The Angel

by Nexas_Valentine

A Momentary Peace

Blade and Star had been walking in silence for an hour now. Star couldn’t even begin to guess where they were, all she knew was that they were far outside of Ponyville.

Suddenly Blade turned around and looked at Star, “I just realized, you never answered my question.”

“Huh?”, Star replied in an obviously perplexed tone, “You haven’t said anything for an hour.”

“I meant from this morning. The one about your cutie mark. Just what are they?”, Blade inquired.

“Oh. Right, well it’s a marking that almost all ponies have that personifies their unique talent in a single image.”

“So... What’s yours?”

“Mine?”, she then turned her head back to her flank and looked at the black patch graced by five four pointed stars in two vertical rows, each of which a different color than the last. “To be honest... I don’t really know. I don’t remember when I got it or the consequences surrounding it.”

Blade looked for awhile and rubbed his chin as he tried to brainstorm a theory. Her entire rear is black, apparently apart of her cutie mark. Five stars, each one a different color. The colors don’t even seem to mean anything they just match her natural colors. The top one is white, diagonally down there is a purple one, then a blue one similar to her mane colors, then an aqua one also like her mane, then a green one like her eyes. Why does this seem so familiar... “I’ve got nothing.”, Blade said with a shrug.

“Not that talking about my flank with a guy is fun and all, but it’s getting late and you still haven’t said anything about how were going to get my powers working and yours at full capacity.”, Star remarked, now noticing Luna’s moon looming over head.

Blade looked around at the small grassy hill they had found themselves on, “We’ll make camp here tonight, then we’ll worry about the rest tomorrow morning. Things are only going to get worse and more complicated from this point, we can’t miss out on any kind of rest we can get... correction, I’ll start reading this book, you get sleep. You need it.”

“You make a good point. I guess this isn’t too bad. Wouldn’t be the first time I fell asleep outside, usually I was stargazing and drifted off, but still.”, Star said as she walked to the highest point of the hill over looking a cliff.

“Stargazing? That explains the ceiling in your room.”, Blade remarked in an off handed manner.

“Oh, the glass dome? That was actually my father’s addition, I just happen to like it too.”

“Your father’s addition?”

“Yeah. Umm... that house used to be my parents’ home but they left it to me.”

“So they’re... sorry.”, Blade replied somberly.

“It’s ok. It was awhile ago.”, Star then turned away to face the valley the cliff stood high above.

She laid down on the hill, tucking all four legs underneath her body, and looked up at the sky. As she lay there, Star named each and every star constellation that she could, momentarily forgetting all of the insanity that had occurred in the past twenty four hours. Star always found comfort in looking up at the sky, the night itself, in fact, was comforting. The nearly regular cool breeze, the simple ambient sounds, the beauty of the stars, and the majesty of the moon’s dominating presence, spreading it’s dim reflected light all over Equestria.

While deep in her meditations on the numerous things she loved about the night she felt something soft and warm drape over her back. Snapping back into reality she looked to her right and saw Blade laying in a similar fashion next to her with his white wing stretched over her back. Upon this realization her face became warm and her heart began beating rapidly, fortunately for her, Blade failed to notice this as he was intently focused on the aforementioned book that Star and Twilight found in Twilight’s library.

“Blade, What are you doing?”, Star said softly.

“Oh. I’m sorry,”, he said pulling his wing back, “ you looked cold.”

“Could you put it back?”, Star inquired in a nearly inaudible tone.

“Really? Sure, if you really don’t mind.”, Blade said, hesitantly moving his wing back to it’s previous position.

“Thanks.”

“Hmm...”

“What?”

“Are you sick?”

“What? No. Why would you ask that?”

“You never seemed like the kind of pony that was overly fond of physical contact. Plus you feel really warm and your face is kinda... magenta now.”

“Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m fine.”, Star replied turning her face away from Blade.

“If you say so... well I’m going to get back to reading this book, try to get some sleep.”, Blade said with concern obvious in his voice.

Star silently sighed heavily keeping her face turned from Blade. Why am I getting like this? Star, you know full well why, the real question is how this happened. When did you start liking this crazy pony, technically he’s old enough to be your great great great great... a lot of greats grandfather, plus he’s nuts. But, he isn’t half bad looking and when he does actually show it he’s really smart, he also has a very obvious well of compassion somewhere in all that randomness. Star then violently shook her head. What am I saying, I’ve only known him for a day, that’s hardly enough time to develop any serious emotions, even for a crush it’s unlikely. But... Star looked up at blade. She stared at his only visible icy-blue eye as it slowly moved along the words on the page he read.

Blade finally noticed her gaze and turned to her, “ Something wrong?”

“Oh, uhh... no. Nothing.”, Star replied doing her best to force an innocent smile.

Blades expression became serious, “What is it?”

“I said it was nothing.”, she answered still forcing her smile.

