My Little Pony: Dark Star

by WestRail642fan

Chapter #18: Under The Stars

Chapter Eighteen.
Under The Stars.

"Are you sure you want to spend the night outdoors?" David asked as he threw a bundle of branches into a small stone ring.

"Mhmm." Pipp replied, nodding as she sat on a blanket, "Just look at the sky! Have you ever seen so many stars?" She said with wonder in her voice, her beautiful green eyes reflecting the millions of stars twinkling above.

"To be honest, star gazing and such was more my daughter's hobby." David looked up at the sky, "But no, I've never seen this many stars in my life." He admired the view.

"Come and sit with me." Pipp patted the blanket next to herself, David sighed and sat down next to the smiling mare as she quickly lit a fire using a technique she had learned from Sunny when they first went camping.

"You know, this is the first time I've been camping for years." David turned to face Pipp as she sat back down next to him, she smiled like a filly who had eaten too much candy.

The area around them was peaceful, the only sounds present were the crackling of the fire, the chirping of grasshoppers and the sound of the wind blowing through the trees nearby.

"This is my fourth time camping." The pink pony smiled, "Well, my fourth time camping outdoors." She rubbed the back of her head, grinning slightly.

"Well, this is my second time, my first time camping was with my wife when we were younger. I was never one for camping. Like, what's wrong with sleeping in a nice warm bed, ya know?" David shrugged, eyes focused on the fire as it crackled in the nighttime air.

"All my other times were with my friends." Pipp looked down at her phone as David turned to face her, "First time was after we fled Zephyr Heights after we were found out that we couldn't fly, the second time was a last-minute one by Hitch after we got stuck in the rain, and the third time was after Sunny and Izzy got lost in the woods. Me, Zipp and Hitch found them but it was already dark so we had a makeshift campout." Pipp smiled, showing the human a slideshow of the other three times she had been camping outdoors.

"I don't really have any friends these days, my old friends didn't care for my relationship with my wife." He looked down, sighing deeply, "Nor did my family for that matter. They never cared for my wife, even when we were just boyfriend and girlfriend..." He added.

Pipp placed her hoof on his leg, her eyes locking with his, "Well, I'm your friend." She smiled, David placed his hand on her hoof, gently stroking the soft silky fur that partly hid the shiny gold hoof, "And if your wife is as sweet as you say she is, she'll definitely be my friend too." She added, touching David's face with her other hoof, gently brushing away a bit of his hair that had fallen and covered part of his eye.

"Thanks, Pipp... It means a lot." He smiled softly at her touch.

Pipp blushed slightly as she giggled, "Can I ask you something?" She asked, looking into his blue eyes. He nodded in reply. Pipp quickly let out a sigh, "Ok, so... I've noticed that whenever you talk about Harmony Light, you keep referring to her as the wife, and not by her name, same goes for Lillian for that matter." Pipp said softly but sternly, "Are you hiding something from me? Be honest now." She added.

"You noticed that, huh?" David sighed, gently raising his hand to Pipp's hoof that was still touching his face, "Well, to tell you the truth, their names aren't Harmony Light or Lillian Rose. My wife is named Cadenza and my daughter is called Shooting Star." He looked down at the blanket covering the ground under him, "I'm sorry I lied to you about their names..."

Pipp bit her lip, "You should have told me this earlier..." She frowned, disappointment on her face.

"I know... I was scared, I had just found myself in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by ponies I had never met before..." He froze as Pipp wrapped both of her fluffy wings around him, embracing him in a hug.

"Do I look scary to you?" She fluttered her eyes, an eyebrow raised. Clearly a little unamused with David's answer. "Not everyone is as scary as you think." She added, poking his chest with a hoof

"Well, you did hit me with an umbrella." David replied, rubbing the spot on the back of his head where the mare had smacked him with said umbrella.

"Hey! It was self-defence!" Pipp groaned, she wanted to forget how eventful their first meeting was, "How was I meant to know you were a big old softie." She giggled.

"Me, a softie? You're delusional." David chucked to himself, he winched when Pipp hit his arm.

"I'M NOT DELUSIONAL!" Pipp shouted, voice cracking in the process before hearing the human chuckle, "Oh, you little!" She added, tackling him to the ground. She sat down on him, forelegs crossed, "Heh, looks like I won." She spoke smugly.

