up some paper, “Also, there has been reports of the thief flying trough the air when it stole food. Implying it has wings, this branch-headed curly maned thing doesn’t have wings,”

”Hey...” Minty growled slightly, “I'm a kirin...”

Minty glared at the guard as he read some reports on the thief. Soon he nodded, “Seems this isn’t the culprit... also, the shop keeper said they saw her buy the fruit.”

Cadance and Shining Armour looked at each other briefly. Minty was a bit nervous on what they were going to say.

“Alright, I think this settles it,” Cadence nodded. “You’re free to go,”

The guards groaned, presumably how they accused the wrong being.

“Thank you,” Minty sighed before the guards escorted her out.

---

She yawned as she walked back towards the wagons. Minty walked down the street, happy on how it didn’t go so bad. She walked past the alleyway and noticed that the paper bags were still there. “Might as well...” She told herself as she walked in to see what had survived. In one of them the loaf of bread was untouched. But it looked like the batpony had a taste of her cookies. Disappointed she tossed them aside just to be safe.

The fruit was completely devoured, which was a shame. She remembered how GC told her to be careful of the fruit thief, she could imagine her yelling, “I told ya so!” When she returned. But she was gone for a while so it was possible she would be worried, or looking for her. Minty hurried up and packed the surviving food; The loaf of bread, cookies that weren’t touched, broccoli, peas, beans, cheese, peanut butter, crackers, peppermint chocolate. It mostly fit in two bags. They were kind of damaged but she ignored it.

The bags floated in her aura as she ran down the streets. She hurried as fast as she could, unaware of banana peel on the ground. Her heart stopped in the second she stepped on it right before she went sliding across the ground. Then she faceplanted on the ground, the grocery falling all over her.

She looked up to see the batpony smugly eating a watermelon. Once one he spat all the seeds out at Minty. Minty sat up and stared at him annoyed as she was pelted by the seeds. As she grumbled he then opened a banana and threw the peel at her face.

Minty angrily stomped her hoof, sending flames in random directions, ”Stop!” She felt like a fire was lit within her, she growled angrily into the batpony’s eyes. The batpony dropped the banana in shock and backed up as he noticed a few flames briefly emitting from her horn. He lifted his wings as soon as her noticed blue and red flames forming around her eyes.

”Stop bothering me!” She shouted as flames surrounded her. As a result the batpony teared up and flew away as fast as he could. Minty realised what was about to happen and quickly started taking deep breathes and calming down. She calmed down before she got angry enough to fully turn into a nirik.

Usually when’s she was feeling annoyed or angry she would take deep breathes. This is what she did, she sat there, taking deep breathes to calm down. After a while she was back to normal and the flames on the ground died down.

“Whew... never doing that again...” She sighed to herself as she looked around for her groceries. Then she saw them, on the ground burnt to a crisp. Minty slapped her hoof on her forehead, ashamed of herself. “Why did I do that?”

It was all ruined, she groaned in annoyance as she realised that it was all either burnt or melted down. It was no point. She decided to just go back to the tents and go to sleep.

She made her way to the tents, head and ears down in defeat. Seemingly everyone else was asleep, it was pretty late anyway. Minty quietly unzipped the tent and went inside just to see GC looking at her eagerly.

“What did ya get!?” She asked with excitement.

Minty was a bit nervous, “About that....”

She felt ashamed and was hoping Gc wouldn’t bring it up. It wasn’t really something she wanted to talk about at the time.

“Hey, uh dude? Where is everything?” She asked as she noticed the lack of groceries

”Burnt...” Minty responded, monotonously.

GC noticed Minty looked annoyed and tired. She watched as she curled up in her sleeping bag, she shrugged and went to sleep. Wondering how they got burnt and what happened.

Minty stared at the roof of the tent. She felt like a monster, a horrid monster for doing what she did. She ruined everything when she stuck up for herself. It was horrible, that was the first time she ever managed to activated her nirik form. As a resultthe food was all destroyed, and it was her fault for loosing her temper.

Deep breathes in and out helped her calm down as she thought of happy things. She hoped she would never bump into that batpony again! Plus she hoped that he’d learn his lesson!

Minty woke up suddenly! It was morning, but she had a terrible dream. It felt so real, and so personal. She regretted going shopping that night, it was really not what she should have done. A clock read that it was still late at night, GC was still asleep. Still tired, Minty decided to like down and try to sleep for a bit longer. After some deep breathes, she managed to go back to sleep.

---

It was a sunny morning. The starry squad were already up! Trixie was on the ground slurping on a smoothie as she looked at a map, figuring out the best route.

“Trixie can handle that but... going through... no...” She spoke to herself.

GC was teaching Sapphire how to fetch. Sunrise was in the wagon, exploring. Then she found something that caught her eye, “Oooh!” She exclaimed as she picked up a strange feather, “What did this come from?” She wondered.

Minty was standing next to the wagons, looking sorry for herself.