Author's Note

Just gonna leave this here....let's hope no one noticed my 'tiny' absence from the site...

16: Catching up

The Shinobi in Equestria

Catching up

The two were dressed and ready not long after stepping out of the shower. With their luggage packed, they departed the room which they left in a more or less acceptable state. The walk was short and took them through the Lunar Wing and round the edge of the throne room. Celestia was holding a meeting from her throne with a closed council, all she managed to do to say goodbye was a polite smile and a wave of her hoof. Star blew a kiss and Twilight bowed neatly. Star looked at Twilight and she at him before the two shared a small chuckle at the difference of standing that each had with the princess. They reached the door with the intention of getting a train back to Ponyville….that was until a guard stopped them with a stern face.

“Miss Sparkle, Royal Shadow. Princess Celestia has organised your use of the royal chariot. It will be a much faster journey to Ponyville.”

Star cringed at the title of ‘Royal’.

“Guard, it’s just Star. No need to be formal for my sake. I hate the titles…”

The guard looked slightly surprised before becoming noticeably more lax.

“Very well sir. It’s not every day that someone refuses a royal title so forgive me if I seem surprised.”

“Think nothing of it. I just hate being put on a podium.”

The guard nodded before pointing a hoof at the chariot that was stationed just below the stairs that was manned by two guards. To the credit of the mares, the chariot must have weighed a ton so they were rather well built.

Star nudged Twilight in the side, getting her attention. She turned only to see her boyfriend plant a quick kiss on her horn before gallivanting gaily to the chariot.

“I’ll never understand you!” Twilight called to him.

Star just laughed heartily as he got to the door of the thing. He opened the door and heard the drivers laughing cutely. Twilight saw the hint and took it as she trotted down the steps. Star bowed dramatically and offered a hand to help her in. The unicorn took it in her hoof and placed her other further in, placing her hind hooves on the step and climbing in. Star heard the driver’s ‘aww-ing’ at the nice gesture. He looked to the right most one and called out before getting in himself.

“We’re good to go ladies.”

Star felt his head split slightly as Nightmare suddenly shouted at him.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Star pondered.

“What?”

Nightmare sighed before projecting herself on his eyes. With a shoe shod hoof, she pointed out of the chariot to the top of the stairs. At the top was…

“THE LUGGAGE!”

A bell went off three times inside Star’s head as Nightmare laughed lightly with a sarcastic tone.

“We have a winner!”

Star acted fast and blew open the door as he made a mad dash to grab them. Twilight jumped out of her skin as the door blasted open and turned from the window to see Star absent and currently scampering up the front steps to the palace. She wondered what he had forgotten and saw it almost instantly. She couldn’t help but chortle at the ninja’s plight. He looked so desperate to rescue their belongings. She leaned out of the carriage as it began to take off.

Star palmed both the case and bag and began his stumble back to the Chariot….only to find that the damn thing was moving. Star shouldered his case, the bigger of the two, and dragged the other one.
The chariot was starting to pick up speed and Star was finding it hard to keep up. Twilight couldn’t stop laughing at the poor fella.

“I thought that you were fast mister ‘I can run to town-hall in one second!’”

Star visibly felt his eye twitch. What did she say?

“Don’t test me madam!”

Twilight shot Star a glare that made his pants shuffle.

“Why don’t you come up here and show me what you’re made of then!”

It was on!

Star picked up some serious speed as he ran as fast as he could manage with the two weights he was carrying. He was gaining on the chariot and managed to dump the held bag into the compartment.

It was at this point that the chariot started lifting. Star made a desperate grab onto the back and soon found his legs leaving the floor. He was now dangling on the back of the chariot and Twilight was completely gone with laughter.

“You really put your hoof in it Star! AHAHAHA!”

Star could only seethe quietly. She was gonna get it when he got up. Star threw the case slightly to give him some leverage and brought the temporarily free hand up to bring his feet onto the back rail of the chariot. Star was now fully on the damn thing!

He took hold of the case again before it could fall and opened the back to place it in with the bag that he had shot in there earlier and began planning his revenge. He knew the perfect plan…

Twilight was sitting in the chariot still chuckling softly at what she had seen. He could handle himself, which was a fact, but it would suck that he would be a bit late home. She sighed and continued to gaze out the window.

Star climbed up to the roof silently and looked over the left edge to see a purple hoof on the windowsill. He retracted his head before he was seen. The sneaky man shuffled over to the other edge to prepare his grand entrance, and by grand, he meant silent.

He slipped his feet onto the opposite windowsill and crouched to allow his legs into the cabin. He could see Twilight gazing out the other window. She was rather oblivious to his soon to be antics.

Star fully entered the cabin as Nightmare made herself known again.

“So…what do you have planned? Anything interesting?”

“Nah, just a surprise and maybe a creepy voice.” Star thought.

“Ah, that’s no fun! There isn’t any teasing in it!”

Star huffed in amusement internally.

“You just wanna see her suffer…”

Nightmare blushed slightly.

“It’s not what I had in mind...”