"Ok ok. Can you get off me now?" David tried to wriggle out from under Pipp, but she pressed her weight harder down on his chest. David now found Pipp harder to remove from his chest.

"Not until you say sorry." She giggled, fluttering her eyes once more.

"Sorry for what?" David looked at her as she began to loaf like a cat.

"For calling me delusional." She smiled smugly, wings fully open at her sides, the moonlight illuminating the fluffy feathering. The warm firelight partly lit the left half of her face.

"Alright alright! I'm sorry. Now can you please get off me, I can't breathe." He wheezed as Pipp flapped her wings, now hovering just above him.

"Now, that wasn't so hard now, was it?" She snarkily spoke, biting her lip cheekily as she returned to her spot on the blanket.

David slowly sat back up, a slight gap between him and Pipp and the mare quickly scrolled through her phone, "Hey, can I ask you something?" He asked her.

"Yes?" She replied, lowering her phone.

"Why did you choose to stay, you said you now had the option to go home but didn't, why?" David spoke bluntly

Pipp froze, this was a question she had somewhat expected him to ask, "Well, to put it bluntly, it's because I finally had a choice." She sighed, "You, see as the second born to the throne, I don't have much in the way of living my own life. Like, once I'm 20, I'll be married off to a duke. Where I'll be nothing but a foal factory for him." Pipp paused, looking down at her hooves.

"Foal factory?" David looked at her, slightly confused.

"You know, I'd just be expected to be nothing more than a housewife, popping out foals..." She leaned over, grabbing a bottle of whiskey she grabbed from her trailer whilst David was gathering firewood, "It's a life I don't want to live, but it's out of both my own and my mother's control." She lamented, taking a long drink from the bottle.

"Why is it out of your own hooves? You're royal, can't you just say 'No way?" David gently patted Pipp's back, her wings twitching with his touch.

Pipp sighed deeply, "I wish it was that simple. It's a super old law that goes back to the founding of Zephyr Heights. My mom has tried for years to get the law repealed, but the Royal Court is old school and refuses to even entertain the idea." Pipp sighed, drinking a sip of her whiskey bottle.

"But she's the queen, they have to listen to her surely?" David added, taking the bottle from Pipp's hoof.

"To tell you the truth, her standing with the court has never been great. For most of the kingdom's history, the monarch has always been king. Last year didn't help when it came out that we faked flying, we even hid it from the court. And since then the relationships between my mom and the royal court reached an all-time low because of the incident." Pipp blurted out, eyes focused on the crackling fire in front of herself.

"That..." David trailed off, gently shaking the bottle in his hand.

"Fucking sucks, yeah, I know..." Pipp snatched the bottle back, quickly drinking the rest, "My mom, bless her heart, has tried to turn a new page with the court and our citizens. While our citizens began to trust us again fairly quickly. The court basically considers us the enemy." Pipp threw the bottle into the fire.

"No offence, but if they distrust your family so much, why are you still royals?" David asked, watching as the bottle shattered from the heat of the flames.

"They've only allowed my family to remain as royals due to our public support. This is why the court is blocking any attempts by my mom to repeal any outdated laws, like the one that'll force me to be married off. It’s their way of saying, 'We still can remove you and your family from the throne even if you're in the highest seat of power in the entire kingdom.' It sickens me." Pipp spat out, anger in her voice.

"I'm at a loss for words..." David struggled to think of what to say as Pipp shot up off the blanket. The pink mare stormed off, screaming in a language David could not understand but he thought it vaguely sounded Spanish, and by the tone, she was cursing out the gods themselves. "Perhaps it's best to let her get it out of her system." He thought to himself.

Pipp kicked a rock before freezing. Pupils shrinking as she slowly turned towards David, her cheeks quickly turned a deep shade of red, "Heh... You weren't supposed to hear that..." She groaned, slamming her face down into her hooves.

"If it makes you feel better, I didn't understand a single word of that, except for the word 'fuck'." David shrugged, still surprised by the mare's outburst.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that..." Pipp looked down, sighing, "It's a side to my family we're forced to hide when in public..." She held out her hoof, breathing in calmly, "You can never tell a single soul about this." She looked at him with pleading eyes.

"Your secret's safe with me." David smiled as Pipp slowly fluttered back over towards the blanket, gently sitting back down next to the human.

An awkward silence surrounded them as they avoided eye contact, "So..." Pipp scrunched her face, "Tell me a bit about Cadenza." Pipp turned to face David.

