Love can be a wonderful but sometimes bewildering journey for those new to it. Not even Twilight Sparkle is exempt from this simple rule of life. She and Shooting Star embark together on a new and exciting adventure called love.
Love can be a wonderful but sometimes bewildering journey for those new to it. Not even Twilight Sparkle is exempt from this simple rule of life. She and Shooting Star embark together on a new and exciting adventure. Follow along on this journey of self-discovery as they explore these new depths of this thing called love.
The hour was late and the moon hung high in the night sky, it’s resplendent light showering down on the world below as soft and gentle as a lover’s caress. Twilight Sparkle was seated in a small nest of pillows on one of the many window sills in the Golden Oaks Library. A soft sigh passed her lips as she gazed up at the bright stars. It was a scant few days after the intense adventure that had been the Summer Sun Celebration. The return of Nightmare Moon – or rather, Princess Luna – had been a very memorable experience. Even then, the moon still looked strange to Twilight without the silhouette of a pony on it. But the changed look was slowly starting to grow on her.
It was a nice, clear evening without a single cloud in sight and it was still pleasantly warm enough to have the windows wide open to enjoy the soft summer breeze that teased over her coat. Twilight was snuggled back into the soft embrace of the large fluffy pillow that supported her back. She smiled, slowly bringing the cup of hot chamomile tea to her lips and sipping gently. She was very satisfied with having gotten the temperature perfect this time. The tea was hot, but not too hot. Just right for her tastes.
If there was any word to describe how Twilight Sparkle felt then, it would be content. Anything else would fall short, especially after the initial insanity of the Summer Sun Celebration. She had decided, with some coaxing from her friends, to take it just a little bit easier during the nights, at least for the coming few days. For Twilight, that meant curling up with a good book, even though her heart really wasn’t into it at the moment. The previous day was still very much on her mind. It had been a very interesting day and, she had to admit, a slightly stressful one. Meeting new ponies — even though she’d made five wonderful new friends — still wasn’t easy. Not as hard as it had been back in Canterlot, but it still somewhat stressed her.
Initially, her mind strayed back to the stallion that Rarity had set her up with a few days ago. Her friend had been very, very focused on getting Twilight on a date so she would have at least tried it once in her life, which was the stressful part of this entire affair. Twilight still wasn’t sure what to actually think of the whole dating and romance thing. She’d never had any interest in it. She hadn’t shown up to the first date that Rarity had set up — which she did feel a bit guilty about — she’d forgotten all about the date entirely. Too enraptured with the rather complex spell she had been working on that day. Then again, not being interested in going on a said date really did not help a pony’s memory at all.
The second time around though, Rarity had been more direct in her approach. She had made sure that the – admittedly cute – stallion named Shooting Star had been at her place just a little after Rarity had arrived to remind her of the date. The meeting of Shooting Star had been awkward, to say the least. In no small part due to Rarity still being there and making a whole big deal out of it. Thinking back on it, Twilight shook her head and smiled a little. The fashionista’s heart was in the right place, she just gets a bit too enthusiastic about her own ideas and forgets to check herself. Twilight had decided to at least humor the mare. If it wasn’t her thing, she could say that and prove to Rarity that it wasn’t for her. Then again, the whole matchmaker thing was probably just a phase Rarity was going through – or at least that was what Twilight hoped was the case. There was a sudden wave of dread in the back of her mind as the idea of Rarity playing matchmaker for the entire town came to her. She took that idea and desperately shoved into a cupboard, which she then promptly nailed shut.
Twilight had thoroughly enjoyed her time spent with Shooting Star, or Star as she had taken to calling the stallion after she got to know him a bit better. They spent most of the afternoon just walking around Ponyville talking about their interests. What she had expected to be a long and awkward talk had turned out to actually be fun. She had to admit that he was a nice pony to be with – a little on the shy side, but then again she was used to Fluttershy’s brand of shy. Having experience with Fluttershy made coaxing Star out of his timidness just a little easier, especially when they started discussing astronomy. Twilight liked to think that they had bonded a little over that experience, or as much as you could bond over an afternoon spent (heatedly) discussing astronomy and their own theories about distant stars.
By the time they had noticed the actual time of day, they had been half-buried in reference books at Shooting Star’s place. Both of them had also scrounged up various different scholarly texts which each used in their side of the debate – embarrassedly, Twilight thought to herself that they might have gotten a bit carried away with the entire thing. The sheepish look they’d shared brought back a soft giggle that had come a moment after they both realized that almost nine hours had passed.
After exchanging embarrassed blushes as each of them had their stomachs protest at not having eaten since breakfast, they had opted to end their day together with a simple dinner. A simple dinner at the only place that was open at that time of night and made sense to them: Hayburger. Twilight rolled her eyes as she thought back on it, staring at the moon as she had done before. In hindsight, it had been an absolutely silly idea. The two of them sitting there together in the middle of an empty fast-food restaurant swearing that they weren’t on some kind of cheap date after the server had made a comment. It hadn’t been the most romantic of things — really, Twilight didn’t see why it had to be, even though Rarity had been positively scandalized upon hearing their pick for the really late dinner.
At that thought, Twilight let out a deep sigh. The memory of Rarity’s half-hour lecture about optimal date location and such had been… well, she was very much looking forward to the day when this matchmaker phase would end and Rarity was back to normal. Letting her eyes trace the heavens once more, Twilight simply enjoyed bathing in the gentle embrace of moonlight and following the patterns of the constellations in the night sky. The book she had laying open in her lap had been forgotten the entire time she had been there, her mind primarily consumed by a single pony. A stallion. A stallion with whom she had a wonderful day. He was interesting and on her level when it came to astronomy and certain kinds of magic. She could have discussions with him – real intellectual discussions.
Twilight wasn’t really looking for a coltfriend, but the more she pondered the idea and the possibility she was shocked to find that her mental checklist started to find that the only points she could come up with were all Shooting Star’s character traits and interests that they both shared. A few things that he was missing but the majority of the points she thought up were spot on. She was biased. The previous day had left her very biased, she decided, and she didn’t mind that realization. In fact, Twilight would go as far as to say that she liked it. He made her smile and she was comfortable with him.
Her cheeks reddened a little. She felt embarrassed as the thought of a real date crossed her mind. This was a whole new experience – sure she knew a pretty stallion when she saw one, but that had never done anything for Twilight Sparkle. At least not as much as a brilliant mind did for her. His smile was cute though, she had to admit that. And he certainly was more interesting than the first stallion that Rarity had managed to pair her up with. She felt a little ashamed that she couldn’t even remember the colt’s name. Deciding that she would talk to Rarity tomorrow about setting up a real first date, she curled up with the book slowly rising in her magic. Biting her bottom lip softly she continued where she had left off, the princess having just been saved by her brave hero. She wasn’t usually the type for trashy romance novels but, well, everypony had a guilty pleasure – even if the book was titled ‘Mould breaking: A Knight's Tail’, right?
******
Rarity’s couch was a comfortable place to lounge, that was something all of Twilight’s friends could agree on. Even though she was a bundle of nerves, there was something relaxing about the large, fluffy surface she was lying on. With her hooves tucked under her body, she felt almost like she was back home on one of her reading pillows. Before she floated a cup of coffee. Ten in the morning was too early to start drinking tea if you asked Twilight Sparkle, although that might have something to do with the fact that her body associated tea with night and sleep.
“So darling, I must admit that I was quite shocked that you appeared on my doorstep this early in the day. I hope nothing is amiss?” Rarity asked. There was concern behind her words, but she remained very composed for a mare that was infamous for being a bit of a drama queen.
“Well…” Twilight started and then paused to look for the right words. “Honestly Rarity? It’s about the stallion you introduced me to. Shooting Star,” Twilight finally admitted, her cheeks felt hot as she sipped her coffee, looking over at Rarity.
Rarity perked her eyebrow and tilted her head a little “Yes? Did something happen?” She asked, a little more worry shining through her words.
“Oh no. Nothing happened, at least nothing bad… I think.” Twilight admitted with a sheepish little smile. “Honestly the day we had together was wonderful! I mean you already know that I just… can’t stop thinking about him and I don’t really know what that means.” Admitting a lack of knowledge was not easy for Twilight, and looking at her friend she was relieved to see a gentle smile.
“Why Twilight, darling,” Rarity started in her soft voice, “the answer is easy! You’re in love, or at least interested enough to give him a chance,” Rarity explained so matter-of-factly. Sipping her tea, the mare relaxed back into her chair. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed over. It is something that is normal, actually, when you find a stallion that clicks with you.”
“But I’ve only seen him once!” Twilight protested, a little confused. “Does it really work like that?”
“Well, not entirely. Maybe calling it love is a bit too strong,” Rarity admitted. “I guess romantically interested might be a better term to use, although it lacks the dramatic flair–” Rarity stopped in her tracks, silenced by the deadpan expression on Twilight’s face. “Well, that is to say, you found a stallion that is nice to be around and your mind is telling you to give him a chance.”
Twilight mulled the information over for a long moment, taking long sips from the warm black coffee. “I guess that makes sense. I mean we do have a lot of overlap with interests, kind of. There are things we are wholly incompatible with,” Twilight admitted with a sheepish smile. “But then that is normal too, I guess? Liking somepony even if you disagree on some points?”
“Oh, most certainly darling. One doesn’t need to be entirely into the same things to be together. Stars above, that would be dreadfully dull. Imagine not having other interests so you can’t have ‘me’ time.” Rarity said with a soft giggle. “Take it from me, it’s no fun if all your interests overlap. There aren’t really any new things to discover like that. At least, that is my personal experience with it.” She admitted with a gentle smile.
“Wait. You’ve had a coltfriend?” Twilight asked a little surprised, not having heard of any of Rarity’s personal exploits before.
“Oh my… of course, darling! It’s been a few years though.” Rarity said with a mysterious grin on her muzzle. “It didn’t really work out as you might have guessed, for the reasons stated. We parted as friends and we still write and see each other when I am in Manehattan. The distance was another contributing factor, really.” Twilight noted that Rarity had a very fond smile on her muzzle. She hadn’t gained a lover but she could clearly see that Rarity had made a very close friend. “Visiting him is my favorite part, he and his coltfriend are just the cutest couples you’ll ever meet!” Rarity announced, with a huge grin.
“Huh. I guess even if it doesn’t work out it isn’t always a bad thing?” Twilight said, thinking back to her time in Canterlot. She couldn’t really remember ever hearing of a breakup that went as well as that. Then again the nature of gossip usually focused on something negative. She shook her head a little, things were different in a small town like this, she reminded herself. “I guess… that means I should probably ask him out on a date then?”
“Why yes! You most definitely should. Probably something simple to start out – and by that, I don’t mean taking him out for hayburgers and fries,” Rarity admonished with a slightly stern look in her eyes. “Maybe a movie?”
“I was thinking something a little more private. A movie would be good when I get to know him better and can make a guess about what he would maybe enjoy.” Twilight said reasonably, and to her relief Rarity nodded. “What about a picnic?”
“A picnic? A little plain don’t you think, darling?”
“Maybe, though the simple things were exactly what we had fun with last time.”
“Hmm… true. What about a picnic at night? Stargazing with a light snack?” Rarity offered with a gentle smile. “You both enjoy that, right? It would also be romantic but simple. A win-win if you ask me.”
Twilight closed her eyes for a moment and allowed herself to consider that idea. The scene unfolded before her eyes and she couldn’t help but smile a little as she pictured them there, snuggled up close. Her head resting on his chest. Her eyes snapped open and her cheeks felt as though they were on fire. She looked directly into Rarity’s blue eyes. The mare was smirking in that way that almost screamed ‘gotcha’. “It sounds like a wonderful idea!” Twilight blurted out half panicked.
Chuckling softly behind her hoof Rarity shook her head a little. “Twilight, no need to be embarrassed with me, this is normal and healthy for an adult mare.” She reminded Twilight, who smiled sheepishly as she calmed down. “Listen, I have a nice bottle of wine you both can have. A first official date is a pretty momentous thing, really. Or well, it is usually one of the things you remember most. Discovering the wonders of love, together with another.” Rarity let out that sigh that signaled that she was in a complete sappy, hopeless romantic mode. “Any ideas about when Twilight?”
“Well, I’m not sure. Rainbow Dash mentioned that it would be clear skies on Saturday, so maybe then?” Twilight said smiling, draining her cup of coffee. “It also gives me the time to pick out snacks with Pinkie Pie. And get everything arranged for then.” Twilight sighed a little considering all the things she needed to plan, only pausing when Rarity gave her the look. “I’m over-thinking things again, huh?”
Rarity nodded with a small smirk. “A little. Preparation is good, but it is more important to just have fun – like how you both had fun on the day you met.” That is the most important thing about relationships, Twilight. Take the time to enjoy it, together. It’s all about the journey, not the destination.” Rarity said with a sagely nod.
“You’re right. I just—I have no idea what to expect from it.”
“Expect nothing.” Rarity said simply. “If it helps, think of it as a stargazing picnic with a friend, and do what comes naturally to you, darling.” With a small grin, Rarity placed down her empty cup. “It’s actually very simple. Try not to over-think, you’ll worry yourself into a tizzy over nothing.”
Twilight nodded slowly and slipped off the couch to hug Rarity close. “Thank you Rarity, you’ve been a great help. I know what I need to do now.”
“Oh, no problem darling. Just promise me you will have fun, and I get all the juicy details!”
Twilight rolled her eyes a little as she pulled back. “I promise.”
******
Twilight Sparkle prided herself for being a scholarly mare. In Canterlot she was a mage far beyond her peers at Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. So much so that she became the personal student of Princess Celestia herself. With that came certain expectations from both others and from herself. Twilight held herself to a very strict set of expectations. So the fact that she had botched a spell twice already was genuinely annoying her. It was times like these that she missed Celestia being around all the time. Not because the Princess would give her the answers – on the contrary, the princess would give her a cryptic hint that generally led to her discovering the answer on her own.
Lighting up her horn she sighed to herself. “Third time's the charm, as they say,” Twilight told herself as a way of encouragement. She knew this was not an easy spell, actually, it was a spell that she had only seen Celestia perform on her own. But she was determined to do this. Closing her eyes she started to visualize the circle of power around the object. A simple enough act and her mind easily conjured up the golden object surrounded by a bubble of lilac magic. The entire surface of the sphere was covered in various arcane symbols, each representing an element of all magic, each needing to be chained to the other.
The pendant had a neutral white glow surrounding it, suggesting that it was prepared and that is was blank. It was practically mocking her with her previous two failed attempts. Once more, Twilight started to touch on the arcane symbols to shift them into place. One by one, she added in the components, watching through her mind’s eye how the white glow slowly became a faint purple glow. Things were looking up – that is until she got halfway through and it became harder to focus. Gathering powerful magical elements into one small object was strenuous. She needed three more elements, not that she got there. The moment her mind strayed from containment to adding another element the pendant’s glow turned red.
It was after a loud scream of frustration that the room was filled with a blinding flash of brilliant amethyst magic, which was promptly followed by the deafening roar of thunder and the physical impact of an unstable spell exploding outward. For the third time today, Twilight Sparkle found herself flung across the room landing with a thump against the pillows that she had set up against the far wall. The first time she had been thrown into the wall and she was still sore, unharmed save for a few bruises under her coat and well some knocks to her pride at failing to stabilize the spell that she had been weaving for the third time that afternoon. Laying there on the pile of pillows Twilight found herself muttering angrily about her not having the right conditions and how this would have been done had she been in Canterlot where she had her pick of gifted ponies that could be assisting! She was muttering very heavily modified curses.
“Do… you need a helping hoof Twilight?” Shooting Star asked, standing in the doorway with a somewhat nervous look, as if he was expecting another explosion to go off the moment he stepped further into the room, or made a sudden movement.
She looked at him, surprised to see him. The talk with Rarity had helped push him and the date out of her thoughts. That and her work. Sure, this is a public library, but she didn’t really expect to see him show up today, he hadn’t any other day, had he? Or had she just not noticed before?
His eyes were filled with a gentle concern for her, Twilight could see the worry in his eyes and simply made a dismissive gesture with her hoof even as he asked the question “Are you alright?” Clearly he was having nothing of the dismissive gesture.
“It…” She sighed deeply and paused to look up at him. “I’m alright. A bit bruised in more ways than one but not hurt.” Twilight sighed, giving the offending object, a simple silver inlaid golden necklace with an empty locket. “I just can’t seem to get this enchantment right, I mean… I know how to cast it, I know the formula by heart. It just becomes unstable the moment I am nearing the stage of completion, and I can’t get it stable before it explodes.” She admitted with a pout. She didn’t like being stuck on something. It was frustrating, especially because the knew she could do the spell, it was a matter of being able to concentrate on two things at the same time. The foolishness of that did not escape the mare.
He nodded slowly approaching Twilight and giving the necklace a really wide berth. “Well, why don’t you run me through what you’re trying to enchant onto the necklace? Maybe we could do it together?” He offered a kind smile as he extended his hoof to help her up. A kind smile that made her cheeks heat up ever so lightly. “Normally enchanting is done by a pair of unicorns, save for ones that are very gifted. One unicorn weaves the spell while the other stabilized the influx of magical energy and contains it.” He explained simply, which made her blush become just that bit more prominent. She knew he was right, of course, she did. Even when doing classes with Celestia the Princess had always assisted her with enchantments.
Sighing softly she showed him a grateful smile. “You’re right. I wanted to see if I could do it on my own though, not that that really worked out in the past. I’ve been getting better at enchantment spells but honestly, they’ve never come as intuitively as say teleportation.” She offered a more sheepish smile “But two heads are better than one as they say.” What she didn’t bring up was that she would really enjoy the company regardless of it being needed. Simply the thought of hanging out and practicing magic together was something that she couldn’t help but think of as fun. Picking herself up off the floor with a little help from Star she smiled at him.
“Well, I am trying to enchant the pendant with a shrouding spell.” Twilight started to explain guiding the still somewhat nervous stallion over to the enchanting pedestal the pendant rested on. The pedestal was small and looked more like a hexagonal goldsmith’s anvil with arcane runes carved into an intricate pattern. “The spell is meant to make the wearer invisible for three hours while wearing it. Honestly, the only pony I have seen casting it without assistance was Princess Celestia.” She offered as an explanation, lighting up her horn to start the preparations for the spell all over again.
Shooting Star arched an inquisitive eyebrow at Twilight, tilting his head ever so slightly. “Whatever would you need such a spell for?” He asked, looking from Twilight to the pendant. “I mean objects like that are worth quite a lot of bits. Are you planning to sell it?” He asked with such genuine curiosity that it made Twilight Sparkle chuckle softly.