The answer caught Star slightly off guard but he had no time for the reply. He pressed forward and lined his lips up with Twilight’s ear. He spoke in his most blood chilling voice, one that would most likely make Blueblood soil himself.

“It’s rude to laugh at someone who’s struggling, you know?” Twilight froze wide-eyed.

“Who a-“ She was cut short by shush from the intruder.

“No talk, just revenge!”

At that point Twilight reared only to be pulled onto the floor of the chariot and landed on something…soft. A light squeak could be heard as she looked down and saw a now laughing shadow looking at her.

“You should have seen your fa...Ahahaha!”

Twilight blushed crimson in embarrassment.

“Ok, you got me. So…what’s the revenge?” Twilight was twiddling her hooves in anticipation and nervousness. Star simply moved forward with her in his lap. He rose and sat down on the soft leather bench, carrying the mare all the while, and simply wrapped his arms around her and buried his head into her side, listening to her heartbeat. Twilight was shocked at first but the surprise soon melted into happiness. It was one hell of a simple revenge plan.

“I see your devious plan was a success.”

Star simply snuggled his head into her side more.

“Basic yes, but a flawless execution if I do say so myself.”

Twilight returned the hug as slowly and lovingly as Star gave it. The two sat in each-other’s embrace for an unknown spell of time feeling each other’s body heat and the subtle squeeze that they both delivered. Twilight gave one more nuzzle before she and Star felt the carriage thump as it hit the floor. How long were they cuddling?

“How long were we cuddling?” Star asked.

Twilight looked at him before looking to the ceiling in thought.

“I’ve never actually rode in the royal chariot. I don’t know.”

Star knew where to find the answer. The estranged shadow leant out of the nearby window of the carriage and hollered to the drivers.

“Hey, lovely ladies pulling the carriage!”

The two golden armour clad Pegasus looked around a moment before catching the grey and black clad idiot poking half out of the vehicle. They muttered quietly to one another with blushes appearing on their cheeks before he began to speak again.

“How long were we flying?”

The right most of the drivers spoke up with a smile.

“The flight took an hour sir.”

An hour?! To the couple in the carriage, it had felt like a simple fifteen minutes of snuggly goodness.

“Time flies when you’re having fun I guess…”

The guards that were pulling the carriage simply blushed more an began to giggle as they imagined what kind of fun the royal shadow and his mare were getting up to in that hour alone. Star saw them blushing and giggling and instantly knew what they were thinking.

“It was none of that ladies, just some snuggle time.”

The other guard finally spoke up with a smile on her face.

“I’m sure it was sir.”

With the joviality over, Star opened a door of the carriage to assess where the chariot had landed. Celestia had been good with the directions to tell the guards to land outside of Twilight’s home. He turned to offer a hand as Twilight stepped out of the chariot. She simply smiled and accepted his hand. After a quick peck on the mare’s hoof, Star made for the back of the chariot to pick up the hard fought for luggage. A few heaves and tugs and it was free from the compartment that it was placed in.

Star moved to the front to give the all clear,

“It looks like we’re all good here girls.”

The guards nodded with a silent agreement before preparing to set off.

“Just so you know si- I mean, Star…” The mare on the left spoke up. “A lot of the guard is jealous that Miss Sparkle got to you first. She’s very lucky.”

Star was going to stutter in a slight daze, but by then he was already eating a small cloud of dust as the chariot took to the skies, leaving him standing in the middle of Main Street.

“Heh, you learn something new every day…”

With that surprising news out of the way, Star got to moving his ass over to the well fought for luggage and began to haul it into the library.

As he walked through the door, Star looked around to see the last room he had gazed upon only one week prior. Everything was as he left it, the table in the middle of the room was just the same as last time, the bookshelves were all lined as he remembered them and a small purple and green blur was heading straight for him, just the way he re- wait what?

*CRASH!!*

“Star, it’s good to see ya! How’ve you been? Was it fun at the castle? Did you meet lots of new friends?....”

With a hand over the young drake’s mouth, Star simply smiled and laughed slightly.

“It’s good to see you too spike.”

The little dragon could only mumble into Star’s hand and cuddle the heck out of the human. The sound of hooves could be heard and Twilight looked at the two from the kitchen door to see them curled in a heap on the floor hugging. She could only laugh to herself as the boys got reacquainted.

After a copious hugging session, Star had gone to his room to place his belongings in his room. Small amounts of hustle and bustle later and he had finally unpacked his week worth of clothing and other apparel, separating what needed to be washed and what did not as he went. A quick half-hour had passed and everything was in its place.

Star headed downstairs with a spring in his step when he stopped mid step. A figurative light shone over his head as he remembered something.

“I forgot about the cakes! I hope Celestia’s letter softened their mood…”

With the thought dashed, he made for Sugercube corner!

The walk was cheery, with many greetings and ‘welcome back to town’ hollers. The sweet shop was in sight and nothing seemed askew…

That is until the front door was blown off its hinges comically. As it pirouetted away, a pink blur flew cleanly at Star with an incredible speed. As it collided with him, star braced for impact only to hear a squeaky noise. He felt something wrapped around him so he gave it a nudge.