"Well, we grew up as next-door neighbours and went to the same school as each other. As the years passed, we fell madly in love with each other. Then, when we were 17, she fell pregnant with Shooting Star. But..." David paused, mulling over his thoughts, "But, just before her birth. One of the Alicorn rulers of Equestria arrived to 'take her home' citing some ancient law about humans being forbidden from raising Equestrians and vice versa. We..." David sighed, turning his gaze towards the sky, "We never saw each other again until 24 years later. Where I finally met my daughter, but Cadenza was forced to give her up by the same alicorn who had taken her. It was just by chance that Cadenza and Shooting Star were in the same cafe when they bumped into each other." He looked towards the full moon, his breath visible in the cool air.

"I'm... I'm sorry you had to go all through that..." Pipp looked down, "Sorry I asked." She sighed.

"Nah don't worry about it, it's all in the past now. But it was a bit awkward with me and Cadenza at first since she had gotten married to a royal guard captain and had a child with him, add to that, she became the ruler of the Crystal Empire." He blurted out.

Pipp's jaw hit the ground, "Your wife is Cadenza Mi Amore of the Crystal Empire?! Oh my glitter! You must have at least some type of royal title being the husband of an empire! What title do you hold? Please tell me!!" Pipp shouted loudly, showing a toothy grin.

"I actually don't have any royal titles." David looked at Pipp, "Cadenza said I'd be entitled to them, but I turned them all down." He added, Pipp frowned at this.

"You... Turned down your royal title?" Pipp's eyes widened, her brain now in overdrive. "Why would you turn them down?" She tilted her head.

"I just didn't feel comfortable using them. Cadenza's former husband had the title of Emperor, but because Cadenza was the true heir to the throne, when they divorced, he lost the title. I just didn't want to be seen as the usurper..." He replied, looking down at his wedding band, it was a simple golden ring with the outer edges encrusted with crystal gems in the house imperial blue, "Pipp, can I tell you something?"

"Sure." Pipp replied, placing a wing on David's shoulder.

"I know this seems like a terrible time to say this, but I'm having some doubts about heading to the Crystal Empire. What if Cadenza and Shooting Star aren't alive, who knows how long I was gone from the Empire before magic fell, could have been 5 years, maybe 500 years..." David sighed, Pipp leaned over, resting her head on his shoulder.

"What are you gonna do if that does end up being the case and they're both long dead?" She asked solemnly, she didn't want to sugarcoat it, but it still hurt her by saying it.

"To be honest with you Pipp, I don't know, I'll probably just try and find my way back to my own world since the only thing that's keeping me here is Cadenza and Shooting Star..." He looked down as the wind rustled the trees nearby.

Pipp frowned, was he just giving up? "No, there has to be another way." She thought to herself, eyes darting around as different thoughts and ideas filled her mind, "Stay with me!" She burst out loud.

David turned around, his mind trying to process what the pink pegasus had just said to him, it was 3 simple words "Pipp... What are you saying?" David spoke as he turned around to the pink pegasus and the two looked each other in the eye.

Pipp took a deep breath, "I LOVE YOU!" She practically screamed before blushing bright red and covering her face with her hoofs.

"I-i-i... What?" David stuttered, cheeks turning a deep red in reaction, "How... We've only known each other for a few days..."

"I don't know why. I've never felt this way about any stallion." Pipp said as she blushed bright red and hid her face using her wings, "But I know that what I'm feeling is the real deal." She giggled slightly, gently placing her hoof on his chest, right where his heart was.

"But Pipp, I'm not from this century..." David looked away from her gaze, trying his best to let the mare down gently, "I honestly don't think that we could work." He felt her place her hooves in his hands.

"Aren't you willing to at least try?" She smiled slightly, face cast in a warm orange glow.

"I would like to, but what about Zephyr Heights, I'm pretty sure the royal court would want both our heads." He replied, gripping her hooves.

"To hell with the court and their ancient opinions." Pipp grinned, her pearly white teeth glistening in the firelight, "I'm doing with having my life lived for me, I'm taking my stand." She smiled, a sense of determination filling her, "I'm making my own choices from now on, and my first choice is you, David. I want to be yours." She smiled before leaping forwards, planting her lips on David's.

The pair fell backwards, deep into a passionate kiss.

End of Chapter Eighteen.