Blade responded with a quizzical stare, as Star continued to force her grin. After awhile Star’s forced smile faded as she lost herself in Blade’s luminescent crystalline eyes. Blade, too, failed to keep up his expression when he realized this was the first time he was really able to look at Star’s eyes, technically, eye as her left one was always covered by her mane style. The visible right one was a vibrant green that shone lightly in the dim moonlight, Blade also now noticed that nearly invisible sparks of electricity danced around in her iris.

“You really shouldn’t wear your mane like that? Not with eyes like that.”, Blade remarked, trying to move her bangs with his hoof.

Star immediately pulled away keeping him from moving her hair. “I’d prefer you didn’t see my left eye.”

“Why?”

Star sighed, then lifted her hair with her magic revealing a vibrant blue eye, “As if the black legs weren’t enough I also had to be born with eyes that aren’t even the same color as each other. It did not make my foalhood easy.”

“I think they’re kinda cool.”, Blade said with a grin.

“Well of course you would, you think everything is cool.”, Star said rolling her eyes.

Blade placed a hoof on Star’s cheek and looked straight into her eyes, at this, her face grew red again.

“I also think their beautiful.”, he commented in an unusually calm and intimate manner.

“I bet you flirt like this with all the girls you meet.”, Star replied playfully, trying to hide her real feelings.

“No. I don’t. In fact, with my life being what it is, I never let myself get emotionally involved.”, he replied calmly still holding her face with his hoof.

“Really? Why now? Why... me? ...Wait, you aren’t teasing me are you?”, Star inquired.

“C’mon, I’m not like that, and as for why you... I haven’t the foggiest idea. Ever since I met you I’ve felt this way. Like being reunited with a long lost lover... that’s the best way I could describe it.”

“I guess that’s the way I’ve been feeling too, but why? As far as I know I’m a mostly normal pony.”, Star inquired.

“I don’t know.”

“Well... you like me and I like you and were sitting like this, you still have your hoof softly holding my cheek. So what are you going to do now?”, Star commented calmly.

The two then slowly inched closer, both of them were bright red now, as they slowly shut their eyes. Finally their lips met, at first it was awkward out of the dual inexperience, but soon it became second nature. Though it was the first time they had kissed one another, or the first time they had done anything like this as far as either could remember, it seemed like they had in fact done this thousands of times before. In light of this it suddenly took on a different feel, before it was a clumsy first step into a young relationship. Now, it was a sweet and tender sentiment from an older more experienced love. As the two were lost in these new and very sudden feelings from a past neither knew existed, Star’s body began reacting in a very unusual way. Arches of electricity began to leap from one part of her body to another, creating a very bright and high voltage display.

Blade pulled out of the kiss and acknowledged this phenomenon when a bolt struck his flank, finally Star snapped into reality and looked back at herself.

“Umm... Ow.”, Blade said rubbing his flank, “That hurt.”

“I’m not doing this, at least, not that I know.”, Star replied, then suddenly the sparks died down and faded leaving only small trails of smoke on her coat where the lightning arches originated.

“Huh... Oh! Duh! Powers are best controlled with emotion! Why didn’t I think of that til now...”, Blade exclaimed, then concluded by rubbing his chin in thought.

“Emotions? So, is this gonna happen every time we do that?”

“No. Because, now you know it’s emotion that sparks it, pun not intended, so you should be able to control it. You just need to focus your thoughts and feelings into one.”

“How do I do that?”

Blade looked at Star, even though she was genuinely curious her eyes told a different story, they displayed fatigue and sleep deprivation. “Let’s worry about it tomorrow. You need sleep.”

“But...”, Star sighed, “ Fine.” She then nuzzled his neck and rested her head on it.

As she drifted to sleep the pendant Princess Luna gave her began emitting a faint azure glow. This went unnoticed by Blade, who was back to looking through the book laid out before him.

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“Aha! I knew I read something like that somewhere!”, Twilight yelled in triumph from the first floor of her library, a large and very old book placed in front of her.

“Twilight, what are you doing? It’s two in the morning.”, said a freshly awoken Spike from the top of the stairs.

“Oh, I’m sorry Spike, I guess I got a little excited. Well while your awake, you can take a letter.”, Twilight replied floating a quill and parchment over to Spike.

“Can’t this wait until morning? You know, when the sun’s up?”

“No Spike, this is pivotal to the survival of Equestria.”

Spike sighed as he readied the quill and parchment in his claws, “All right, I guess I’m ready.”

Twilight cleared her throat and began to dictate, “Dear Princess Celestia, while looking for more clues about ‘The Scourge’ and it’s weaknesses, if any, I came across an old book recounting several moments from Equestria’s history. It didn’t have any information on the monster, however it may hold even more important clues on how Blade can repair his powers. I am requesting that you help us find him. After the situation with Fluttershy, I wrote to you about earlier, we haven’t seen or heard from him or Star Ocean. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. All right Spike, send it.”

“Now? It’s still dark out.”

“Yes Spike, this is important and can’t possibly wait.”

Spike sighed, then rolled up the paper and held it in front of his mouth as he loosed a small green flame, sending the letter on it’s way to the princess.