“No, I am not planning on selling it. It’s actually for a little adventure that I am planning.” She said purposefully trying to sound all mysterious about it.
“Is this to get back at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash?” He asked, smirking just a little. “I mean… they did prank you pretty hard last week.”
“Hey now, you got caught up in it too…” She said her cheeks feeling just a little hotter. “But as tempting as the idea is, no. I’m going to visit the castle of the two sisters. I’m going alone, I don’t want to drag the others along to watch me reading books the entire time.” She smiled her hoof slowly stroking along the pendant. “They’d find it dull.”
“Why don’t you take the Resourceful Scholars’ Club along? Safety in numbers and you won’t be alone.” Star offered, blushing quite suddenly as he stammered a soft “ehm… sorry I don’t mean to intrude on your trip.”
Twilight wanted to hug him then and there. Star’s shy side was definitely cute, and the way he worried enough to offer to come along on what was dangerous? She couldn’t help but grin slightly. “You know, that does sound like a good idea. Having good company along could be nice.” She said it, then paused and blushed deeply, “That is not to say that my friends aren’t good company!”
“Easy, Twilight. I know what you meant, it’s not their thing. However going to scavenge an ancient library is exactly something for the club,” he said while smiling at her. His smile seriously made her feel all melty on the inside. Her talk with Rarity jumped back to mind. Her attention snapped back to the pendant and she nodded.
“Yeah, they’re great friends but… they have their own duties and obligations. So, are you ready?” she asked.
“As ready as I can be, Twilight,” he replied with a slow nod.
With that Twilight re-initiated the spell. It all happened like before except that there was the familiar sensation of another unicorn’s magic entwining with hers. The white glowing pendant was surrounded by his magical aura, and around that was her lilac aura. She started to cast once more. One by one she moved the arcane symbols into place. Which was made a lot easier due to the fact that Star was keeping the magical energies contained… and he was making it look easy! It’s not that she minded, she was actually more than a little impressed how he was handling the raw power that was channeled into the spell.
As Twilight approached the completion of the spells she paused, feeling a hoof poking at her shoulder. “Twilight, swap a moment? I have an idea. I think I can alter the spell to make it cover an area instead,” Star said with somewhat of a smirk. Twilight gave him a momentary deadpan stare before nodding slowly.
“Fine, but I am blaming you if we’re sent flying,” Twilight quipped playfully before starting the somewhat difficult process of exchanging places in the spell. Twilight had Shared spells before, and by the fluidity of Shooting Star's response, she guessed that he had done it before as well.
Keeping her mind focused on containing the vast amount of magical power she watched Shooting Star, he was slow and methodical in the way he studied the spell. Taking his time, then he did the unthinkable and started adding to it with a speed and confidence that kind of startled Twilight. Sure Twilight knew Star was good but watching him work was a delight.
All in all it took them ten minutes to finalize and complete the spell without any catastrophic failures this time. Twilight could see the faded blue-ish purple aura surrounding the necklace and gave a very satisfied smile throwing her hooves around Star pulling him into a celebratory hug! “It worked! Oh, thank you so much!” With a grin she kissed his cheek, watching it go from grey to a soft shade of cherry red.
He opened his mouth a few times, taken aback by the sudden affection thrown his way “Y-yeah… we did!”
“Will you go on a date with me?” Twilight asked before she even realized just exactly what she had asked. She was going to ask something entirely different but instead, she threw out that. Freezing entirely at the moment she pulled away from him with an embarrassed smile. “S-sorry I… got a little bit excited there.”
“Did you… mean it?” he asked.
“The date thing? Well… I certainly am not against trying,” Twilight answered truthfully. It was too late to pull back now without hurting his feelings, and she did honestly want to try it. So she smiled at him. “Would you like to? I thought we could go stargazing and have a nice picnic out there?”
“That sounds like fun,” he admitted with a smile. Sitting down on a pillow. “Did you have a day in mind, Twilight?”
“Well I was thinking we could do it this Saturday?” she replied taking her own pillow to lay on, relaxing a little and gathering herself after the intensity of casting the spell for the fourth time. “I think around nine would be the optimal time?”
“Let’s make it ten, not sure it will be entirely dark by nine,” Shooting Star commented with a gentle smile. “Oh… that reminds me. I came by to thank you, for the other day, it was nice,” he said with a very warm smile. A smile that Twilight eagerly reciprocated. She could feel her heart pounding ever so slightly in her chest, and let her smile widen to one of fondness. Even though she had only just met him she really did like his company.
“It was a pleasure, Star. I had a great time with you.” Twilight said. “Say, want to get some lunch? I’ve actually not eaten yet.” Twilight said, standing up slowly unsure of where exactly her energy had just come from. She started leading him out of the door smiling at him over her withers. “Come on, my treat this time,” she said as she winked.
Nervous. That was what Twilight was feeling as she stood before the door to Shooting Star’s home. It was not a nice feeling to have this early in the afternoon. Or to be up this early after having a long night the day before, for that matter. She hadn’t even had her coffee yet. There hadn’t been time for coffee, she had almost overslept. She’d barely managed a shower and brushing before running out on an empty stomach. She wasn’t helped by the fact that she was about to meet four entirely new ponies. Ones that she had never met. And from how she had understood it, some were not even local to Ponyville.
With a sigh, Twilight took the plunge and knocked at the door with a brilliant smile. At least she was going to have a good afternoon. It might not be in a familiar environment but… these were ponies with a similar interest in knowledge. I should think of them as colleagues. Twilight thought to herself and smiled just that bit more. Colleagues sounded very nice, even though she was used to, and maybe preferred, studying alone. She knew this wasn’t a normal study session though, she was taking these ponies she did not know into a dangerous place.
As the door opened to reveal Shooting Star, Twilight simply smiled. “Hey, good morning.” She said, feeling her cheeks getting just that little bit hotter as she watched his sweet smile. She flashed him a small smile.
“Come on in, Twilight,” he said, and she was happy to note that she was not the only one blushing ever so slightly. It was hard not to, they would be going on a date and that had been on her mind for a long few hours. “We’re actually just having lunch if you want some? Gourmet kind of made a bit much on the pancake front,” he announced with a sheepish smile. Pushing the door open all the way,revealed the absurd scene of a long table stacked high with pancakes, enough that it could feed the Ponyville orphanage for two days’ worth of lunch. The amber coated stallion with his orange and blue mane smiled cheerily as he placed a plate out for Twilight with a small grin. And like that? All tension and nervousness was gone.
“This was… not what I was expecting.” Twilight said stepping inside with a gentle smile on her muzzle, taking the place that had been set out for her. Looking around the table she noted that there were three more ponies who seemed to be eagerly enjoying their pancakes. The first thing that she noticed was a pair of identical twins, although one was a mare and the other a stallion. Both had a raven black mane, and dark almost abyssal purple coats. The only difference (aside from gender) was the fact that they each had heterochromia. The mare had a green right eye, and a blue left eye. While the stallion had the reverse.
Then she noticed a small pegasus colt with a dark blue coat and a cobalt mane and tail. Twilight perked her eyebrow at him, he couldn’t be older than sixteen! He was also eating with all the grace of a colt. She chuckled inwardly a little. Shaking her head slightly she started to eat her own share of the pancakes with a gentle smile. Simply listening to the two siblings arguing about what sounded like the perfect way to construct a fireball spell. The two didn’t look like they were in the royal guard, it made Twilight wonder why they had any need for combat magic.
Shooting Star suddenly stood beside her, smiling a little, “Everypony, I would like you to meet Twilight Sparkle.”. “She’s the mare that I told you about, and will be leading this interesting little trip of ours.” He motioned at her with a bright, fond smile she noticed. She felt her cheeks heating up at that.
“E-ehm. Hello everypony!” she said. A little more nervous than she would have liked to. Though to her surprise everypony seemed to respond with a very cheery greeting as If they were happy to see her. It settled her in an instant, pushing her away from the panic of feeling like that awkward mare all over again. “Thank you, it’s good to be here among ponies with a similar interest,” she said with a gentle little smile.
“Maybe you should tell them what the plan is, Twilight,” Shooting Star suggested. “Or at least what we’re looking for.”
“That… might be a good idea, yes,” Twilight said with a sheepish smile, she hadn’t even thought about that. “I think I haven’t even told you exactly what I am after, have I?” she asked, blushing.
“No, you haven’t. But something tells me that it's going to be some important magic tome?” he shot her a small, teasing smirk.
“No! … Yes.” She gave an indignant pout, he was teasing her! She shot him a playful glare for a moment and nudged his side as revenge. It was then that she noticed the way the mare of the twins was looking at them both. “Right… jokes aside. We, apparently, are heading to the Castle of the Two Sisters. I am after a book. A long-lost manuscript that was authored by both Luna and Celestia. It contains some very dangerous magic, like a spell that could let a pony "survive" by consuming emotions,” Twilight announced with a small grin playing on her muzzle. “It's something that can’t be lost to time, something that needs to be studied.”
“Isn’t it dangerous? We have to cross through the Everfree forest,” the stallion of the twins piped up. “There are horrible monsters there, like Manticores and timber wolves.”
“Well yes, that is where this comes in,” Twilight said with a smile, holding up the pendant that she had enchanted with the help of Shooting Star. “This pendant projects an invisibility field while worn, over a small area around the wearer. That will make the trip through the forest a lot safer,” Twilight explained plainly. Looking around at the ponies, “Maybe introductions would be a good idea?” she suggested.
“I’m Sigma!” the small colt piped up with a grin. A grin that revealed his muzzle smothered in syrup. “I’m not as young as I look! I’m from Canterlot, and specialise in healing magic,” he said in a soft chipper voice. “Also, these pancakes are great!” Without further ado, he went back to wolfing down the plate full of pancakes in that very colt like manner. Twilight could swear that he was eating as though he never gets any sweets.
“Thank you, Sigma,” the stallion wearing an apron said, smiling proudly. “I’m Gourmet Palate and I’m a wizard in the kitchen.” He said that with a small playful grin tugging at the edges of his muzzle. “Honestly my speciality might be cooking but I do have a curiosity for the arcane.” With that, he simply sat down at the table and started to take his own share of the insane stack of pancakes. “Take as much as you like, the rest is going to be preserved for later, I guess…” Gourmet said with a sheepish smile.
“Dawn Stars,” the stallion of the twins said with a sweet smile. “I’m the eldest of us, by ten minutes.” He seemed oddly proud of that fact, and his sister seemed to very much resent him bringing it up. “I have dedicated myself to learning all schools of magic, I guess you could call me a universalist, while my dearest sister has her hooves deep in the magical school of evocation,” he said wrapping her up in his hooves and hugging the mare close.
“And I am Starry Night. Like my brother said, my speciality is evocation,” she announced with a little smirk. “Honestly it is more than that, I have a firm grasp of a lot of concepts thanks to my ‘big’ brother.” She said it with a startling amount of snark behind the word big. Twilight had to remind herself to close her mouth as she gaped at the twins going from glaring daggers to starting a gentle kind look of sibling adoration.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forward to going on this little adventure with you all. Once we are past the Everfree forest, it should be smooth sailing, the castle itself is very much safe. At least it was last time my friends and I were there,” Twilight informed them, looking down at her pancakes with a very fond smile. “For now, eat up!” she said with a grin and eagerly dug in.
“Yes, we might be spending the night at the castle. Everypony brought their things for that, yes?” Shooting Star asked smiling as all the gathered ponies nodded their confirmation. “Wonderful! This will be an interesting evening,” Twilight said and smiled at him, noticing that his tail was resting against her, and she didn’t mind one bit.
******
“Next time… warn me before you change the enchantment.” Twilight said with an embarrassed little smile on her muzzle as she looked at Shooting Star
“S-sorry, I didn’t know it was going to be this… cramped,” he said with a small smile of his own while pressing himself close to Twilight’s side. Thinking back about the spell that he had woven he should have known that the field projected by the pendant was going to be cramped. He took a moment to run through the math once again and wondered why he had not considered the fact that there were going to be six ponies.
It was because of that tiny mistake, that the party found themselves smooshed together. All of them in some way pressing against Twilight or Shooting Star, with Sigma taking the cake by riding on Twilight’s back. If it hadn’t been for the others he wouldn’t have minded much. Twilight had a very soft coat and she smelled faintly of lavender. He could get used to that scent, and it was hard not to simply nuzzle her neck.
To his right was Starry Night, who seemed to take no such issues with the no nuzzling. Indeed, she was accidentally brushing against his neck while looking around. He knew it was a lie but he didn’t want to bring it up with Twilight present. Starry liked him, and he knew that well enough even though he had ignored every one of her advances. Still, she seemed very much obsessed with trying to sleep with him. He sighed a little and focused his mind somewhere else, the enchantment. It was holding out better than expected, if things kept going like this it would last four hours rather than the estimated two. To him, that made up for the mistake in the field projection math.
“This isn’t that bad, it’s actually quite comfortable,” Sigma piped up from Twilight’s back with a small grin. “I think I could get used to this, let’s call it the royal treatment.” He laughed softly at his own silly comment, joined in by most, even Twilight. Star guessed there was no use in dwelling on a mistake, and making the best of the situation was good enough. Besides, coat contact with Twilight was a boon! He looked at her and met those amethyst eyes. They both smiled. This wasn’t as bad as they both had initially made it out to be when they for to the outskirts of Ponyville. He chuckled softly, not looking away from her.
That Is until his attention was drawn to her hushed whisper of Dawn. “Stop. Look.” His voice was hushed, following his hoof Shooting Star came almost snout to snout with the terrible visage of a Manticore. For a scant few seconds, Star (and the rest of the group) forgot how to breathe.
“That… is a Manticore.” Gourmet’s words were barely a whisper, “W-what do we do?”
“Don’t move. It might continue on its way,” Twilight whispered or rather squeaked. He could feel her trembling, she was shaking like a leaf-like most of the group where.
The beast didn’t move on its way. No, it started sniffing at the air and very slowly started to prowl closer to the group of ponies, its hot breath washing over the gathered ponies. There was a sharp foul scent to its breath, that came accompanied by the coppery scent of blood. It had eaten, but it was still on the hunt. Every step closer made the group take a step back. Then it raised the scorpion tail, stabbing it straight for the group. The air became thick with its breath, blanketing them as much as the oppressive aura of terror that gripped them.
The aura was shattered not a moment later as they all scattered just in time with Shooting Star shouting “MOVE!” They scattered to all sides throwing themselves out of the way, all except Shooting Star. He shoved Twilight out of the way letting himself tumble after her. He could feel the wind of the stinger brushing past his side, barely missing him as he landed on top of Twilight then rolled off of her. That was too close for comfort. He nudged Twilight’s side while shouting, “Run, now!” at the rest, they (save for Twilight and him) were all visible now, that was bad. Shooting Star and Twilight quickly ran past the Manticore, followed closely by Dawn Stars and Sigma. “Where’s Starry!?” called Dawn.
“Attack me will you!?” came the voice of Starry Night. The mare was grinning ear to ear as the winds of magic enveloped her. The very air around her started to vibrate from the extreme heat she was creating, sparks of fire crackling along the surface of her long slender horn. She wasn’t moving her lips to cast, instead, her right hoof was slowly drawing small runes into the dirt as she backed away from the creature’s predatory prowl. As it pounced, her horn sparked to life. It took Shooting Star a long moment to recognize the spell, by the time he, and the others noticed it was the spell Starry had been practicing for the past month. He threw a hoof over Twilight’s eyes and shielded his own with magic. There was a loud, pained roar, a whimper, then the sounds of a large creature retreating. The heavy, thick scent of scorched fur washed over them,. “And don’t you dare mess with me!”
Opening his eyes, he witnessed the devastation she had wrought. The soil in a twelve-inch range of her was turned to glass. Twelve inches away from that it was scorched from the extreme heat. Starry was standing in the middle of it all, unscathed by her own spell, save for the small sparks of magic emanating from her horn, the tip scorched with the tell-tale signs of magical burnout. A manic grin playing on her muzzle, she relished power and she loved showing off. It had taken her every ounce of magical power but she’d managed to cast one of the most powerful spells a mortal pony could wield. “Solar Flare?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “Wasn’t that a bit much?” Star did his best not to sound impressed, being impressed would just feed into her ego.
“Maybe? I … it was the first spell that came to me at the moment,” she said defensively, fidgeting uncomfortably in place. “It’s not like it left me much of a chance to think of what to scare it off with.” Starry brought a hoof to her horn, rubbing it slowly, “Goddess that hurts…” she muttered.
Shooting Star shook his head slightly letting out a small sigh. “Let’s go before it comes back,” he said turning away from the show off mare.
Starry smirked a little as she rushed past Shooting star stealing his place at Twilight’s side, making sure that there was no way for him to get in between them both, forcing Shooting Star to be on the outside and away from the mare he liked. Looking to her right she offered Shooting Star a flirtatious smile, she didn’t even seem to realize she had annoyed him. He ignored her, and with a bit of shame noted the worried look Twilight gave him. She was too much to deal with right now.
“Let’s hope that won’t be a repeat incident…” Twilight muttered, picking up the pace and starting towards the castle once more, this time Shooting Star could see she was being much more observant and wary of her surroundings as her pace quickened slightly.
******
By the time the group finally got to the castle it was already starting to get dark. The sun had lowered and the sky was burning a bright orange mixed with a faint purple, the light slowly yielding to the star-filled darkness of the night sky. The moon was making its slow ascent casting it’s cool and comforting light upon the party.
Before the gathered ponies loomed the ominous form of the Castle of the Two Sisters. From a distance, it had looked quite normal, but now that they were closer its Gothic and haunted aesthetic wasn’t lost on them. It was shrouded in thick unnatural darkness much like the rumors that talked about it told of. Even though the sun had not fully crested the horizon its rays seemed to be absorbed by the darkness. For a moment Shooting Star thought back to the rumor. Supposedly the castle had been cursed by Nightmare Moon before her banishment, the last act to spite her sister. An act that forced her to relocate the capital of their kingdom to Canterlot City.
Shaking his head, he smiled a little. Those were just rumors, right? There was no such thing as actual curses in magic. Those were old mares’ tales told to scare children. The idea of curses he knew mostly linked back to the ancient zebra superstition of stars being malevolent beings. He knew better now, especially with the return of Princess Luna. The stars were her creations, what she shaped to make the night sky beautiful.
“Maybe… this was not such a good idea,” Gourmet commented, looking at the castle wide-eyed. There was a clear look of anxiousness written on his face. “It looks haunted,” he added with a nervous smile.
