Tale of Stars and Monsters

by Platypony

Chapter 1 - After Party Discovery

One year later.

The glory of a day off, it was a leisure that Spike rarely got to enjoy. He was sitting on the couch licking a ruby like it was a jawbreaker. His pet phoenix was sitting on his head sharpening its claws on his spines.

“Isn’t this a great day PeeWee? No chores, no disasters, and Twilight’s with the other’s on a “Pony Pet Play Date”, nothing to do but relax.” As he said this he leaned back and closed his eyes, eventually sticking the ruby in his mouth like a pacifier.

As he was just drifting off he thought he heard a yell from outside. As soon as he drifted off there was a loud bang as the door crashed in. He spit out the ruby so fast it stuck in the wall above a dizzy gray pegasus.

“Derpy! what’s going on? Are you alright?!”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just got a little too excited. The new copy of The Modern Study of the Night Sky is in today! Where’s Twilight?”

“She’s at the park, its Pony Pet Play Date day. Just try to be careful, you don’t want to hurt somepony.”

“Sure thing sir-dragon-sir,” she said as she took off towards the park. She flew as fast as she could but made sure to take Spike’s advice. It was a good thing she did as she almost plowed a few ponies into the ground.

Finally the park came into view and along with it a familiar owl, pegasus, and turtle. She flew straight toward them until she could see a splash of lavender and pink among the grass and flowers. She flew straight to Twilight and tackled her to the ground in excitement. “It’s here, it’s here!”

“Wah! Derpy what’s going on? What’s here, what are you doing here?” Twilight was confused as to why her friend/ co-researcher had tackled her.

“The book, the new copy of The Modern Study of the Night Sky is here. I thought we should read it together to see if they printed our theory!” This got Twilight’s attention, as well as the rest of her friends’.

“What theory, you two have a theory, what kind of theory, is it about candy? I have candy theories. Like: if you eat enough candy will you start to see in candy?” One guess who this is. The perky pink pony was jumping around the two on the ground, who were starting to get dizzy.

“That makes no sense Pinkie, all eating a lot of candy would do is make you sick. Our theory is about the movement of stars and planets.”

“BORING, just read the book already so we can get back to the fun stuff. Your about to make Tank fall asleep.” The criticisms of Rainbow Dash got the two astronomers moving while everyone looked on excitedly. They quickly opened the book and skimmed through it looking for their work, a mixture of anticipation and nervousness on their faces.

Twilight’s friends looked on with different expressions, from excited to bored. Eventually Twilight and Derpy looked up from the massive text with shining eyes and bright smiles. “They printed it,” came from seven mouths simultaneously.

That is when Pinkie inhaled longer than anyone thought possible before shouting an obvious, “PARTY!!!”

Before anypony knew what was happening the entire town had been taken to Sugar Cube Corner to celebrate. Streamers, balloons, and cakes reading “Congratulations Twilight and Derpy littered the building and there wasn’t a head without at least one party hat attached, in Rarity’s case a rather well designed hat that she had made a few months previously as a precaution against such occurrences.

Music blared as everypony sat still in shock trying to digest what just happened and Pinkie explained what the party was for. Eventually they all just decided to go with it and enjoy themselves, especially as their pink host started to worry that the party wasn’t fun and began changing things at random to fix it. Everyone started dancing and chatting, some still wet from the shower they had been taking and others wearing strange new party outfits courtesy of a panicked Pinkie, and all the guests congratulated the two honored guests.

As she was shaking hooves with the mayor Twilight saw a quartet of ponies headed toward Derpy with large proud smiles. Most surprising was an almost exact copy of Derpy herself, down to the bubble cutie mark. As Twilight stared transfixed at this oddity Derpy greeted the group with hugs and thanks then turned to her partner and laughed at her expression.

“Hahaha… Twilight your face is priceless!” she continued to laugh until she saw the growing fury on Twilight’s face. “Hehe… I forgot to tell you I have a twin didn’t I. Um, this is my sister, Ditzy Do,” Ditzy smiled and waved to Twilight. Then Derpy pointed to a green stallion with a light blue mane and an iron bar cutie mark, “My brother-in-law Constable Goody Do, and my niece Dinky.” Twilight looked down to see a cute little unicorn filly with big golden eyes smiling up at her and waving a doll’s hoof at her. “Finally, we have my older brother, Doctor Klutzy Hooves.”

`The stallion she pointed to last was light brown with a dark brown mane, his cutie mark was of an hour glass; Twilight recognized him from around town. “Hello Doctor Hooves, it’s a pleasure to meet a fellow P.H.D. holder. Might I ask what your degree is in? From your cutie mark I would imagine some sort of advanced science.”

“Actually, I’m a psychiatrist. The hourglass displays my chess abilities, I happen to be a grandmaster.” He had a gentle and relaxing voice that Twilight was confident helped in his profession. “I’m honored to meet you Miss Sparkle, I have a few friends who attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and have heard of your skills and intellect.”

“The honor’s mine,” Twilight replied with a blush from the compliment, “though I have noticed a rather… interesting naming convention that your parents seem to have chose.”

Ditzy decided to field this question for her siblings. “That’s what happens when two slap-stick comedians get married and have foals. Plus, we all tend to be a teensy bit accident prone at times,” she stopped and sighed deeply before continuing. “Unfortunately the town hall wasn’t the first building one of us wrecked.” The three siblings looked down with sad and embarrassed looks. Twilight and Goody immediately went to work trying to cheer the trio with the help of Pinkie who had appeared the second she sensed sadness at her party.
B B

Eventually the party wound down and ponies started to leave. Twilight stayed for as long as she could, but eventually she had to take Spike back and put him to bed. The little dragon was fast asleep with a party hat speared on his tail from where he’d crashed into the pile of discarded party wear when he finally reached his limit and the late hour took hold. She bid a last farewell to all her remaining friends and set out into the night.

As she walked she reflected on how the night had gone and how good it felt to wind down with Derpy after months of anticipation, waiting to see if their work got published. This night had been just what they needed, though Derpy and Pinkie drinking too much spiked punch and somehow making a pueblo out of frosting had pushed things a bit. Over-all, the night had been fun and she had gotten to know her research partner on a more casual level.

She looked to the sky to reflect on what brought this all on and noticed something odd. A small circle of stars had formed around what should have just been a lone speck, and it seemed to expand and contract. It also seemed to blink off every few minutes, though at the speed it happened it could have just been her eyes blinking instead. As she watched the stars continued to slowly grow and the circle expanded faster than should have been possible.

There was research to be done.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the two month gap between chapters, I've been dealing with a lot of life issues and adjustments. I hope you all enjoy and I promise to get the nexst chapter out quickly.

Feel free to criticize and let me know about any mistakes or improvements that could be made. The main plot will strt in the next chapter so look forward to that.

Thanks for reading!