“It’s not haunted,” Twilight spoke up, confidently, “My friends and I were here during the summer sun celebration. The Darkness hails from an ancient enchantment put on the castle. At least that was what Princess Celestia told me.” She smiled gently at Gourmet and the others. “It’s why the weather over the Everfree forest is wild and untameable by pegasi.”
“It still gives me the creeps,” Shooting Star said, motioning to the castle. “Enchantment or not it looks ominous.”
“Very, though I would assume that was the point of it,” Starry commented, slowly walking towards the main gate of the castle. “Are you all coming? Or must I go ahead alone?” She smirked just a touch. “Or is it that you are all going to be cowed like most people by the enchantment?”
“Never!” Sigma piped up and leaped off Twilight’s back to join Starry in Flying up to the gate. “I’m not scared of some silly enchantment.”
Looking over to Twilight Shooting Star smiled at her. “Shall we then?” he asked kindly starting to walk with her. “How do we get to the library do you know?”
Walking beside Shooting Star Twilight nodded slowly at him. “Yes, there is a passageway that leads right to it from the main hall. It’s actually pretty easy to access,” she explained, walking a bit quicker to catch up with the others.
“H-hey wait for me!” Gourmet called after them.
The gate of the castle was a ruin. It had been a ruin for over a thousand years now, the doors were smashed and much of what survived of them was barely recognizable. What had once been a mighty sturdy gate was now a mass of rotten wood and rusted metal. The portcullis had been quite literally ripped from its stone housing, laying discarded a few feet away from the gate. A legacy of the battle that had been retold in legend.
That was not what drew the eyes of the group though. What drew their eyes more was the empty suits of armor scattered around. Rusted beyond recognition none of the suits were distinguishable from each other but they had very clearly been in a pitched battle. Yet another legacy of an age past where fellow ponies had fought and killed each other. None of the group of adventurers spoke. Words failed them to describe the startlingly macabre scene. There were no bones, no remnants of blood. But the scene itself was horrible enough to give every pony a moment of pause.
It took Gourmet catching up and lightly nudging ponies forwards for them to start moving once more. Pulled from their stunned silence and ushered onward into the castle proper.
“I…” Twilight started, gently pressing herself against Shooting Star’s side, “d-don’t remember that…” She admitted, looking more than a little startled by the scene they had just passed by. “W-we didn’t enter through the main gate… we entered through a hole in the side of the castle…”
“Shh... It’s alright now, Twilight,” Shooting Star whispered comfortingly, gently nuzzling her on the cheek.
Somewhat hesitantly taking the lead, Twilight smiled a little at the rest. “It should be this way, follow me,” she said and started walking across the entrance hall. It had once been a grand sight to behold. Opulent in the extreme even after a thousand years of decay. It was lit only by the light of the moon filtering through the overhead skylight dome. Much of the leaded glass had been shattered but some of it remained to stain some beams of pale moonlight with a multitude of rainbow colors.
The walls had once been draped with the most luxurious tapestries of various shades of midnight blue and purple and floored with the finest carpets. At least that was the impression. The tapestries were torn and the carpeting was rotten. Much of the marble floor had been shattered. Here and there lay the occasional empty suit of armor, or a long-abandoned weapon. Many of the statues of notable historical figures had been broken in one way or another.
“I can only imagine how this place would have looked in it’s prime,” Dawn said, awed by the lingering majesty of the hall. “It… might have rivaled Canterlot Castle back then.”
“It did,” Sigma said with a grin. “There are paintings in Canterlot’s historical museum. The castle in Canterlot started as the summer home of the princesses back then. This place was made to be much grander because it was the seat of power in all of Equestria,” he said.
“We might have a problem,” Twilight announced. Motioning her hoof to a passage that had been entirely blocked off by rubble. “The passageway we need has collapsed,” she said.
“What do we do now then? It’s too late to head home,” Gourmet said, looking over his withers at the main gate. “The Everfree Forest is dangerous by the day, it’s even worse at night!”
“We find another way,” Shooting Star said. “There must have been more than one way to get to the library in a castle this big.” There was a series of nods from the rest.
“Alright, everypony let’s split-”
“No. We stay together,” Dawn instantly interrupted his twin sister. “We are not splitting the group,“ he said firmly. “The library is in the west wing, by the looks of it. If we head in that direction then we should be able to find it.”
“Fine…” Starry sighed.
With that, they started moving as a group to head up the stairs towards the west wing of the castle. The hallway was long and startlingly devoid of doors. What it had in abundance though were ancient rusted suits of armor and more torn tapestries. At the end of the hall, they could make out a rather simple oak door.
The door leads them into a spiral staircase that went down into blackness. There was no source of light to illuminate its winding steps. An inconvenience that was very quickly solved with some quick thinking from Shooting Star who illuminated his horn with s simple light spell. The staircase was simple, plain even, almost screaming servant’s entrance. And sure, enough at the bottom there was a hallway spreading to the left and right. One side was marked “servant’s quarters,” while the other was marked “Royal Library.”
The left passage took them into a simple hexagonal room. The walls were smooth stone as if it had been cut from one massive piece of granite. It would have been an unsightly room had it not been for the rather intricately woven tapestries that lined the wall. At first glance, it looked to be a dead end. Indeed, there was no door to be found anywhere not even behind the simple tapestries. In the middle of the room, there was one small imperfection marking the smooth floor with the simple word ‘surrecturus’.
“Okaaaay, I think the sign lied to us,” Sigma said, rolling his eyes.
“Maybe not…” Starry said, her voice laced with the sound of disbelief, “Look.” She said this while pointing up with a hoof drawing everypony's attention to the door. The door that was a good two hundred feet above them.
“That… does not make any spatial sense,” Gourmet deadpanned. “This room is taller than the castle! ” he said while stomping a hoof on the ground.
“I… think it might be…” Twilight started, looking to Shooting Star for a moment.
“Yes, it’s an enchantment in the room. It’s very much real and not an illusion just… most of the tower is using planer magic to fit,” he said, tilting his head. “Whoever did this did it recently. I don’t think that this was the original room. Everything is too clean and smooth with no decay.”
“Are you suggesting someone set up a trap?” Dawn asked.
“Maybe?” Star replied. “It’s too much of a coincidence, at least. The initial access is collapsed and now this? I mean this clearly does not belong in the original architecture of the castle. And it took some powerful magic to even do this.”
“He has a point,” Starry said with a small sigh. “Still we need to get up there.”
Sigma grinned and flapped his wings hard, launching himself into the air. Then quite promptly slammed into the ground as he mysteriously flipped over and changed directions. “What the-” was all he could say before crashing muzzle first into the ground.
“Flying isn’t an option,” Dawn helpfully commented.
Twilight let out a deep sigh as she wandered around the room. Inspecting the word carved into the center of the room. “Arise, or the ancient equine word for it,” she mumbled softly, looking around the room, ignoring the argument about using tapestries to climb up behind her. No, the pony who set this up wanted them to do something with the word she was sure.
Her eyes slowly moved from tapestry to tapestry. Then she paused, “Interesting.”
“What is?” Star asked, approaching Twilight.
“These tapestries. Do you notice the difference?” she asked.
Frowning slightly, he looked at them. It took him only a moment to realize the difference. “Yes. That one is enchanted, and the rest aren’t.” He smirked a little and by lighting up his horn to pull it down and closer, inspecting it. Pressing his horn to the fabric he slowly and methodically inspected the enchantment, “It’s enchanted with a levitation spell.”
“I think I solved it. Step back, dear,” Twilight said grinning from ear to ear. As Star stepped back she said in a loud and clear commanding voice “surrecturus”. Not a second later the tapestry started floating in front of her. “This is very Saddle Arabian in design,” Twilight commented.
“Alright every pony, get on,” Shooting Star said, motioning to the floating tapestry.
Twilight was the first on, taking her place at the front while the rest slowly, cautiously piled on after her. To their amazement, the carpet slowly ascended to the door up high.
Upon their arrival and opening the door they were offered a rather peculiar sight. Yes, the library was just beyond the small corridor. But between them and the open door to the library stood a creature that the group could scarcely describe. It was a mixture of many races. It had the head of a pony, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird.
“Is that a… lamassu?” Twilight asked in utter disbelief.
“It… would appear so,” Sigma said, tilting his head a little. Watching the creature sitting down with a stoic look.
“Come forward, adventurers.” It coaxed them, feline tail swishing slowly, “You wish to pass into the royal library?” it asked them.
“We do,” Shooting Star admitted.
“Then you must answer these five riddles first,” it said, in a voice gentle and calm. “If you fail to answer, I will send you back from whence they came. And thine quest will perish here.”
“Riddles? I think we can manage your riddles,” Starry Night said very confidently. “We’re all scholars here. Nothing will get in between us and the quest for knowledge.”
“Ah, but knowledge is power. And power must be protected,” it cautioned. “If you fail this, you will have no memory of this night, nor of the quest that led you here. Indeed, you will think this all a dream if you remember any detail.”
“I always wax, yet always wane; I melt, succumbéd to the flame. Lighting darkness, with fate unblest, I soon devolve to a shapeless mess.”
The creature posed its first riddle with a predatory smile. Its voice a thickly accented reminder of a time long passed, when equine had been a much different language.
“A candle!” Shooting Star answered almost instantly, it hadn’t taken him long to puzzle it all together. He watched the creature smirked.
“Correct. Very good.” The stoic creature nodded his approval, “But that was just the first of my five, do not celebrate yet.” It cautioned the group, silted predatory eyes wandering each and every member.
“I welcome the day with a show of light, I stealthily came here in the night. I bathe the earthy stuff at dawn, But by the noon, alas, I'm gone.”
It said, pleased with its riddle. The creature even allowed itself a thin stoic smile.
No one dared speak up for a long moment. Everypony was deep in thought for a good few minutes when Sigma finally stepped forward with a rather cocky smirk on his muzzle. “The answer is dew. It’s formed during the night when an exposed surface cools by radiating its heat, as a result, atmospheric moisture condenses at a higher rate than evaporation. It happens in the morning and eventually, by afternoon the droplets will have evaporated.”
The creature let out a deep rumbling chuckle, reaching out a paw to gently pat Sigma on the head. “Very much correct little pegasus. Truly a little scholar” It’s tone slowly grew warmer, founder of the group. “Still there are three more riddles before I can allow you mortals access,” it cautioned them.
“Large as a mountain, small as a pea, endlessly swimming in a waterless sea.”
“Asteroids, the answer is asteroids,” Starry Night said, flashing the creature a smirk. “The waterless sea is space.” She nodded slowly, glancing over at Twilight who had her mouth open to give the answer. It pleased her that she had managed to cut the mare off.
Clapping its paws the creature nodded in turn. “Very good. I must admit that it is refreshing to have visitors who are up to the challenge!”
“Alright then let’s see how you all handle a little bit of math. Thirty-four, twenty-one, thirteen, eight, five. What number is next in this sequence?”
It flashed a wicked grin, “Think carefully. One mistake dooms your quest,” it reminded them with a low rumbling purr.
Every pony stared at each other in confusion. Everypony but Twilight Sparkle who rather confidently stepped forwards without deliberating with the rest. “It’s a reversed Fibonacci sequence. So, the next number is three,” she announced confidently.
“Is that your final answer?” it asked with an arched eyebrow.
“Yes,” Twilight stated firmly, not letting her confidence waver in the face of being questioned.
“Then you are indeed correct,” it announced with a low rumbling chuckle. “Alright, here is the final riddle.” The creature looked very appeased by the party’s ability to answer its riddles.
It paused a moment, considering its options. Then the creature spoke once more.
“With potent, flowery words speak I, of something common, vulgar, dry; I weave webs of pedantic prose, in effort to befuddle those, who think I while time away, in lofty things, above all day the common kind that lingers where Monadic beings live and fare; Practical I may not be, but life, it seems, is full of me!”
Its eyes were alight with burning with passion.
“That is your final riddle?” Dawn asked with a somewhat disappointed smile. “The answer is Riddler,” he said.
“No, the answer is riddle!” Gourmet chimed in. “Life is full of mysteries and riddles,” he said, wisely.
Chuckling softly the creature watched both ponies, “Actually, you are both correct, both answers are right.” It slowly stepped aside offering the group passage, “You may enter, mortals. Thank you for entertaining an old spirit, and helping him serve out the ancient duty binding him to this place.” Slowly it bowed to them, one paw across its chest. Then slowly it’s ethereal body started to phase out, vanishing from sight with an uproarious laugh, a laugh of true joy.
“Wait… was he… a ghost!?” Gourmet asked, shocked.
Twilight nodded slowly, “It… seems so. I think, we just helped him pass on…”
******
“Finally,” Starry Night said, taking the first step into the library, shoving her way past the others in the group. “That was a lot more effort than it should have been. And look we’re alone.” She motioned a hoof at the deserted library, the room was indeed empty. Save for the cases of well (mostly) preserved looking tomes. The thing that was off about the room was the fact that it was not only lit up by an entirely shattered skylight dome but also with magical cold flame torches. The room also looked immaculately cleaned and lacked such things as shards of glass.
“Then who lit the torches, and cleaned up the glass? Lawn-midget ponies?” Sigma asked sarcastically.
Shaking his head Shooting Star slowly moved further into the room, looking around and up. Seeing that the library had three more floors above them. “This is smaller than the Canterlot library,” he commented, only having been to the Canterlot Royal Library once.
“It is, this was actually the private library for the princesses,” Twilight said with a low giggle, already at one of the bookcases browsing through the collection of tomes. “Actually quite a few of these have copies in the Canterlot library,” she explained with a smile over her withers.
“Still surprising they made the Canterlot one bigger.”
“You shouldn’t be,” Dawn piped up without even looking up from the tome he had pilfered from one of the cases. “Canterlot was always the city with the biggest university, even back then. Starswirl the bearded was a young stallion when it was founded.”
“And he was one of the five ponies who founded the Canterlot University, with royal support,” Starry commented and sighed a little. “They really drive that point home when you study there,” she commented while slowly trotting past a far bookcase. “Some of these books, however, are from before the purge… like this one.” She said pulling out a book entitled ‘Walking the Dreamscape - By Princess Luna’.
“Purge?” Gourmet asked, having managed to find a book about cooking. “What purge?”
“After Luna’s banishments ponies purged every reference to her in a positive light, which included ponies who were seen as on her side by the virtue of being in professions that were seen as aligned with the night. It was led by the Sol Invictus Church… well, their name already suggests their bias,” Twilight said with a sad sigh. “Many of the ponies who were branded ‘lunatics’ were driven into hiding, or arrested. By the time Celestia and the guard could get things under control…” she shook her head trailing off there. “There is a reason that most of Luna and her legacy has passed into myth. It’s also not a subject taught in history classes… the only reason I know is because of Princess Celestia’s personal archive.”
“But… how could it have gotten so far?” Sigma asked. “It makes me happy that the Church has fallen into obscurity…”
“You know, I asked the very same question back when I first read about it,” Twilight said with a gentle smile. “Celestia and the guards had to clean up the remnants of Nightmare Moon’s army. Most of the bat ponies who were not routed or did not surrender were still putting up a fight. Word of the situation in Canterlot did not reach it until a week after.”
“That is… horrible,” Gourmet said.
“It is… It also was the start of an age where the church had a lot of political sways. Celestia… I shouldn’t continue,” Twilight said with a deep sigh.
“Why?”
“Because the princess wouldn’t want me to talk about her personal life,” Twilight said with a pained smile. Pulling one of the books from the top shelf to look through it. “She told me those things in confidence. I shou-” she froze at the loud click that echoed through the room. Blinking slowly as the bookcase slowly started to slowly swing open away from the group, revealing before the assembled ponies a dark room. A dark room within the center a pedestal with on it a single book.
“What is this a Daring Do novel!?” Starry Night exclaimed. “Hidden rooms triggered by pulling out a book? Whoever built that was cliché as all hell.”
Slowly Twilight started walking towards the book on the pedestal. “I found it…” she said, amazed by the fact that the rumor was not just a rumor. “The book actually exists! I must study it!” Twilight exclaimed but before she could sprint to the book her ears perked attention drawn by a low rumbling chuckle.
“My, my, you are such a knowledgeable and lucky little whelp, Twilight Sparkle,” a voice suddenly called out from the shadows. Slowly the sound of claws scraping across the stone floor became louder. From the shadowy corner of the hidden room prowled a powerful looking mare who stood as tall as Princess Celestia. Her head was raised proudly while a pair of silver orbs scanned across the group. The creature wasn’t a pony, though she was covered in platinum-colored fur. She had four clawed feet, a reptile-like tail and her teeth were sharp fangs. Her leathery wings were spread wide, and they were big the membrane reaching and connecting with her tail, shielding the book from view. “W-what are you!?” Sigma demanded.
“And how do you know Twilight!?” Shooting Star jumped in, defensively.
“My dear, have you never seen a dragon before? Of course, you haven’t. Not a real dragon at any rate, but maybe a drake,” she mused with a smile. “Normally I would prefer to keep my pony form. But, this is the Everfree Forest, so I prefer my war. Which as you can see is a mixture of both. Does that sate your curiosity, or should I go more in-depth little colt?” Her grin was broad, she was amused, playful even. “And before you ask the obvious next question I am Silver. That is the only name you will get, it is the only name ponies can pronounce. And what I want, well I already have it,” she said as she swiped the tome from its pedestal. “As for how I know Twilight Sparkle… I keep a close eye on ponies Celestia calls her personal students.
“That's the property of the princesses!” Shooting Star objected.
“Indeed it is, and it is here for ignorant mortals to find. You can tell them that it is in safe claws, in my library,” a low purr escaping her as she spoke.
“But it should be studied!” Twilight objected, pointing a hoof at the book. “It could have countless uses!”
The dragons looked at her, her eyes sad, “Maybe. Maybe not. Do you know what this magic is, Twilight Sparkle?”
“A spell that could let a pony "survive" by consuming emotions,” Twilight said without hesitation.
“Correct. Do you know what that does to the pony who the emotions belong to, Twilight Sparkle?” the dragon asked, staring at her intently. Watching her slowly shake her head. “As I thought. It drains them. It leaves an empty broken thing of a pony. By the end, there is nothing left. They are emotionally dead.” Watching the looks of horror appearing on every pony’s face the dragoness sighed, slipping a claw into her bags, rolling an orb over to the group. “Go home, there is nothing here for you. This is magic based on changelings. It is vile and none should have access to it.”
“Was it you? Who set the puzzle, the lamassu?” Dawn asked.”
“The room, yes. The guardian? No. You did well setting his soul free. But it is dangerous here. Take the orb, release its magic. It will teleport you all back to Ponyville.” Silver scratched her claw into the floor, drawing an arcane rune on it. “Be well, Twilight Sparkle. We will most definitely meet again.”
“Wait!” Twilight cried out but it was too late. In a flash of silver magic, the dragon was gone, leaving them in the empty room. “I… wanted to know more.”
Placing his hoof on her back, Shooting Star took the orb and smiled at her, “If what she says is true… I think you will get that chance. Let’s head home.”
Twilight slumped into the couch with a heavy sigh, having dropped her saddlebags in the middle of the room. She hadn’t even bothered with putting them away properly.
“I take it the excursion didn’t go well?” Spike asked with a tinge of worry to his voice.
She watched Spike approaching with a cup of tea in his claw, taking it in her magic as it was offered. “You could say that, yes, Spike.” Twilight sighed heavily and with a frustrated groan did a weak attempt at smothering herself with a pillow. “We found the manuscript… then it got stolen by a dragon.”
“A… dragon?” a soft, gentle, motherly voice asked.
“Well, I think? She looked more like a hybrid between a pony and a dragon… she was really strange, not like the dragons I read about. She was… concerned about our well being. She introduced herself as Silver…” she shook her head lightly, “It was a really strange experience. Wait, Spike, when did you-” Twilight froze as she looked to her right to coming face to face with a gently smiling Princess Celestia.
“P-Princess!? How long have you been here?” Twilight asked shocked.
“Oh a little while,” she sat back sipping from her own cup of tea, “you were so occupied with your evening that you walked straight past me, Twilight.” She chuckled softly at her student's expense. “But do tell me more about this manuscript, my faithful student. If Silver was involved it must have been quite the interesting read.”
For a long moment, Twilight simply sat there, blinking at the sudden appearance of her mentor. She was baffled at the fact that the mare was here and knew she would even be home. “But… how did you know I would be home?” she asked.
“Oh well let’s say a little birdie told me,” the Princess said while winking mysteriously.
“I… see, and the manuscript contained a spell that could let a pony ’survive’ by consuming emotions,” Twilight said, looking at her mentor for a long moment. “She told me to tell you it was in safe claws in her library…”
“I see. Well, I am happy that she is the one to have found it. Quite honestly I thought it had been destroyed. I had hoped it had been,” Celestia said with a soft sigh. “It is terrible and dangerous magic. Luna and I worked on it for a different reason than you might think. We sought to counter the magic because somewhere in the Badlands there is a race who lives on the emotions of other creatures, we called them Changelings.” The solar princess smiled, sipping her tea again, “They’re not a threat anymore, haven’t been for far over a thousand years.”
“So… who is Silver?” Twilight asked. “I mean she seems to know you, Princess… she even knew about Luna!”
Celestia smiled fondly at her student, motioning to the plate of biscuits on the table. “That is a rather long story, my student,” she said, slowly lowering herself down onto a pillow with a sweet smile on her muzzle.
“Well… I have time, Princess.” Twilight smiled at her with that particular smile of hers, she was greedy for knowledge.
“Alright. I will give you the shortened version, I don’t have the time to recount three thousand years of history.”
“Wait… she is that old?” Twilight asked.
“To my knowledge, yes. She is probably older than even that, but dragons are not that open about their ages,” Celestia chuckled softly. “It’s a sensitive point to her, always has been actually. It is rare for a dragon living among ponies to show their true form to anyone, only to those they trust most.”
“Does she… trust you?”
“Me? Why yes, she does. But only because I grew up with her. She was my mother’s adviser back before Equestria was founded.” Celestia looked at Twilight for a moment, “Yes, I know her very well. In a way, she raised me and Luna, taught us many things. About magic, about living life. She is a good dragoness at heart, even though her ancient charge might go against all that you believe, my faithful student.”
“Her… charge?” Twilight asked with a tilt of her head, looking a little confused at the princess.
“Yes. I will not tell you her true name, it’s not my place to tell.” Celestia smiled, “Her charge is to hunt down and lock away dangerous artifacts, tomes, creatures. Things that you might think need to be studied, preserved. It might be a failure in my method of teaching.” Celestia looked solemnly at Twilight for a moment, ”Somethings are better left untouched by us, Twilight. There are dangerous texts that could drive a pony mad… drive them to do horrible things. My mother set her charge and to this day she has been tracking down anything profane… any magic that could be used for evil.”
“Where does she live? I have never seen a dragon in Equestria aside from Spike.” Twilight looked at Spike for a moment, “She might have a residence?”
“Oh she does, but I do need to correct you, my faithful student,” the alicorn said with a gentle smile, “Spike is a drake.”
“Hey… isn’t that like saying I’m not a real dragon?” Spike protested.
“Oh no, not at all, Spike.” Celestia chuckled softly, offering the drake a maternal smile, “You are most definitely a dragon, but you are a dragon who lives on the land, you don’t have wings and you have digging claws… and many different dietary requirements.”
“Oh. I see,” Spike said with a smile.
“As for your question, Twilight. Her home is somewhere in the Crystal Mountains to the north. But… for the most part, she lives and teaches in Canterlot.” A small mysterious smile crept onto Celestia’s muzzle, “Actually she has taught you in some magic classes. She is a teacher at my school for gifted unicorns… actually she teaches a very appropriate class for her occupation.”
Twilight blinked for a moment. “Princess… you mean to tell me that Professor Ardent is..” Twilight sat there stunned, staring up at her smiling mentor. “I… but how? Why…”
“Questions for another time, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said softly, slowly rising from her pillow. “Thank you for the tea, Spike. It was lovely as always.”
“Oh, my pleasure, Princess!” Spike chimed proudly.
“Now, Twilight I have to return to the palace before ponies notice that I have gone off on my own. It would cause quite the stir.” Celestia grinned just a little, “I will be seeing you soon enough, and if you would like I could more properly introduce you and Silver.”
“Thank you, Princess, I would like that,” Twilight said with a smile and then after sharing a light nuzzle the princess vanished in a flash of magic.
Shooting Star smiled to himself in the mirror. It had been a few days since he had last seen Twilight, she had some things to take care of in Canterlot. But today was the big day. He would have been lying if he had said that he wasn’t a bit nervous for the coming night. It wasn't just the fact that this was his first date, which already made him nervous, but it being a date with Twilight Sparkle the personal student of Princess Celestia, and one of the Elements of Harmony, made him a lot more nervous. What if he made a mistake when pointing out a star, or heavens forbid misnamed a constellation? What if he insulted Twilight by doing something she didn’t like!? Or what if he didn’t meet her expectations, what then? He firmly shook his head from left to right ruining his recently combed mane into a tangled mess all over again. Those were very silly thoughts, it wasn’t like Twilight would be quizzing him about his knowledge… right?
He sighed heavily levitating over the mane brush to start running it through his mane for the second time that morning. “Get a grip… you’ll end up winding yourself up and being a nervous wreck before the night even starts.” He casually commented to himself, the fact that he was talking to himself wasn’t lost on him, neither was the implication. Simply pushing all thoughts away, he enjoyed the sensation of a brush running through his jet-black mane. It didn’t have to be too neat, yet. But the thought of running into Twilight while preparing, and not looking immaculate for her, was abhorrent to him. It would be the worst thing ever and he didn’t quite understand why he felt that way.
Star chuckled softly to himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he was being this fussy about his appearance over a mare. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, he could remember this one mare a long time ago, back in Canterlot, the cutest pegasus filly in his class at Celestia’s school. He and many others had always been trying to win her favor. Not that any of them had ever succeeded but the chase had been enjoyable even if he had been rejected in the end. A smile crossed his lips at the memory. It hadn’t worked out but it is how he had met his best friends, or rather when he had met the mare who would introduce him to his best friends.
For a short moment, he allowed his mind to stray to Autumn, the rather eccentric unicorn mare. Satisfied that he looked the best he could Shooting Star trotted out of his bathroom snatching up a notepad on the way out. He might as well write Autumn a letter, he hadn’t heard from her in months. Passing his desk, he smiled at the picture of his friends, him at the center along with the grinning cream coated unicorn with her long Saddle Arabian scarf. Her Caramel mane with the rather garish pink highlights. They were surrounded by the rest of the Resourceful Scholars Club in front of their old dorm.
He smiled at the picture and then fetching one of his enchanted quills, one of the enchantments he was personally very proud of, he started writing. The tip of the quill touched paper and burned the paper where it touched, yet never letting it catch fire (the hardest part really was not letting the paper catch fire). Not even looking at his own horn writing he stepped outside into the sunlight with a smile setting down the path towards Sugarcube Corner.
Dear Autumn,
How have you been for the past few months? I know this might seem a little out of the blue but I have not heard from you for well over three months now. How go your travels? In your last letter, you mentioned something about having visited some interesting locations in Saddle Arabia. Unfortunately, you never answered my letter.
You should visit sometime, we’ve really missed you. I will attach a scroll to this letter with the teleportation coordinates, which for the moment is my living room. Honestly, things have not much changed since we were in the dorm together, we still meet at my place… even though we could probably afford to rent out a room somewhere in Ponyville.
Anyway, I hope you’re doing well and I hope to hear from you soon,
With kind regards, Shooting Star
******
He didn’t know when, but at some point, Shooting Star had stopped looking where he was going and started reading and rereading his letter while jotting down the memorized coordinates on the back of the page. He couldn’t teleport a pony but smaller items weren’t as hard as transporting a living breathing adult pony. Somewhere during his calculations, he had failed to notice that he had arrived at his destination and found himself muzzle to a wall. Hitting the wall hard enough to fall on his back.
Blinking slowly, he caught a glimpse of Sugarcube Corner, more specifically the solid-looking wall right beside the door, before the letter he had been penning landed on his muzzle robbing him of his vision save for the bright daylight. He reached out with his magic to take the letter rolling it up. He didn’t get up, getting up felt like a bad idea. The ground was so much more comfortable than standing up. Why would ponies even want to stand up? He softly chuckled to himself, being silly could be fun especially when you stop overthinking things.
“Oh my gosh are you alright, Star?” a concerned but contrastingly happy voice asked, carefully. “That looked like it was really strong disagreement with that wall. I mean it’s not something you see often but I can tell you that I have seen quite a few! Quite a few indeed, and that one was at least a six, maybe seven... It would have totally been an eight if you had apologized to it!” She grinned at him, offering her hoof.
“W-what?” Shooting Star said, turning his head to look at the practically bouncing ball of pink. It took him a moment to realize that the ball of pink was a pony bouncing up and down. A pony by the name of Pinkie Pie. “Oh… hey there Pinkie,” he said while trying to make sense of what the energetic pony was even talking about. Taking the hoof, he smiled as she helped him up “Thank you, erm… sorry, I am a bit late, I had some difficulty in getting my mane under control.” He smiled at her somewhat sheepishly, it was quite hard to keep up with Pinkie, especially for a recluse like him.
Pinkie Pie giggled and responded in a gleefully reassuring tone, “Oh that’s okay, you’re here now. What're a few more minutes? I’ve been sooo excited thinking about all the fun stuff we’re going to do, I mean we are going to be baking cookies for the orphans and then we’re making treats for your super special date with Twilight that I shouldn’t know about but I do and… I shouldn’t have said that part… Oh well! The truth is I haven’t stopped bouncing since I woke up. I mean, I almost forgot to breathe I’ve been so happy.” A very long foreleg wrapped around Shooting Star’s neck and yanks him into the kitchen, "LET'S GET BAKING!” she blurted out.
******
An annoyed sigh escaped his muzzle as he stepped from the shower. This was the third shower he had to take today, and this time he wasn’t pleased with it like he had been before, showers were nice but this was ridiculous. He didn’t even have the time to dry off properly. He was forced to use a spell he had learned from Starry to evaporate the water off his coat, which meant that his coat stood on end and puffed out a little. He had to spend a good two minutes brushing his mane and coat vigorously to get them into some semblance of order. Stepping into his living room his eyes fell on the clock on the wall.
He was late. Not very late, but late nonetheless.
A series of (non-offensive) curses slipped from the normally composed stallion’s lips. In the moment he grabbed the bottle of wine from the fridge, thankful that he’d had the foresight to enchant it with a chilling rune that morning rather than having to bother with that now. Scooping up the picnic basket and the two wine glasses he slipped them in, carefully, with the bottle. On his way out he pulled the flowers into his magic, almost managing to get them stuck between the door and its frame.
This was all Pinkie Pie’s fault he thought to himself. Shooting Star knew that she hadn’t meant for it to turn out as it had. But it had turned out that way regardless and he was risking making a bad impression on Twilight. He did feel bad for even considering being cross with her over it, but it had been her doing even if it was an accident, a very predictable accident….
Earlier that day he had gone home to clean off the flour and frosting with a nice shower while the treats they had prepared were still baking, He did not like being unable to go to the orphanage to bring the cookies in person. Being unable to see that orange little filly he had become friends with. He made a mental note to go see her tomorrow instead, to catch up. While at home he made sure that everything was as perfect as it could be. He had even found the time to get flowers for Twilight, violets her favorites.
Everything went wrong the moment he stepped into Sugarcube Corner. He regretted the decision to not have Pinkie Pie deliver the treats to his home as she had offered to do, but it had been the decision at the time so he could be sure they were warm when they went into the basket, so they’d be perfect when the date started. He hadn’t even set a hoof through the front door before Pinkie Pie, in her usual excitement and without warning, quite eagerly showed off her self-serving cupcakes. They were intended to leap right into a pony’s mouth… but instead, they exploded, violently. He had found himself smeared with not one but five cupcakes.
Shooting Star had a half hour’s lead on the time Twilight and he had agreed on. He would have made it perfectly on time with five minutes to spare if it hadn’t been for Pinkie Pie’s utter insanity and the insistence that it was for the betterment of… something. He wasn’t quite sure what anymore. All he knew was that he was running 5 minutes late to Twilight’s home, his mane a mess from running, the picnic basket and flowers floating in his magic beside him.
He could already see the library coming into view and smiled. How could he not smile seeing the lovely unicorn mare patiently waiting for him with what looked to be a folded blanket resting on her back? She didn’t look angry, actually, as he closed in he could see her expression turn from neutral to a large smile. He smirked a little confidently in his approach. She was so beautiful when she smiled, it was the first thing he had liked about her, the way she smiled. Her smile was also what gave him the courage to avoid panicking.
“Twilight! S-sorry I’m late!” he announced with a very apologetic smile, coming to a halt a respectful distance away from her. “Please tell me you haven’t been waiting for too long? I would hate to have made you wait for you like that.”
Twilight let out a soft giggle, “Please Star, don’t worry. Quite honestly I was running a little late myself... I might have fallen asleep while taking a bath,” she admitted, her cheeks lighting up just a touch, making them a cute shade of cherry red.
“That is a relief! I hate the thought of keeping a cute mare waiting,” Star said, not quite sure where he got the confidence from to be so… forwards. Not that he minded, it was nice being able to speak his mind like that. Watching her that adorable blush deepen was most definitely worth it. He wasn’t sure what he as actually doing so he simply went with the flow or rather with what felt right. For the moment it seemed that that was most seemed to be to Twilight’s liking.
She brushed it off playfully, “You’re just saying that.” Twilight started to walk the path out of town, towards the hills they wanted to go to.
“I’m not!” Star protested. He had picked up on her tone, but he thought it fun to play along. “You are very cute, Twilight. Honestly, it’s the smile that captured me in the first place,” he said sincerely, walking at her side, closer than he had been standing, their coats almost brushing together. “And I do think you would prefer me being honest with you, even if that means telling you that you are…” he paused for dramatic effect, “the most beautiful made I have had the pleasure of going on a date with.”
She looked away and he panicked almost instantly. Had that been too far? Had it been too much? Had he pushed his luck already!? His fears quickly died away as she turned her head to face him. She was blushing so brightly that he for a moment pondered if her face could be used to fry an egg. He giggled, and she chimed in with the soft melody of her own giggles. “You’ve been practicing that speech,” she chided.
“Maybe a little… I am… well, that is to say…” he sighed softly, “This is my first date.”
Twilight smiled, “Well… we have that in common then, this is my first real date.” She smiled sheepishly at Star and lightly brushed her coat against his. “I’m happy it’s with you though. Rarity set me up with… well, I don’t even remember his name. He was more Rarity’s type anyway.” Twilight smiled, “What I mean to say is that… I wouldn’t be on a date right now if I hadn’t gotten to know you before.
Star nodded with a gentle smile, “I know what you mean.” Looking away from her he noticed that they had already crossed the bridge and were walking up the path to the spot. “I don’t think I would enjoy being on a date without even knowing the pony. Then again… I don’t think there would be another pony as lovely as you out there.”
“Oh shush! Now you’re just quoting cliché romance on purpose!” Twilight smirked.
“Maybe… but it most definitely does not sound like your mind.” Star quipped back, watching Twilight shift shyly.
She looked up and smiled gently, “Yeah… I’m a bit of a sucker for those kinds of books.”
The night was perfect. It was still that nice summer warmth that made a night like this perfect for stargazing, the sky was clear and Luna had outdone herself with the heavens, it was like everything was more vibrant than it had been a few weeks ago. But Shooting Star had the sneaking suspicion that it was the presence of Twilight that made everything more vibrant.
In their moment of silence, they could hear the chirping of crickets, and the soft fluttering and calls of nocturnal bird. It was peaceful out here, away from the small town. It wasn’t a heavily lit city like Canterlot or Manehatten, but being out of the town boundaries made observing the heavens so much easier. The forest itself, the Everfree Forest, looked almost gorgeous in the distance by moonlight… although the most gorgeous sight was probably Twilight Sparkle herself. He hadn’t noticed before but her mane was done up in a bun.
Star was pulled from his gawking by the snapping of a blanket right in front of his face.
“Done spacing out?” Twilight asked with a playful wink, sticking out her tongue a little.
Star wasn’t quite sure how to answer, he had been staring at her and she had noticed. Without a quip back at her, he simply placed the basket on the blanket with a small smile motioning for her to get comfortable as he pulled out the bottle of wine and a plate with various hearty treats. It wasn’t a proper dinner but it also wasn’t a sugar overload like Pinkie had suggested.
Slowly Shooting Star slipped down beside Twilight, not pressed against her but sitting as close to her as he dared, offering her one of the snacks. “I… hope you like them. I made them… with some of Pinkie Pie’s help. Well… it was mostly Pinkie Pie, I ended up just stirring and passing over ingredients…”
Twilight giggled softly, “That sounds very much like Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said understandingly. “According to Applejack, she is very controlling in the kitchen.” With a small smirk, she accepted the pastry, taking it into her mouth straight out of his magic. An act that was considered quite a bit intimate among unicorns. Star blushed, he knew it was silly. It wasn’t as if their magic was mixing together which was tantamount to a marriage proposal.
“How is it?” he asked her nervously.
“Hmm well… do you want me to be honest?”
“O-of course” Star answered a little more nervous.
“It tastes great, Star. You shouldn’t worry so much.“ Twilight giggled softly, “Now lighten up and come sit closer!” She pulled him just a little closer to herself with a hoof around his back. Smiling, Star smiled back and squeezed her close before pulling out the bottle of wine with his magic.
“I’m not sure if you enjoy wine but… I brought some.” He said and then at the same time realizing it was the only drink he had packed. He had not prepared for the possibility that she might not even like wine!
“Don’t tell anypony but… thanks to Rarity, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.” Twilight admitted with a low giddy giggle. Much to the relief of Shooting Star who didn’t even hesitate to pour each of them a generous glass.
The night had progressed at a slow comfortable pace for both of them or so Shooting Star felt. The wine had gone slower than the evening, though both of them were now comfortably tipsy and they still had half a bottle to go. A lot of time had been spent talking about constellations and trying to spy new stars before turning into talking about their lives, ideas, hopes, plans for the future. Topics that he never had expected to discuss in such a casual manner, let alone with such a sweet mare. With the mare, he was dating for that matter. The conversation eventually slipped to a topic that he had assumed would be inevitable.
Pulling Twilight ever so slightly closer to himself he whispered, “So… does this make us...” He could feel his cheeks heating up. It was such an awkward question to ask. But then it was one that needed to be asked and answered. The long moment of silence made him dread the answer.
“Yes, I guess… this makes me your mare friend,” Twilight said with a shy smile. He noticed that she was much more confident in it than he had been, or so he assumed. The way she snuggled just a little closer to him after admitting that she was now his mare-friend told him enough. Twilight wasn’t new to this… or was hiding her nerves very well.
“That is… I don’t have any words to describe how it feels,” he admitted, smiling sheepishly at her. It was true, he couldn’t find a way to put his feelings into words. Joy, love, the desire to hold her close. But nothing could do the feeling justice. Sure he loved her but… he wasn’t sure what to say. Did words even matter?
“Words… don’t really matter right now, Star,” Twilight said as if reading his mind. He was taken aback by it, but then quite eagerly snuggled closer.
They sat there for he didn’t know how long simply snuggled up with each other, wrapped in the duvet that Twilight had brought. It was getting late; the moon was far past its zenith. He was about to suggest that they may be head back to Ponyville, even though he didn’t want to move away from Twilight. If he had to be honest about it he never wanted to pull away, it felt good to have a mare in his hooves. It was then that he noticed, not saying a word simply motioning to his namesake, a shooting star. For a moment, the two shared a look and smiled radiantly at one another.
Shooting Star smiled gently over to Twilight, locking eyes with her while whispering very softly. “I would make a wish, but that just seems greedy. My wish has already come true.” He winked. He knew it was cheesy, but it also felt right. More importantly, it made her blush and giggle softly. Perhaps one of the most amazing sights he had seen that night. No, it was the most glorious and beautiful sight that he had seen in all his life. In his mind, there was nothing more beautiful than a smiling (and blushing) Twilight Sparkle. It was then that he knew this was true love.
Instead of words Twilight simply leaned in closer, closer than she’d had all evening. It was physically impossible to be even closer to her, their coats lightly rubbing against each other, her warmth seeping into him. He could almost taste the sweet strawberry frosting, that distantly clings to her breath, from the cupcakes they had shared before. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, quickening to the point where the beating of his own heart was almost deafening. Slowly he leaned forward, unsure, nervous, and admittedly a little scared.
Their lips met in a gentle caress. There was a short moment of pause where Twilight wrapped her hooves around Shooting Star’s neck slowly pulling herself up to straddle his lap. He sat there, frozen in place for what seemed like an eternity. It was the gentle lick of her tongue against his lips that finally spurred him into some semblance of action. Wrapping his hooves around the small of her back holding her in a close, intimate hug. He opened his mouth to speak but was rudely interrupted by Twilight’s brazen tongue darting into his mouth. Invading without a moment of hesitation.
His eyes shot open, then closed again. Slowly Shooting Star relaxed into the kiss, allowing Twilight to take the lead in their wordless expression of affection, no, love. This was beyond simple affection, tonight had proved that to him and he assumed to her. Slowly allowing his eyes to close he started playfully wrestling with her tongue. It was a slow and gentle kiss. He could feel a gentle warmth blossoming in his chest, a deep-seated love for the mare that he held so tightly in his hooves. Slowly he cracked open one of his eyes, cheeks burning brightly with embarrassment, meeting her amethyst eyes made his heart leap.
As Twilight drew away he whispered softly, “I love you, Twilight Sparkle.”
To say that Twilight Sparkle was nervous would be the understatement of the century, she had been nervous many times in the past but nothing like this. Sure she’d had sex before but that had been with another mare not with a stallion, more importantly, it had been with a friend, casually, no strings attached. This was different. Shooting Star was a stallion that she had genuine feelings for. She loved him, or at least this was what she assumed love felt like. There was more there than simple lust, she wasn’t quite sure how to describe it to herself. The desire to ponder those things slowly ebbed away from her mind as his coat brushed up against hers and they shared another chaste little kiss, the twentieth since their first kiss if she was counting correctly while passing the threshold into his home, together.
The door closed gently behind them. The light thump coincided with Twilight’s heart racing for a long few seconds. But everything calmed the moment she locked eyes with Star. He had been a real sweetheart for the entire evening. “Are you sure about this, Twilight?” he asked, his voice soft and gentle, the hoof resting on her shoulder stroking ever so softly.
“Very. Surer than I have been of most things, actually.” She said with a small nervous smile. She could see it in his eyes, he was equally nervous, if not more so. Slowly she leaned up, nuzzling his cheek gently, wrapping her hooves around his neck with a tender smile. If he was nervous than she would have to be brave, for him… for them both. “Are you sure about this, sugar?” She slowly allowed her voice to slip into a controlled slur, it was one of the many things she had learned by example from Lyra. She finished off her words by lightly biting his ear while letting out a sweet gentle purr.
His squeak was cute, watching his slate grey coat flush was quite adorable. “Y-yes,” he said nervously, but with an air of confidence that left no room for interpreting it any other way, he wanted this as much as she did. Slowly his hooves wrapped around the small of her back to pull her closer.
“Then kiss me already,” she said, embarrassed at the realization that she sounded both commanding and needy in the moment. But she got her to wish either way before she could even apologize his lips were on hers. Slowly Twilight allowed herself to melt into the kiss, all her cares washed away by her love for him. She hardly even noticed how her back was up against the wall and his body pressing firmly against her, their coats rubbing together in a much more intimate way than before.
“L-like what?” he asked with a small smirk. For a moment she wondered where his confidence came from but then she remembered how infectious her previous… sex partner’s courage was to her during her first time. She smiled at him, nodded slowly. Yielding to his touch, slowly pressing herself tighter against him, taking it a step further by caressing more… intimate places with her magic.
“Y-yeah…” she panted breathlessly. “Bedroom. Now. Before we do it on the couch.”
It took him a moment to pull away from her and as he did she stole a tender loving kiss from him with a grin that, she hoped, was s sweet and sensual smile. She was the first to slip out from the entrance hall, flicking her tail aside to give him a good view of her puffy, needy pussy. She smirked at his squeak, casting a glance over her shoulder to look at his blushing face. She put her some sway into her step. “I assume you’d like to follow, the bedroom is up the stairs?” she asked with an innocent little smile.
He shook his head firmly, pulling himself away from gawking at her flank for a long moment. “Yes. Up the stairs…. To the right,” he said, shell shocked by Twilight’s audacious attitude. Slowly he followed her up the stairs not really even paying attention to where he was going simply following that smirking lilac flank. That was until she stopped and he found himself muzzle deep in her dripping snatch.
“Oh my, aren’t we eager?” she asked with a playful coo, her tail whipping around his throat pulling him closer with the makeshift collar. “Hmmm… go on~ have a taste,” she said softly, moaning gently as he lightly rubbed his muzzle against her burning nethers. She gasped softly as his tongue slowly pressed against her sensitive folds, pressing down tentatively at first then a little bit firmer coaxing a loud squeak from her lips. “Oooh yes! T-that is… good,” Twilight purred, slowly leaning forwards presenting herself.
“W-we should move off the stairs,” he commented with a sly little smirk, “I-it’s dangerous.”
“Y-yeah,” she agreed making a sprint up the stairs with an excited giggle. A part of her wondered if it was the wine, or simply her feelings for him that made her this eager but the moment the door to his bedroom was open she leaped onto the bed taking the most sexiest pose she could imagine. On her back with her hind legs spread to show off just how flexible she was… a little fact that she thought would surely give Rainbow Dash pause. Looking over at herself in the full-length mirror she smiled a little, there weren’t a lot of moments where she considered herself sexy but this was most definitely one of them.
As Twilight filed away a mental note to maybe ask Rarity about getting socks, and maybe panties. The thoughts of sexy clothing were pushed away as Shooting Star finally poked his head into the bedroom with a sweet smile on his muzzle. She felt a little sorry for him, he tried to look brave but his eyes showed that he was very nervous. She couldn’t help herself, slowly lowering herself down Twilight raised her flank to show off for him. “Come on Starry~ Don’t keep a mare waiting, let’s continue where we left off,” Twilight half moaned. There was something about acting desperate that made her feel naughty and excited. She blamed Lyra for this, it was her fault.
Shooting Star took her by surprise. She had assumed he would be tentative about the entire thing. Instead, he leaped onto the bed to pick up where he had left off with an eagerness that pleased Twilight greatly. Her forehooves pawed at the bed, her hind quarter spread wider and she dug deeper into the soft silken sheets. Nuzzling into the pillow she tried to control her low squeals of pleasure as his tongue lapped passionately at her entrance. It had been a long time since someone had touched her like that and she made a mental note to help him hit all of her pleasure points… when she wasn’t busy enjoying the sensation of Shooting Star’s broad tongue grinding down on her clit.
Casting a glance over her withers she smiled there, catching a few glimpses of his pride while he worked. It was hard to see but if she strained her neck enough she could get an alright look. She was genuinely a little intimidated by it. She hadn’t really seen any other stallions… so she didn’t have any grounds for comparison but she thought it looked massive. The thought of it never fitting crossed her mind. “O-ooh….stars above yes. That is good, p-press down a little harder with your tongue, please?” She begged him, her voice low, laced with pure need and desire for him to push her further towards the edge of her climax.
“Like… this?” he asked, his voice soft and playful as he pressed his tongue down more firmly on her little pleasure button, slowly rubbing. She could hear him chuckle softly at the way she squealed as a response. “I’ll take that as a yes, Twi~” he teased. The teasing made her feel oddly at ease. No, not the teasing. The fact he was taking confidence from her and enjoying himself rather than being nervous about the entire thing.
“YES!” she screamed, shamelessly. Pressing back against his muzzle she couldn’t stop herself from grinding back against that divine tongue. She felt his hooves on her flank lightly rubbing and squeezing her cutie mark. Her eyes fluttered closed as she simply allowed herself to focus on nothing but the pleasure that he was giving her. She could feel herself getting closer, and closer to her climax. Biting her bottom lip she prepared herself for the sensation.
Then Star did something she had not been expecting. He bit. He bit down on that little bundle of nerves. It wasn’t something she had been expecting from someone who was doing this for his first time, but she crashed over forwards all the same screaming in orgasmic pleasure. For a long moment, her vision went white as all her senses were assaulted, and endorphins rushed through her system making her feel more alive than she had ever felt. The last time she had felt like this was in the arms of Lyra… but even that paled in comparison to how her heart leaped when it was with a pony that she really loved.
Opening her eyes she realized that she was on her back all of a sudden. She couldn’t remember turning around, though the sight that greeted her between her legs was admittedly adorable. Star sat there looking at her with a sheepish smile, his muzzle drenched in her juices. “I wasn’t sure what to expect of the taste,” he stated with a small smile. “But I have decided that…” he paused, smirked, and leaned in close to her, “You taste wonderful.” He then kissed her lovingly on the lips, slowly laying herself over her his shaft lightly pressing against her entrance.
Twilight closed her eyes letting out a long drawn out moan of pleasure, she didn’t say anything she simply started pushing back against his shaft letting out cute frustrated moans every time she failed to guide him into her needy, aching pussy. With a considerable effort, she lit up her horn and guided his breeding spear into the correct position letting out a cute little wail of pleasure as he instantly trusted forwards.
Star wasted no time after that and Twilight was very much alright with that. She could feel his shaft slowly sinking into her. It was the most blissful experience she’d had. It was so different from what she had imagined it would be like to be mounted by a stallion. It didn’t hurt, though she contributed that to the fact that she could feel just how wet she was. Her hooves wrapped around his neck and she pulled him close to herself. “Oh, Star! Please take me!” Please take me harder!” she pleaded desperately, roughly thrusting herself back onto the handsome stallion’s breeding spear.
“Hmm… oooh….. Twi... “ he moaned loudly. She met his smiled and then kissed him on the lips much more passionately then she had done on their date. Their tongues wrestling as passionately as their bodies were pressing and grinding together. His hooves around her pulling her harshly into every thrust.
Quickly his thrusting became irregular and Twilight could feel his shaft throbbing harder inside of her. Holding on to him tighter she could do nothing but moan encouragingly into his ear, pleased to find out that it made him slightly rougher in the moment. There was something to be said about a stallion’s instinct to breed she thought to herself.
As Star hilted deeply inside of her he let out a long drawn out moan of pleasure, nuzzling firmly into her neck. Holding her close and keeping her locked in place. “I-I love you, Twilight,” he whispered, panting heavily.
She could feel his shaft throbbing inside of her. Letting out a cute little mewl of pleasure she simply let it happen, feeling the blissful sensation of his seed pouring into her pussy. Filling her womb. She could feel a small trickle of it rolling down her thigh and across her rump.
As he flumped over Twilight smiled happily slowly turning and crawling closer to him so she lay there snuggled up against his side, nuzzling into his chest with a very happy smile on her muzzle. She still felt the afterglow of her climax, the love she had been overwhelmed within their passionate embrace. At that moment she finally understood the difference between sex and making love to somepony. The latter was so much more intense because of the emotions involved. “I love you, my Starlight.”
“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” - Carrie Fisher
With a loud groan of protest Twilight Sparkle’s eyes fluttered open, there was something that could be said about her Mentor’s insistence to wake her up with bright rays of sunlight to the face. A part of Twilight suspected that is was something the Solar Princess did on purpose, but that was a silly thought, right? Twilight regretted opening her eyes as she was instantly blinded by the right, rolled around and a few minutes later opened them once more. The first thing Twilight Sparkle noticed was the fact that this was not her bed, nor her own room for that matter. The room was familiar to her. Slowly the memories from the previous night started coming back to her, the date with Star, walking him home…
She could feel her cheeks becoming hotter, blinking the sleep from her eyes she looked at the sleeping face of Shooting Star. Seeing the stallion she had shared the bed with worsened her blush incredibly. The previous night’s activities came back to the forefront of her mind. It made her hyper-aware of the slight soreness of her bottom half, as well as the very deep sensation of fulfillment that she’d read about. The writings about sex and how it was good for your emotional state suddenly made much more sense. She smiled, looking at the sleeping stallion in adoration.
Slowly as to not wake up Star, and with great reluctance, Twilight slipped from the sheets and made her way downstairs. She had the perfect idea of how to surprise the stallion of her dreams. What would be better to top things off than breakfast in bed? She let out an excited giggle, paused, looked back and sighed in relief that it hadn’t woken the adorable stallion up. She was vaguely aware of the spring in her step as she walked, her tail swishing back and forth in excitement. She found herself humming as she made her way down the stairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Okay… mom was right.” Twilight mumbled to herself, “cooking is nothing like chemistry.”
She looked at the two failed attempts at making pancakes with a sheepish little smile, making a mental note to pay Star back for the wasted ingredients. “But the third try is the charm.” She grinned broadly, looking down at the perfect heart-shaped pancakes that sat on the tray along with two glasses of juice and some syrup. She smiled and slowly started focusing her magic around the plate preventing the pancakes from cooling down and the juice from heating up too much. She wanted this to be perfect after all. Her lips curled up into a happy smile as she looked out of the window at the ponies passing by. Then she noticed her reflection and blushed deeply.
“Maybe… I should freshen up before I head up.” She mumbled to herself, levitating over small magic held mirror for her to look at herself and her covered in flour and cocoa r from the small dusting she had given each pancake while frying it. “I… made a mess.”. Much of her magic was already working on returning the kitchen to its neat and immaculate condition while a smaller part of it was working on getting the flour and chocolate powder off her face to make it at least appear neat and presentable for her stallion. She paused for a moment with a bright blush, her eyes moving back to the pancakes. Her stallion. She liked the thought, a lot. She turned on her hooves with a warm smile on her muzzle and her tail swishing slowly.
As Twilight rounded the corner walking past the living room and towards the stairs a flash of brilliant honey-colored light filled the living room as Twilight passed making the mare squeak loudly at the start. As the light dissipated she could see a honey-coated mare with a caramel mane and gaudy pink highlights in the said mane. She was wearing an amazing looking pink scarf around her neck she was also for a short moment suspended in mid-air.
“STAR! You coordinate were off by two meters! IN THE AIR!” Autumn screamed at the top of her lunges, slowly rubbing the flank with a painful groan. “Oh… hi! I’m Autumn Delight! Who a-” She paused and was on her hooves in a moment walking around the mare who sat there on her flank stunned. “Well, if it isn’t Princess Celestia’s personal student, miss Twilight Sparkle~” she practically purred Twilight’s name.
“Y-yes,” Twilight said lamely. “How did you know?”
“Oh well I doubt you know me, but I actually used to sit behind you in some of your classes before you became Celestia’s personal student.” She grinned a little and motioned to herself. “Now I am a part-time instructor at Celestia’s school and a candidate for arch-mage… although I doubt the old geezers are going to let me in, I mean I am only twenty-four!” She said with a massive grin.
“Alright, that wow… I am sorry I…” Twilight shook her head firmly. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, now that is a great question! I am actually here on invitation by Star, but I need you to keep him busy.” Autumn said with a gentle smile, looking at the enchanted plate. “But I think you will manage that for a while.”
“Ehm… why should I keep him busy?” Twilight asked skeptically. “I mean you just teleported into his living room…”
“That is a fair point! We’re trying to set up a bit of a surprise party for him.” Autumn explained pulling out a small list of things that quite literally had Pinkie Pie’s signature all over it. “He actually had his birthday during the summer sun celebration but… well as you might have noticed that was kind of crashed by the Nightmare Moon incident. So, we decided to postpone it a little and surprise him with it now. I’ve been in Ponyville the past week getting things ready.”
Twilight nodded slowly her magic wrapping around the plate once more. “I think I can manage that. How long do you need?” Twilight asked with a small smile..
“An hour? I’ll cast a silencing spell we need to get the living room decorated.” Autumn smirked playfully. “From the smell, I am very sure you know how to keep a stallion distracted. And I don't mean those pancakes.” She cooed in a deeply sexual purr. Twilight took a step back a sense of unease filling the pit of her stomach as she watched the mare. There was a distinct sense of power from her, a magical potential that she knew matched her own on some level.
“R-right! Going!” Twilight said and made a mad dash for the stairs, paused, ran back to grab the pancakes and was up the stairs in seconds. She wasn’t sure, but her unease seemed to bring a grin to the mare’s lips. She shuddered a little and finally realized why the mare seemed so familiar to her. She did somewhat remember the rumors about a filly named Autumn who spent most of her time in the forbidden section of the library. She sighed heavily and slumped for a moment to catch her breath the mare wasn’t scary just… she wasn’t sure what happened there.
Shaking her head Twilight slowly made her way to Star’s bedroom. “Never mind. It’s not as important as treating Star.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sauntering into the bedroom Twilight noticed that her stallion was still sleeping like a log. It made her giggle ever so lightly to see him hugging one of the pillows in her absence. Slowly she stepped onto the bed with a small smile playing on her muzzle as she laid down, the tray set before star as she smiled. Leaning in Twilight started very slowly nibbling on one of his ears. Giving him playful little love bites, she had read about that in one of the books in her library. It was cute watching his face scrunch up as it did but to her disappointment he did not wake up, so she shifted her tactics.
“Staaar” She cooed or rather moaned into his ear with a sultry voice. “It’s time to wake up.” Slowly she snuggled herself against his side pressing herself gently against him. Her eyes half-lidded waiting for him to slowly open his giving him that sweet longing looks as he did.
“T-twilight?” He asked blinking slowly cheeks burning brightly. “Oh… oh wow, I…” He was cut off by a kiss pressed onto his muzzle, his mind raced, and Twilight very gently pulled him into it. Twilight rolled the two of them over, so she was on her back and he was on top of her. Slowly she levitated over a piece of pancake for him with a small smirk playing on her muzzle, slowly feeding it to him watching his expression brighten up considerably.
“Shh… I made breakfast.” She said with a playful, seductive wink. “I thought you might enjoy pancakes.” She watched him looking at the plate with that cute blush playing on his cheeks. There was something inside of Twilight that just screamed adorable when she realized that he was probably not used to being made breakfast in bed, and probably not used to having heart-shaped pancakes. She leaned up pecking a kiss on the lips again at the moment. “Do you like them?” She asked in a softy purr.
Star gave her a little smile and then before she could say anything levitated up one of the small heart-shaped pancakes holding it above her with a soft chuckle. “Say aaaaah~”
Twilight’s eyes went wide as she watched him dangling the treat above her letting the syrup drip onto her muzzle. “W-wait what are yo- EEP!” Her eyes closed and rolled back as she felt something poking against her inner thigh. “S-star!” She squeaked.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Autumn smirked to herself for a moment as she listened to the two “Just as planned… didn’t even realize I cast an aphrodisiac spell on the food.” She giggled mischievously. “Now to get this party set up, that should have bought me a few hours. Have fun you two.” Autumn mumbled to herself, walking off with a small swish of her tail.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Surprise!” The gathered ponies in the living room cheered with massive grins. There was a moment where Star looked at them and tilted his head. How did they get what looked to be half the town in his living room!? His eyes fell on Autumn and he understood why. She had probably done something to the room. He smiled gently at her as he walked into the room. The cheer had caught Shooting Star off guard. He had not expected his living room to have been changed into what looked to be a nightclub. He saw Autumn sitting there on a pillow smirking at him with that look in her eyes, the look of a mare who had planned out everything in painful detail. Including what had just happened with Twilight during breakfast… and in the shower. He blushed under her gaze; her smirk grew even wider.
“The new couple finally decided to join us! Come on birthday-colt, time for your other gifts… although I do doubt it will be as special as what Twilight has been giving you.” Autumn laughed softly and motioned over to the small stack of packages on a side table. Suddenly everything made sense, why Twilight hadn’t let him leave the bedroom or the shower, why she had insisted that he didn’t go downstairs to get them more drinks. He rolled his eyes for a moment and looked back at her as she walked down the stairs with a very content smile.
Twilight pressed up against his side with a small smile, nipping playfully at his neck. “Happy birthday.” She practically moaned into his ear. She looked very confident, emboldened by what had happened between the two of them, not moments before. She flicked her tail at him with a small grin. Casting a loving look over her withers. It was Autumn’s wolf-whistling that finally pulled his mind back to the gathered ponies. The club, rarity, a few of the other town ponies that he was close with.
“Well… you look positively glowing, Twilight. “Rarity commented conversationally as if nothing had been noticeable. For a moment he wondered if no one had noticed that Twilight had just shown off her affection as she had. Smiling he approached Autumn and wrapped her in a hug.
“Thank you, Autumn. I guess you pulled this off?” He asked softly.
She nodded “With a little help from our friends.” She said and nudged him over towards Twilight for a moment. “GO on gifts can wait, that beautiful mare looks alone without you.” She said with a small grin. She was right, Twilight kept looking back when she thought he wasn’t looking at her. He simply trotted up and sat beside her on the same pillow, wrapping a hoof around her pulling her close.
“Oh, hey there.” She whispered softly. Pecking a kiss onto his lips once more. “No opening gifts?
“Hey, I just wanted to spend time with my beautiful male friend, and my friends first. Presents can come later.” Shooting Star explained with a sweet smile.
Twilight took that as an invitation to press herself closer to him, her ears pinned back and her cheeks that adorable shade of pink as their lips met in the sweetest of kisses slowly he wrapped his hooves around her their horns brushing together making it no secret what had happened. Shooting Star assumed she still felt the same as he did, it had ended too soon for either for them and he didn’t want to pull away from her, slowly letting his tongue caress along hers.
He finally had to pull back from the deep and passionate kiss, seeing a pony approaching from the corner of his eyes, Twilight smiled lovingly up at him suddenly and without warning a piece of cake splattered across Twilight’s face.at. Before Star could say anything, he turned to see a very angry looking Starry Night, her mane was floating in her own magic, she wasn’t restraining herself.
“STOP IT ALREADY!” Starry Night screamed suddenly, pointing an accusatory hoof at Star and Twilight. “Isn’t it enough that you had to take him from me!? You have to show it off and rub it in as well?” She blinked, using her magic to teleport a very short distance over to Twilight slapping her across the cheek. “I am so sick of you! You come in and after knowing him for what, a few days!? You’re already fucking him! You don’t even know him! You haven’t even spent time with him! WHY DOES HE LOVE YOU AND NOT ME!”
Twilight touched her cheek, not saying anything. She simply stared in shock at the outburst from the other mare, her jaw, and Star notices everyone else’s hanging open.
“Starry. I told you I am not interested in that way.” He said with a sigh.
“Well, I am! What about me!? You’re just sitting there kissing! Right in front of me.” She threw her hoof at Twilight again, stopped this time by a light honey-colored magic. “LET ME GO!”
“I think that’s enough, Nighty” Autumn said her tone calm, chillingly calm. “They’re together, he isn’t interested. Get over it.” She stated, or rather commanded. Shooting Star noticed that there was something different about Autumn, something that wasn’t there before. He embraced Twilight holding the shocked, hurt looking mare close to himself.
“Autumn. Let me go or so help me I wi-” she was never finished the sentence.
Autumn struck her with the back of her hoof. “Or you will what? Attack me. Consider your options very carefully, Nighty.”
She tore her hoof away and pointed it to Twilight. “You and me! A duel for Shooting Star.” She challenged. Twilight looked up at her wide-eyed and horrified at the words.
Shooting Star watched her expression going from shock to anger to acceptance. “Fine. Tomorrow in the town square aftermarket is over.” Twilight said, looking away for a moment.
“Agreed,” Starry said and stormed off with an angry flick of her tail.
Twilight collapsed against Shooting Star sobbing against his chest, squeezing him tightly now that everything hit her at once. The feelings the pain the humiliation, the shame of having caused something like this.
“Shhh…” He whispered softly. “It’s alright Twilight, everything is going to be fine.” He promised her with a gentle caring smile. “I’m right here for my dearest.” Slowly he stroked his hoof through her mane.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Twilight?” Shooting Star asked as he opened the door to his bedroom. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
Twilight sighed heavily as she stared out of the window into the night. “I don’t know… I mean if I do this she might back down and that might be all that’s needed.” Twilight whispered, insecurely.
“You don’t have to do this.” He insisted.
“I know. But… I don’t feel I can back down from this.”
“But why!? It’s silly!” He said, a little more annoyed than he liked. “S-sorry…”
Twilight sighed she had remained at the party with star after the incident, but the atmosphere had been completely ruined by Starry Night’s outburst. She did have to admit that Autumn had managed to cheer everyone up by playing music in the aftermath and getting them to sing, sing what? She wasn’t quite sure what the song had been. Turning to face him she smiled sadly. There was a moment of pause where she considered her words carefully. Words she never had the chance to speak instead of a soft melodic voice chimed in for her.
“Because my dear Shooting Star, she was challenged in front of all your shared friends, most of the town probably knows by now due to how vocal Starry was, and the ponies who were there probably have told their friends by now. If Twilight didn’t do it she would be ridiculed as a coward, unworthy of being Celestia’s student.” Autumn stood on her hind legs leaning against the door frame, cradling a lute in her hooves slowly plucking at the strings with her magic. Twilight couldn’t explain why but the music made her feel uplifted. “Petty? Yes. Silly? Most definitely. But sometimes a pony has to stand up for herself against a jealous bitch.”
“Well… I don't like this.” He said.
“Neither do I but… But Starry needs a lesson.” Autumn said with a small smile. “And I think Twilight is the right pony to give her that lesson. If she hadn’t challenged Twilight I would have been the one to do it. I’m so sick of her petty shit.” She casually commented on her horn levitating over a large spellbook placing it on the carpeted floor before Twilight. “You’re going to need this. The princess probably has not taught you many, or rather any, combat spells, has she? And you should wear this.” Autumn said levitating over a robe that had light looking armor plates on it. “It’s a little old but it’s my novice battle-mage armor.”
Twilight sighed heavily and slowly stepped towards star, wrapping her hooves around his neck and squeezing softly. “I… don’t like it either, my beloved Star. But it’s something that is needed, sometimes we need to do things we don’t like.” Twilight said with a gentle smile slowly levitating over the book Autumn had presented her with.
“And things that are highly illegal.” Autumn chimed in her singsong voice. “Magic duels were outlawed in Equestria five-hundred years ago.” She said showing the pair a proud grin. “Twilight is a mare after my own heart!”
“Please don’t remind me…” Twilight sighed heavily. She looked down at it she simply started flipping through the pages. “A-autumn… where did you get these spells?”
“Oh here and there, a lot of them are actually from Saddle Arabia.” She commented quite casually. “I mean I know a lot of them are a little odd, but they’re meant to be combined with swordplay.” She smiled gently slowly plucking at the strings with her magic.
“That… is not what I meant,” Twilight commented looking down at the page that was showing her advanced combat magic, the patterns made her dizzy, she knew the math, the words of power but these spells were complex beyond what she had seen in most libraries. Not to mention that these were spells that were made to harm some pony, spells Celestia had never instructed her in. “These are… complex.”
“They are? Those are the basics…” Autumn said with a heavy sigh passing her lips in the moment. “It’s going to take a while to get you ready for this… the Princess hasn’t taught you any of these?” She asked, her tone suggesting that she found it hard to believe.
“W-well… the Princess did teach those spells in the past but from what I heard from the guards she stopped doing that when something happened to one of her previous students. They say she made off with some dangerous tomes and was never seen again.” Twilight smiled sheepishly. “I guess she doesn’t want a repeat of that?”
Autumn sighed heavily and shook her head. “That is silly. We still teach them at the academy in self-defense classes.” Autumn commented and took a seat beside Twilight with a small sigh. “Do you want me to help you with it? It’d be faster than you trying to study all night to get at least one spell… Starry isn’t a mare who would fall for a basic spell you need to be clever, out maneuver her.” Autumn said with a gentle smile.
“I… yeah. I’d appreciate that, thank you.” Twilight said, still holding Star with one of her hooves, keeping him close.
“In that case…” Star started with a small sigh “you’re going to need someone who has seen her fighting before. Duels might be illegal, but I’ve seen her practice with her brother and she is ruthless but then Starry Night has one thing going against her, she fights to show off, she liked shows of raw power. If you can keep her throwing heavy spells at you then she might tire herself out.” HE offered with a small smile leaning in to softly peck a kiss on Twilight’s lips.
Twilight nodded slowly that made sense, it was very consistent with what she had seen from Starry and the way she had introduced herself the first day. “Right. I think I can do that, I just need to be quick and made sure that I can avoid being hit by her?” She offered a weary smile, not at all confident in her abilities to do that.
“Actually, here,” Autumn said, opening the book to about the halfway point. “Princess Platinum’s Shielding spell. You only need to cast it once and keep it up in the back of your mind it should absorb what she throws at you and then you would tire her out. Or… throw all the force back at her when she shows an opening.” Autumn said with a small smirk playing on her muzzle at that moment, her hoof wrapping around Twilight’s neck.
“How do you even know this spell? The only copy of it is locked in the royal library where only the Princess can get it!” Twilight glared a little at Autumn.
“My dear Twilight you underestimate how far a little magic and a bobby pin goes to undoing that rusty old lockdown there.” Autumn sighed softly. “I used to sneak down there as a filly in between classes.”
“That’s illegal!”
“So is conducting a magic duel.” Autumn countered. “Your point being?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Any other crimes you’d like to confess to?” She asked sarcastically.
“Well if you count stealing a book from a dragon’s personal hoard?” She offered with a massive grin.
“Ladies. Let’s focus on the task at hoof?” Star interjected before either of them could continue.
“Besides Silver stole the book first, I was just returning it to the museum where it belonged,” Autumn mumbled softly and smirked a little at Star. Then she squeaked loudly, feeling Star’s hoof bopping her on the nose, hard. “Fine, fine. Alright, study this spell carefully, Twilight.” Autumn said pointing a hoof at the page. “This one isn’t very complex, and I assume Celestia has taught you the magic for self-defense at least?”
Twilight nodded “Y-yeah. She has. Twilight said tilting her head as she studied the spell. This was what Autumn considered to be not very complex, a part of her feared the thought of what the honey-coated mare would consider being complex. A glance at the spell on the next page made her gulp. It was the same spell except she could barely read the page.
“Don’t mind that one… it's a failed experiment.” Autumn commented, “It might have collapsed a mountain…”
Twilight gawked at her for a long time.
“What!? The math checked out… not like I was I did it on purpose, and it’s not like she stopped me.” She sighed “Just study the spell… it's not like I am the only mage who tries to make her own spells.”
Shooting star rolled his eyes for a moment and then before either of them could say something he literally knocked their heads together. “Let’s head outside to practice, and stop bickering.” He commented and then kissed Twilight on the nose.
“Yeah… he has a point.” Autumn sighed. “Starry is dangerous,” Autumn admitted slowly guiding the two along into the back yard, she slapped her spell book onto the ground with a heavy sigh. “Right, offense one-o-one.” She said and motioned to the target dummy in the backyard.
“I want you to hit that.”
“How?” Twilight asked.
“With your magic. Don’t think about it just imagine hitting it with pure raw force. Like throwing a hoof punch with your telekinesis.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Twilight said.
Autumn sighed heavily for a moment. “Fine observe.” She said and stood in front of the target taking a deep breath as she fathered the magic in her horn. “Do you see how I am gathering up the telekinesis magic?” She asked, and Twilight nodded slowly. “Do that, point, release.” She did so showing how she pointed her horn and let the magic fly knocking over the dummy. “Now you try.”
Twilight took a deep breath focusing her magic mimicking exactly what Autumn had been doing, looking over to Star for a moment and smiling as she watched him performing the same spell, studying the way he allowed his magic to gather in his horn, starting to feel the pressure building up around her horn. “I- do it normally hurt like this?” She asked, her eyes half-lidded in the effort.
“Yes, it is a thing you need to get used to, this is one of the most basic ways to deliver an offensive spell,” Autumn said placing down the target dummy again. “Fire when ready,” Autumn said taking a step back away from the two unicorns.
She watched both Twilight and Shooting Star release their spells. Twilight’s shot went wide and into shot straight into the town. While Star’s spell impacted the ground just a little before the target. She covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. She heard the clatter of glass in the distance and the sounds of an angry mare screaming. “JUST YOU KIDS WAIT! I’ll find out who this was and when I do its detention for the rest of your life!”
Autumn looked to Twilight with a soft snort. “Local school teacher?” Twilight nodded and slowly started pawing at the grass as if trying to sink into it in embarrassment. Star softly kissed her cheek and wrapped her up in a comforting hug.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be here, I can help the aim… it’s not as hard as it seems.” He smiled at her.
“T-third window this month.” She commented.
“I’ll go explain, and pay for it,” Autumn said and then pointed to the dummy. Focus this time. Aim at the ground below it if you need to dear, you were lucky you did not hit a pony with that spell.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Her heart was pounding in her chest as she stood there in the middle of town. Twilight Sparkle had not been that scared in her entire life. Sure, she had been in public like this before she had participated in many magic displays during school, she had even humored the ‘competitions’ that were organized for the parents. But right now, if it wasn’t for Shooting Star holding her in his hooves she was very sure she would have had a nervous breakdown. She’d never been in a fight before. Disagreements? Sure. But an actual fight with somepony where magic was being thrown back and forth? Never.
“Hey Twilight, it’s going to be alright.” She heard Star whispering into her ear.
Was it though? Was it going to be alright? Twilight was certain Autumn had been going easy on her the previous night and that morning during their practice. She was thankful for the effort but her confidence in her own abilities wasn’t there. “I hope so… Maybe she won't show up? Don’t worry I’m fine.” She offered hopefully, having to force herself to smile at him. She could see it in his eyes, he didn’t believe a word of it and simply squeezed her closer.
“You’re such a bad liar, worse than Applejack.” He whispered softly, kissing her cheek ever so gently. “I’m here for you dear, don’t worry. If anything happens I and Autumn will be there in a moment.” He reassured her, smiling just a little as some of the fear left her eyes, replaced by calm.
“Thank you… remind me I need to get her something for putting up with me.” Twilight whispered softly.
“Hey, don’t mention it, kid,” Autumn smirked down at her, twilight almost jumped at the mare’s sudden appearance. “Sorry… I didn’t want to interrupt the moment.” She winked at Twilight and presented her with a small smile. “Don’t worry you’ll do wonderful. “Autumn said while strumming a few notes on the lute that levitated beside her. Twilight frowned a little but couldn’t help feeling uplifted, more confident and inspired by the simple melody.
“How… do you do that?” Twilight asked.
“I will tell you some other time, for now, let’s say it's the magic of music.” Autumn winked mysteriously. She lightly petted twilight on the head with her hoof. “It’s actually not complicated, although it is magic not taught in Equestria, at least not unless you actually take music classes. Like I did in college.”
“You should have heard her when she was younger, it was pretty bad.” Shooting Star interjected with a joking smile playing on his muzzle. He nudged Autumn gently in her side. “You should tell Twilight about the time you used music to blow up a classroom.”
Autumn blushed furiously and looked away from him. “It was not me! It was miss Scratch with her ‘Bass cannon’.” She defended, looking away from Star and Twilight.
Twilight chuckled softly. “You tell me about that and I will tell you about the time I blew up the Princess’ chemistry lab.” Twilight offered with a small playful wink. “We all have our moments when something backfires.” She wrapped her hooves around Autumn and Star’s neck with a very happy smile. “Thank you both, I needed this little talk before… you know.” Twilight said with a sweet smile.
“I know, and don’t worry alright? We have your back. There are rules in place. No harm will come to you, Twilight. I will personally make sure of that.” Autumn said with her signature grin.
“Sure, Sure, no harm. If that’s a threat, Autumn I am terrified.” Starry said with a roll of her eyes. She was standing there wearing nothing three magical orbs floating behind her head, one on each side and one in the middle making a small triangle. Her horn was covered with a small series of gem-encrusted rings that seemed to glow with a gentle amber hue. “Are you ready, Hussy? I’ll show you the kind of mare who is worthy of Star’s affection.”
Autumn said nothing but simply smiled and plucked the strings on her lute once more.
“So… not you?” Twilight asked with a small smirk. Where did that come from? She felt a surge of confidence flowing through her filling her and inspiring her to not even care anymore. “Because no pony would enjoy being with a jealous bitch like you.” Twilight blushed, she hadn’t meant to curse like that! She looked at autumn and then the lute. It finally clicked in her mind.
“W-I…” Starry stammered. Twilight smirked in satisfaction as she watched the mare desperate to search for a comeback. It pleased her to know that she had at least beat Starry in the wits department. If she lost she still had at least that going for her. “Just get ready!” Starry snapped and turned to trot away from the three of them.
Shooting Star smirked at her “That was a good comeback, Twilight.” She said with a sweet and gentle smile as she slowly turned around to look at Twilight.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A minute later Twilight found herself standing in a large magical sphere that Autumn had erected around the town square. The honey-coated mare stood in the center with a gentle little smile on her muzzle looking between the two mares with a small grin. She hadn’t said anything, and Twilight could see that she was still finalizing the spell with some additions. Behind Autumn she saw Starry pacing back and forth impatiently an annoyed look playing over her features.
“Alright, I’m done. Here are the rules fillies.” Autumn said her voice more serious, the normal playfulness was gone but it still carried that sweet warmth. “Yes, Starry I know you know the rules already, but the audience and Twilight don’t.” She snapped the moment Starry even tried opening her mouth. “Right the rules are simple: scoring three direct hits with a spell means we have a winner. You do not need to hold back, the arena makes all spells and weapon strike non-lethal.” To demonstrate Autumn pulled out a scalpel and stabbed herself in the wrist. She winced at that. “O-ouch… s-see? That does not take away these things hurt. They really, really hurt. Ow.” She displayed the fresh, red bruise above her hoof... “Stepping outside the arena will mend all wounds. The arena will also prevent spells hitting bystanders.”
Autumn sighed as Twilight and Starry nodded their understanding. “Listen to you two, I want a clean fight. No mind control, no teleportation, no blinking, no sand in the eyes, no scratching, no spitting.” Autumn sighed even louder. “Just get this over with you two. And please don’t destroy the bubble. If you do I will personally come and kick your ass.” Autumn cautioned with a much icier voice. She turned and walked out of the bubble with an audible pop.
“Ready. Set. Go.” Autumn announced.
From the word "Go", Twilight was on the move. It wasn’t like she had a choice. Starry was not giving her a moment to prepare. She had opened with a spell Twilight was very familiar with. As she ran there were six impacts of magic that got closer and closer one barely buzzing over her flank. She didn’t think, whirling around to aim her horn at the mare sending an orb of telekinesis with a low grunt of effort. She was thankful for Autumn’s teaching at that moment. Without it, she would have never been able to even cast it in the blink of an eye. She could feel herself filling up with hope at the moment a small grin grew on her muzzle.
Then her hopes were dashed and shattered as Starry caught the magic in her hoof with ease, her eyebrow arching for a moment. “How cute. You know I learned this spell in sixth grade?” She commented casually and inspected the orb of magic she was holding for longer than was comfortable. “Hmm… sloppy spell work, I would fail you for it.” Starry said with a bored look then at the moment the threw the orb back towards Twilight.
The stunning mare looked with wide eyes for a moment her as the orb, her own spell, was redirected back at her as though it was a simple kickball! Her moment of shock, the hesitation caused her delayed reaction and she was hit square in the chest being thrown aside like a rag doll rolling over the hard ground.
“Twilight!” Shooting Star shouted, worried.
Twilight took in a deep and sharp breath for a moment and rolled onto her hooves. She’d faced Nightmare Moon. She could handle a little upstart unicorn. So, she couldn’t throw offensive magic at her, she’d never had to resort to using magic in a fight before. A small smile formed on her muzzle as she started running at Starry with that smile on her muzzle. She could see the other mare was shocked by her choice to simply run at her, then she ran past her and delivered an apple buck that she hoped would make Applejack proud.
“Y-you bitch!” Starry screamed as Twilight watched the two-red hoof prints on her side turning into a large dot showing that if it had been really there would have been at least a bruised rib. The moment after she ducked under a large ball of fire that flew overhead, Twilight could feel that it was weaker than Starry’s normal magic, clearly, she had interrupted the casting just a little.
“We’re one for one now, bitch,” Twilight said she was feeling good about this. That was until she felt Starry summoning an incredible amount of magic to her horn, the air around them both Suddenly Twilight felt as though she was in much more danger than she had initially realized. Her confidence from earlier was squashed by the little voice in the back of her mind that she did not face down Nightmare Moon along, nor was it in a magic duel. Twilight summoned up the shield spell Autumn had taught her and was very thankful for the practice she had gotten with it under the unicorn’s barrage of spells.
“TAKE. THIS.” Starry screamed in fury and then before Twilight could respond there was a large blast of pure and raw magic that wasn’t even formed into a spell, she could feel a shard of it pierce through the shield and slice across her cheek. The pressure and power that pushed down on her, quite literally, was almost unbearable. She could feel her hooves slowly sliding along the ground, digging ever so slightly into the soil below. A genuine fear ran through her as she could feel the entire arena spell tremble under the force of the magic around her, the most terrifying realization was that the spell making up the arena around them was slowly unraveling under the pressure of Starry’s magical barrage.
Panting heavily Twilight looked across herself at Starry Night who looked like she was about to collapse from exhaustion. Both mares had been at it for a minute, at least. Twilight wasn’t even sure anymore, she had lost track of time. Being on the defensive was probably less exhausting, but she was feeling the strain in her horn. It was a merciful release when Starry finally let the torrent of magic abate. She didn’t attack during the brief respite, her horn hurt too much she found herself only her counting down in her head for when she guessed the next attack would come.
‘3… 2… 1…’ Twilight finished and in an instant, threw herself to the side but instead of seeing the mare throwing one of her lager spells she watched a vivid cone of clashing colors spring forth from Starry’s horn. She had never seen the spell before and as she watched she suddenly realized that her concentration was utterly shattered, thinking became impossible and suddenly everything went black. She felt weaker, her body felt heavy and she fell onto her side. She was still conscious but barely, her ears picked up a sound like shattering glass.
“Time to finish this, you bitch.” Starry hissed into her ear. Twilight couldn’t feel the presence of the arena spell, it was gone. She was panicking, she couldn’t see it! Her body felt heavy as though she had been sapped of all her physical strength. She had lost and for a moment she held her breath as the threat behind Starry’s words suddenly became very clear. Painfully clear.
There was a shout from the ponies that had been watching the entire thing going down. She could feel Starry gathering up the magic in her horn, a spell she was familiar with, she had used it a while back on the manticore. Starry was going to….
Tears sprang to Twilight’s eyes as she squeezed her eyes shut firmly bracing herself for what was sure to be her end. The blow never came.
There was a deeply unsettling sensation running through a newly arrived source of power. There was something familiar about the sensation she was feeling. She had sensed it before. It was a magic fuelled by anger. There was a sharp crack. Like a whip striking the ground. “Starry Night, Starry Night. I told you to consider your choices carefully.” Autumn’s voice purred, there was a cold and clinical sound to her normally warm and rich voice. “Now a duel is one thing but… going that far? Tsk.”
“Autumn! This is none of your business!” Starry screamed, her voice filled with a sense of panic.
“You just made this my business, dear.” She said almost casually. “What did you think would happen? You won’t, and you wanted to what… mess her up? Kill her?” She spat on the ground, Twilight could slowly see the light filtering through once more her sight coming back. She saw Autumn standing on her hind hooves her left leafing through a spellbook while the other held her scarf, a glowing scarf. “This duel is over. Take your victory and go. Before you make an enemy out of me.”
“Us.” Shooting Star interjected. “Just leave. You’ve hurt her enough, more than I could ever forgive you for, Starry.”
Her eyes closed and the last thing she heard was a loud explosion feeling her body thrown away by it darkness finally taking her.
Shooting Star let out a heavy sigh as he paced back and forth in the waiting room of the Ponyville clinic. It had been two hours since they had taken the unconscious Twilight Sparkle inside. Two long agonizing hours without any news, or company. Autumn still hadn’t returned from her talk with the guards, so he was left there alone with his thoughts. Thoughts that obviously went towards the worst possible outcome.
The door finally opened to reveal a mare with a dark pink coat and a long, pink wavy mane held in a loose ponytail. She wore a simple white doctor’s gown that covered her cutie mark her amethyst eyes regarded him while a small, but kind smile graced her muzzle. She was very quickly followed by a much taller mare with a silver coat and a braided blond and platinum mane. The taller mare looked lost in thought as her eyes scanned across a clipboard floating in her silver magic.
“H-how is she?” Star asked, nervously. The fact that Twilight had needed two doctors worried him even more than the fact it had taken over two hours.
“Miss Sparkle will be fine.” The pink mare said with her soft maternal voice. “She is suffering from magical burnout and a sprained hoof.” She continued after peaking at the chart for a moment. “She won’t be waking up today, and maybe not tomorrow. My estimate is two days but it could be more. Her magic was drained more than is recommended, she is a very lucky mare. Any more and she would have risked losing her magic altogether.” Shooting Star couldn’t quite place the tone the mare was using, both worried and scolding at the same time.
“Yes. Normally… I would be required to report this to the guards, there is a reason magic duels have been outlawed.” The taller mare, Dr. Starsong according to her ID-card spoke up with a tone that sounded much less pleasant. But, miss Delight already informed me that she would be talking to the guards and I am inclined to believe she will be truthful.” The mare cast a glance over her shoulder and then back to the worried-looking Star. “I doubt she will get in trouble over it, but I insist on having a talk with her when she wakes up.”
Shooting Star nodded very slowly. “I… will tell her. May I go see her?” he asked, unsure if he was even allowed to see her for the moment.
“You may, but I must insist that you do not try to wake her up. If you can manage that you can stay the night.” The pink mare said, sharing a look with the much taller mare.
“Yes, as Doctor Heart said, you can stay at her side, it might do her well to see a familiar face when she wakes up.” The mare named Starsong said with a small smile. “If you will excuse us, we have some other patients to check up on.” She said slowly nudging Chosen Heart along with her.
Shooting Star nodded slowly and as the two turned around he rushed into the room, making a mad dash for Twilight’s side. She looked so peaceful as she lay there, snuggled up on the large fluffy pillow in her bed, she had an IV attached to one of her hooves and overhead hung a healing talisman that seemed to very specifically pointing a beam of healing magic at her horn. The beam seemed to follow her horn even as she moved.
Sighing deeply Star sat down in the chair beside the bed, scooting closer and taking Twilight’s hoof in his. “I’m sorry, Twi.”
*~*~*(4 days later)*~*~*
Twilight’s eyes shot open wide as she screamed in shock, darting upright in her bed. Her eyes darting around the empty, sterile room. The more logical part of her mind instantly recognized it as a hospital room. The worry of being killed gone but it was quickly replaced by the realization that she was entirely alone in the room. Her friends weren’t there, a spike wasn’t there… Star wasn’t there. That last one hurt the most. Spotting a calendar on the wall she noticed that four days had passed since the afternoon of her magic duel. The last thing she could remember was watching Starry approaching her and then darkness…
The clock on the wall over the calendar told her that it was almost one in the morning, it made sense. Her friends were at home sleeping, but Star. Had he left her for starry? Had she taken him away from her in the aftermath of the duel when she lay there on the ground, unconscious? The questions just kept coming, going from bad to worse as she spiraled into thinking about the most horrible scenarios imaginable. Maybe her friends weren’t there because they hated her for what had happened. She had done something illegal, she had broken the law. What would Celestia think!?
Her breathing quickened considerably as all the horrible outcomes and scenarios played through her mind. Would she be arrested the moment she was deemed fit to leave the hospital? What would Celestia do? Lock her up? Banish her from Equestria? Lock her up in the place she was banished to!? There was a part of her mind that knew that was silly, Celestia would never do that… that part was being drowned out by her internal screaming.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she grabbed the pillow pulling it tightly against her chest, screaming out her self-inflicted anguish. She sobbed pathetically into her pillow.
At that moment the door swung open and Star almost literally came crashing in. He tripped, rolled three times and crashed right beside her bed with loud panting. Without even a word he leaped up and wrapped his hooves around her, slowly stroking through her mane, softly shushing her whispering sweet words to her. Things like “I’m here, I’ve always been here. Shhh, it’s alright, Twi. You’re safe.” His hoof slowly brushed her mane out of her face as he smiled.
Through her tear-stained eyes she could see three other ponies standing in the open door. She recognized one of them as Autumn. The other two looked like doctors, both of who seemed to almost radiate a gentle maternal affection as they watched for a long moment. She could hear the tallest one whispering something like ‘Let’s give them some time.’ The door closed, and she has left there the pillow discarded in favor of holding Shooting Star. Holding him as if she was terrified of letting him go as if letting him go was going to be the end of the world, and she had to admit that it felt like letting go would be the end of the world to her.
“I’m sorry.” He whispered softly to her slowly crawling in bed with her to cradle her close to himself. “I had to step out for a moment, I… Doctor Heart pulled me aside to get me to eat.” He whispered with a look of utter embarrassment. He nuzzled her cheek happy that that made her giggle somewhat.
“You should take care of yourself.” She said sticking out her tongue. “I can’t make breakfast every time.” She sighed softly and snuggles closer to him, turning to bury her muzzle in the crook of his neck. “Did my friend…”
“They visited every day. But only one pony could stay overnight.” Shooting Star finished before she could even suggest something negative. “They’re going to be visiting tomorrow, all of them.” He informed her smiling ever so gently at her. Slowly he placed his hoof on her cheek to guide her into a gentle and chaste kiss. Holding her close to himself he felt relieved as she slowly followed in the kiss and ultimately melted into it enough to drag it on for a full minute. As they parted from the kiss both simply smiled at each other for a long moment, taking the time to simply gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes in companionable silence.
“Thank you,” Twilight whispered softly, finally breaking the silence. “For staying with me.”
“Hey… no need to thank me, what else is a coltfriend for?” He asked with a teasing little smile playing on his muzzle. “How are you feeling?” He asked, a little worried about the answer.
“Like I got run over by an adult dragon.” She said with a small pained smile. “What… happened after I, you know.”
“Well it’s a bit of a long story, are you sure you want to hear it now?” Shooting Star asked a little nervously, unsure how she would take being told about the incident after only just waking up. “You only just woke up.”
“I want to know, I… I think I heard things? I’m not sure If I really did though. I need to know, Star.” Twilight whispered softly, and quite desperately. “I… I don’t think I could sleep without actually knowing what happened, without knowing Starry won’t be a problem.”
Star nodded with a soft sigh. “Alright, Twilight.” He pecked a gentle kiss on her lips. “Just don't tell doctor Starsong that I, and I quote, troubled you with it.” He smirked a little.
“Oh? Did she order you not to stress me?” She asked with the hints of a coy smile to her voice.
“She did, but if you’re sure that it will help you relax and feel better I can disregard her standing orders.” He said with that small grin that suggested he was never really planning on following that order if Twilight had asked about what happened.
Shooting Star sighed softly as he watched Twilight nuzzling into his chest. “When you fell to the ground and Autumn’s spell collapsed we both rushed to your side. Autumn took her place in between us and Starry. I told starry that I would never be with her, especially not after what she did to you.” He sighed deeply. “She wasn’t happy with that, she actually tried to attack me, if it hadn’t been for Autumn I might be sharing this room with you.”
“You should have seen her, I think you might have been impressed. Autumn doesn’t like to show off her magic very often, but she did to protect you. To protect us.” He grinned for a moment and shook his head. “None of us really know just how much magic she knows even her little display was restrained. Well… restrained for Autumn Delight.” He watched the confused look on Twilight’s face for a moment. “She told you she is one of the candidates for the position of the archmage, right?”
“She did yes,” Twilight answered with a raised eyebrow. “But that can’t be right, I mean she is far too young to be skilled enough.”
Shooting Star chuckled softly. “Too young yes but… where I could only stand there and block you from Starry’s line of sight… Autumn spent a few seconds dueling her, countering her spells and then, when she was well and utterly tired of the mare’s nonsense she turned herself into a large silver dragon.” He watched Twilight open her mouth to protest, he simply placed his hoof on her mouth. “Shh, I am not done.” He whispered.
“Yes, she can turn into a dragon. And she did. Using a paralyzing breath weapon on Starry to prevent her from doing anything else. And then she told Starry that is she ever heard about her coming back to Ponyville she would make sure that she couldn’t ever return. And that she was going to tell the guards everything.” He sighed gently “Then she opened a portal, I am not sure where to, but I think it was Canterlot throwing her through it.”
Twilight nodded slowly. “I… should thank Autumn.” She whispered softly.
“We both owe her, but for the moment you need to rest, my love.
“Will you, hold me?”
“Shhh… I’m never letting go of you, my beloved.” He whispered softly in her ear holding her pressed close against him, her back against his chest. “Sleep my beloved little Twilight, you need your rest.” His voice was soft and gentle, barely above a whisper. There was no need to really speak up as he whispered into her ear giving her cheek a loving nuzzles after. Holding her protectively.
Feeling Safe Twilight simply smiled mumbling a soft, tired “I love you.” Before allowing her fatigue to finally take her away from the present and into a dreamless sleep, feeling safe in Star’s hooves.
The stallion picked himself up off the ground, looking at the cream-colored unicorn. It was dark and somewhat hard to see her even with her light coat. Celestia hadn’t risen the sun yet and he was feeling fatigued and not just from waking up three hours before dawn again. His black mane was matted down against his coat covering half of his face. He was glad that she was holding back and only splashing him with water the moment his shield broke, but he gave her a defiant glare as he focused his magic once more into a shield that bubbled around him, and then expanded it so two ponies could comfortably stand under it. The strain felt like someone was squeezing his horn – it didn’t quite hurt, but it was uncomfortable. For the first time that morning the shield he held around him didn’t collapse in on him.
“Well done, now keep it up,” Autumn said with a harsh tone to her voice. Star hadn’t ever seen her this serious. She was dressed in an armored battle dress with her signature scarf around her neck. If it hadn’t been for the scarf he could have easily confused her for the drill-magus that he had seen when they had a school trip to observe the guard during their daily routine. He had found out later that it had been an effort to get a new generation interested in joining. She took a breath and stared him in the eye, and then without warning hurled a fireball at him. Starlet out a soft squeak as the fire washed over the magical barrier and turned green from the blue shield spell. The flames swirled around him and put intense pressure on the shield. “Focus!” Autumn screamed as the fire from her spell pulled away and then exploded inward towards him.
Shooting Star let out a squeak, the fire has turned to an explosion around him. The loud crackle of energy signaled to him that he’d messed up. His shield buckled under the stress of Autumn’s spell. He could feel the fire an inch away from his coat but opening his eyes he noticed that it wasn’t moving. The fire had stopped, but there was no longer any shield protecting him from the sweltering heat. He felt like he was trapped inside an oven.
“You and Twilight would have been dead.” Autumn sighed heavily. “You have a long way to go, Star.” She muttered, her fire disappearing from existence.
“I… you make it seem so easy, Autumn. What am I doing wrong?” He asked, falling to his rump and panting heavily from exhaustion.
She sat beside him with a kind smile and wrapped a hoof around his shoulder. Being so close to her, he could see that the edge of the scarf was covered in small razor-like blades that didn’t seem to harm him or her. He shook his head slowly. It was hard to remember that the happy go lucky party girl was in the Solar Guard and not just as an adviser.
“It’s not about what you’re doing wrong, it’s what you lack, Star.” She said, levitating him a bottle of water. “I’ve been trained from when I was a child to use this kind of magic. To some in the guard, I am a walking weapon. You don’t use or even consider magic in the same way I do. If Twilight is at your side, she can help you keep the shield, you both complement each other like that.” She leans back and looks up at the sky.
“I know, but I want to protect her.” He said, looking Autumn in her amber eyes.
“You shouldn’t have to be like me to do that.” She looks at him for a long moment. “Leave the fighting to the soldiers. If you really want to master this spell you’re going to have to practice it every morning, and I mean practice hard.” A small smirk formed on her lips as she pressed small glass item into his hooves, it was shaped like an egg, about the size of a dragon egg. “This will cast a fire spell at you, the same one I used. It has a safety enchantment on it will only interact with your shield and nothing else.”
“Wait. You didn’t have to hit me constantly before!?” He asked quite annoyed that she had spent the better part of the morning shooting him with energy blasts.
“Well yes. You wanted me to train you, failure and consequences are a part of that, Star.” She sighed softly. “The difference is I can control my magic enough to not hurt you, this can’t, I won’t be there to keep the fire away from you.” She winked playfully at him. “Besides you did learn quicker than the average stallion in the guard.”
He let out an annoyed sigh. “Sometimes… I wonder why we are friends.” He muttered with a somewhat playful tone.
“I think it’s because life would be boring without me.” She patted him on the back. “You should go take a shower, Star. You smell like you did twenty laps around ponyville.” She gently punched his shoulder.
“Yeah, you’re right.” He said smiling. “Twilight is getting out of the hospital today.”
“I wish I could come with you to see her, but I’m expected back in Canterlot,” Autumn said with a small smile kissing star on the cheek. “Say hi to her for me, would you? And get her something nice like chocolates and flowers.”
“I will.” He said with a nod watching Autumn motion her hoof to rip open a portal as if it was nothing. Not that it surprised him, the theory behind it was easy enough to understand. The only reason he couldn’t do it, yet he reminded himself, was the fact that it required a lot of magical power. Even she had told him that he could eventually do it if he kept up this practice. “Good luck Autumn.” He called after her when she stepped through the portal.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
It was still early in the morning when Star arrived at the hospital. The sun had just been risen by Princess Celestia and it was well on its way to its zenith. It didn't officially fall yet but he could already feel a chill in the air that made him regret not putting on at least a thin coat or at least the scarf Autumn had offered him before she’d left his home. He was panting softly as he approached the large double doors of the hospital. He didn’t have to be in a hurry, but he wanted to be there the moment visiting hours started at the hospital like he had done every day that Twilight had been there.
He smiled a little looking at the chocolates and flowers levitating beside him. Twilight was getting discharged today and he really wanted to get her something nice. So, he had done some asking around, Spike had been helpful in telling him exactly what kind of flowers and chocolates Twilight liked. It had cost him quite a few bits, but he felt that they were bits well spent on his mare friend.
Pushing open the door he smiled at the nurse sitting behind the reception desk, it had been the same nurse every time he visited Twilight and he had gotten to know her just a little when he was too early, and he needed to wait. He had gotten her name as Sweet Drops, a childhood friend of Dr. Starsong. “Good morning Sweet Drops how are you today?” He asked with a small smile.
“I’m alright, a little tired. I took over Red Heart’s shift last night. Poor mare overworked herself and the doctor made her go home.” She giggles softly. “You’re here to see miss Sparkle, I assume?”
“Yep! I brought her flowers and chocolates.” He said, holding up the items. “I’m very happy she is getting out today, I missed being able to go out with her.” He admitted with a small blush spreading across her cheeks.
“She is a very lucky mare to have you, Star. It makes me kind of envious. You’re a few minutes early but…” She trailed off and looked left and right in a conspiratorial manner before using her magic to push the clock two minutes ahead. “You can go and see her, just don’t tell anyone.” She giggled softly.
“I don’t want to get you in trouble, Sweet.” He said looking at the clock for a long moment.
She winked playfully at him, motioning him inside with her hoof. “Don’t worry, Doctor Star would have probably done the same. Go on, she should be just finishing breakfast.” Sweet Drops whispered softly giving him a light shove with her magic.
Rolling his eyes, a little Star stepped further into the hospital instinctively walking to Twilight’s room with a small smile. He felt a little nervous about being here just a bit too early but no one he passed seemed to comment on it, not even when he passed the doctor treating twilight who gave him a cheery good morning. He finally relaxed a little noticing that no one really cared that he was just that bit too early. Finally, when he got to the right room he knocked on the door.
“Come in.” Twilight called in a sweet tone of voice. Opening the door, he saw her sitting in the bed, a book to one side of her while she was using her magic to eat from the little fruit cup that had come with her breakfast. She looked a lot healthier than she had the first day she was in here and for the first time when he arrived she looked like she wasn’t exhausted. She placed down the book and grinned just a little at him. “Staaaaaaar come in! Don’t just stand there in the door.” She called him over, patting the bed invitingly.
Star slowly stepped into the room his smile growing tenfold as he slowly approached to sit on the edge of the bed with her. “I’m happy to see that you’re doing better, Twilight. I brought you these.” He said and slowly offered them the chocolates and the violets. He watched her smile grow, and it pleased him to see her cheeks becoming a soft shade of cherry red. “I take it you approve?” He asked.
“Of course, I do, how could I not approve of my favorite chocolates and flowers?” She asked with a small smirk. She leaned in and pulled him close to herself, drawing him into a deep and passionate kiss. He slowly closed his eyes, wrapping his hooves around her in a gentle embrace. It suddenly occurred to him that they hadn’t kissed since the incident with Starry. Slowly melting into the kiss with her he gripped her just a little bit tighter in his hooves, he slowly started running one of his hooves through her mane as she lays back on the soft pillows.
“That feels good.” She whispers finally breaking the kiss after a full minute of making out with him. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes half-lidded. “Being petted does feel nice.” She whispered softly, her head leaning slowly against his hoof, smiling.
“Well, then I’m not going to stop.” He said with a playful tone to his voice the flowers and chocolates discarded on the nearby table.
There was a light cough from at the door. “As much as I hate to interrupt this heart-warming scene I fear that I must.” Both unicorns squeaked and if it wasn’t for the quick actions of the tall grey coated mare, Shooting Star would have probably been in the hospital with an acute case of horn in the eye. Instead, both ponies found themselves in the doctor’s grey magical aura before any such thing could happen.
“D-doctor…” Twilight whispered softly, trying to hide behind her mane.
“No excuses, please, I have a coltfriend too. Nothing to be ashamed about, miss Sparkle.” She said with a gentle smile stepping further into the room. “I won’t be a long, promise. After I’m done you both can start making your plans. It’s nightmare night tonight after all!” The doctor said way too excitedly. Something she realized, and she blushed a little. “S-sorry, I just came from checking in on the foals… it’s hard to not be excited for tonight.”
“I’m just as excited.” Shooting Star and Twilight said in unison. They looked at each other and giggled softly.
“Ah, the love birds have plans then?” The doctor asked as she sat beside the bed with a smile. Both nod with embarrassed smiled. “Well in that case… there is a lovely spot just ten minutes east of the abandoned clock tower at the edge of ponyville. You get the best view of the night sky from there, it’s worth the long walk I swear.”
“T-thank you. We’ll consider it.” Star said with a smile.
“Good now miss Sparkle I see no reason to keep you here but promise me that you will take it easy for the next week. If needed have your coltfriend stay with you and take care of you.” The mare said with just the hint of a grin playing on her muzzle. “You might be feeling better, but your magic is still recovering, admittedly at a nice pace, but there is no need to take risks with your health.”
“I understand the doctor. I promise I will take it easy.” Twilight said.
“Good, then you can get dresses whenever you’re ready to leave. I will make sure your paperwork is done and at the front desk.” The mare said and then quickly took her to leave. She paused at the door. “Have fun you love birds~” She winked over her shoulder at them. They both looked at each other blushing deeply. For the longest time, they said nothing to each other and simply held hooves.
“So… do you want to check out the spot she told us about?” Star asked with a sweet and loving smile. “I can make a nice picnic again.” He leaned in to kiss Twilight’s cheek.
“I would like that.” She said and returned the kiss to his lips. “Come on, help me out of bed… we have a lot to prepare for.” Twilight said.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Twilight smiled happily to herself as she looked at her costume over in the water of the fountain. The beard was obviously fake, but the rest of the outfit was historically accurate to what Starswirl the bearded had worn. She felt proud of herself that she had managed to make the costume entirely on her own, rarity would likely throw a fit about how she had used the wrong stitch, but she was satisfied with it, more importantly, she felt proud of herself.
“Hold it right there!” Shooting Star’s voice announced with a hint of command. Twilight squeaked out and almost fell into the water if it hadn’t been for his magic. As she turned around she was confronted with him wearing the typical uniform for the ancient Nightguard. She took a long moment to admire him in the uniform, from the deep blue cloth to the sergeant’s stripes on his shoulders. “T-twilight are you okay?” He asked a little concerned.
“I’m fine, sorry I was lost in thought.” She admitted with a small blush. “You startled me a little.”
“I’m sorry.” He said and slowly wrapped her up in his hooves softly kissing her on the lips. “I like your costume, it’s very accurate.” He complimented her.
“I could say the same about you, my love. Where did you even find a costume like that? I have only seen them as museum pieces in Canterlot Castle.” Twilight said her voice filled with amazement.
“Well… I might have pulled some strings with a few friends who joined the guard after school and they made a replica for me.” He announced proudly. Wrapping his hoof around her neck he drew her into a gentle and loving embrace slowly licking lips with her in a deep and passionate kiss. The two of them for a long moment forgot everything around them, the ponies, the sounds, it was only them and the love they held for each other. Soft little coos and the light smack of lips as they parted to stare adoringly into each other’s eyes.
It was a combination of the screaming and the sky becoming clouded over that finally caught the attention of the two lovebirds. Twilight instantly recognized it as being Pinkie Pie amids quite a few foals. The strange thing was that it sounded like genuine terror. Looking at the sky she could see a chariot cloaked in shadows appearing over the buildings drawn by creatures that she was familiar with but the rest of ponyville might not have been familiar with: Bat Ponies. A cloaked figure stood on the chariot cackling maniacally.
“Star… I think I need to go check that out, meet you back here in a couple of hours?” She asked, looking over at him. “I could go with you.” He offered. “If you want me to.” “I think I know who that is and… she might need some help.” Twilight said with a small kind smile, leaning in to kiss him on the lips. “Don’t worry about me. You should go to make sure that the foals are alright.” She said with a sweet smile she waited for him to nod his affirmation and then quickly ran off to the sound of the commotion in the distance.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
“Twilight!” Star called out as he ran towards his mare friend with a happy smile set on his muzzle, “Where have you been? You just disappeared when Princess Luna did.” He looked her over for a moment before embracing her in a tight hug.
“It’s alright Star, I’m sorry, somepony needed to make sure that Luna was alright and help her,” Twilight said in a sweet and gentle tone. “She’s been away for so long. She needed help finding the fun in Nightmare Night and how to fit in.” Twilight hugged him back tightly, softly kissing him on the lips.
“How is the Princess?” Star asked curiously. “What is she like?” He watched as Twilight pointed to the group of foals that Pinkie Pie was watching over and how they were being chased by the princess of the night, right towards them. As the foals and Pinkie Pie ran past screaming good-naturedly Luna paused with a smile at Twilight.
“We, that is to say, I, would once more like to thank you, Twilight Sparkle.” The princess said, straining to talk in a more modern way. She then looked at Shooting Star with a gentle and pleasant smile on her lips. “And this must thine partner, correct?” She asked slowly letting her eyes wander over Star.
“Yes, Princess,” Twilight said with a bright smile. “Princess Luna, this is my coltfriend, Shooting Star, Star this is Princess Luna,” Twilight said motioning between the two.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess.” Star went to bow but was stopped by a hoof under his chin, making him look up at the Princess of the Night.
“It is a pleasure to make thine acquaintance, Shooting Star. You honor us with thy choice in costume.” She smiled tenderly at him she winked at him for a moment and then looked to Pinkie Pie and the foals who were waiting for her in the distance. “Now. If thou wouldest excuse me, the hunt is on!” She announced and charged at the group who once more ran away screaming in mock terror
“She really got into the spirit of things, didn’t she?” He asked wrapping his hoof around Twilight’s withers.
“She really did,” Twilight whispered slowly leaning against Star. “Luna looks a lot happier while enjoying herself,” Twilight said gently resting her head on his shoulder her lips curling into a small smile of joy.
“So, are you too tired or do you still want to have that starlit picnic we agreed to? I made sure to keep everything warm and cool until I found you.” He whispered into her ear.
“I think I would really like that, star. “Twilight whispered with a soft giggle turning her head to softly kiss him on the lips. She gently took his hoof in hers and squeezed it softly as both walked to the place they had initially agreed to meet. “So, what did you do while I was helping Luna?” She asked curiously.
“Well…” He trailed off for a moment with a fond smile. “I spent most of my night with the foals from the orphanage actually, at least the ones who were not with Pinkie Pie tonight. We spent most of the night playing board games inside and they had a little costume contest among themselves.” He said with a big, proud smile. “It was actually very fun, and doctor Starsong was there too with the children from the hospital and her own foals, did you know she had twins? They were just too adorable dressed up as Solar Guards!” He grinned for a moment ad he looked over to Twilight.
“That sounds like it was very nice, Star. Maybe we could do that together next year?” She offered with a smile of her own slowly pressing herself closer to his side. “I do love foals.” She admitted with a fond smile. “Oh, I know, trust me she didn’t stop showing me pictures of cute moments. She even took them to work once. They’re very young though, I think a year old.” Twilight said.
He nodded slowly. “About that old, yes.” He paused for a moment and slowly guided her to the place where he had set up the picnic basket and the large fluffy blanket. “It kind of makes you want to experience it, doesn’t it? Or am I just being silly about it?”
“No, I don’t think it’s silly,” Twilight said with a smile. “I had the same thought when I saw those two little colts for the first time I just wanted to hold them and mother them.” She blushed deeply as she laid down on the blanket, using her magic to gently pull him against herself. Both ponies sighed contently as they nestled up together.
“It feels good to lay down,” Twilight whispered softly, pressing his lips against his barely giving him enough time to take out the snacks and wine from the basket. “Thank you for this. This is perfect to end a long day.” She murmured softly laying her head on his shoulder with that sweet smile.
“I’m happy you like it, Twilight.” He said levitating up a piece of cheese offering it to her, smiling as she almost lazily bit down on it. “Don’t fall asleep here, I don’t think I have the energy to carry you home.” He teased.
“We could sleep here?” She giggled softly. “Don’t worry I’m not that tired yet. I’m just enjoying being close to you, Star.” She whispered softly taking a piece of the cheese and offering it to him, not with her magic but by holding it with her lips and pressing her to his in a tender little kiss, only to push the cube into his mouth with a low giggle. She watched him scrunch up his nose and smirked a little. It was fun to watch him being surprised.
He chuckled softly. “I’d rather sleep in your bed. The pegasi said it would be chilly in the morning.”