*Squeak*

With a bemused look on his face, he did it again.

*Squeak*

After getting two pre-emptive squeaks, Star finally looked down to see none other than Pinkie Pie attached to his side cuddling the life out of him.

“I hope cuddling isn’t dangerous. I could have had an unhealthy dose of cuddling today already!” Star could only laugh at his ridiculous thought but Pinkie had gasped with such force that she had frozen in mid-air with her mane pointing in every direction as though she had been zapped by a laser. The human could only laugh as she seemed to judder in the air.

“What if it is?! I could have been hurting people this whole time! I’m like pony cuddle central in Ponyville! IevencuddledsomefoalsearlierandwhatifIhurtthemand….”

Before Pinkie could get herself worked up a cupcake found itself placed rather perfectly in her mouth, stopping her from talking and worrying her zany little head any more. The expert placement was performed by Mrs Cake who was now standing aside Pinkie. She had the same vibrant look on her face as she always wore. She placed a hoof on the party pony’s back and pushed her back to the ground before reassuring her.

“Nobody has ever been hurt by your cuddling, Pinkie and hugs aren’t dangerous.”

She laughed heartily before turning to her employee who had been absent for almost more than a week. A nervous smile was what she was met with. She adopted a smug grin.

“If I hadn’t received the letter from Princess Celestia, I’d be a tad upset with your attendance.”

Star felt safer already. Not that he thought that Mrs Cake would have been furious but one week of absence from a job with no notification was stretching hospitality just a tad. He just smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, I’m sorry ‘bout that but the princess’ thought that they could use my skills and I was taken for a week.”

Mrs Cake’s grin only increased as she turned back to the shop, door still missing. She looked back to Star.

“I bet it’s because you’re cute.”

The thoughts of Luna and Celestia came rushing back to Star making him sigh in content.

“Something like that Mrs Cake. Now, is it ok if I start work from today?”

Pinkie chimed in.

“Weeeeeeeeellll….you got back really early today and the lunch rush is about to happen so I’d say that we could use the extra pair of hooves…oh, I mean hands.”

With that, Star made for the shop’s door….frame. With a chuckling sigh, Star went to go and find the door to put it back on its hinges.

Star headed in the general direction of the door’s dance, courtesy of one pink party pony. He looked down the street to see it sticking out of a small tree. The tree was frail looking and Star was a bit heavier than most ponies, not that he could help it mind you, he tried to keep himself in shape but it was the fact that he was a human. As much as he wanted to climb and grab the door, he didn’t want to destroy the tree…

“Hey Star! Look out!”

A voice could be heard over the sounds of branches snapping and roots upending. Star turned to see the frail tree practically blown horizontal by the force of something impacting it….or sompony.

Star leapt back to avoid the falling tree and was impacted by something squishy and soft. He looked towards his mid-section as he was in motion and saw the scrunched up face of Rainbow Dash. He smirked for a slight moment before he felt the ground move to meet them. As they landed in the dirt, Dash looked up from his stomach and blushed slightly.

“Um…sorry bout that. Kind of lost control of that move…”

“Actually Dash, I think that you may have done me a favour. I was trying to get the door that Pinkie blew into the tree that you just bowled over.”

Dash looked over to the impact scene and saw the train wreck that she had caused and sighed.

“Looks like I’ll have to get Roseluck to come and fix this. I gotta go Star, see you later…oh and sorry for tumbling into you.”

“No problem, Dash.” With a wave of her hoof, she was speeding down Main Street to the florists. Star just smiled and took the door, which was tangled in the remains of the recently bowled over tree and made it back to Sugercube corner to attach it once more.

Soon after Star had become acquainted once more with everyone in the bakery, Pumpkin and pound included, the lunch rush started. It began with a familiar mare and her little daughter walking into the shop with a spring in their step. Star remembered her well.

“Afternoon Derpy, how are you today?”

The cross eyed mare looked towards him with a smile...hopefully…he wasn’t really sure until she began talking .

“Hey, you’re back in town! Rainbow told me that you had left; something about helping the princesses.” She looked to her young daughter who had a look of wonder playing about her little cute face. She jumped onto her mother’s back and placed her little hooves on the back of her head and was eye level with Star’s chest. Her mother didn’t seem to mind Dinky’s unorthodox position.

“You were with the princesses for a whole week?!” Dinky’s high pitched voice squeaked as he words left her mouth. Star smiled at the blissful innocence in the young foal. He rubbed behind her ear playfully as he replied.

“You’re darn right I was! I’ll have you know that they chose me to be their personal bodyguards when they need me. I even got a title too!” Star struck a heroic pose as Dinky and Derpy began to smile. Derpy looked at the goofball in front of her and a questioning look struck her face.

“What title did you get?”

“I am the ‘Royal Shadow’ to Princess Luna and Celestia.”

Derpy had a small gasp while Dinky began to jump on her mother’s back with a little smile on her face.

“That is so cool! I can’t wait to tell my friends that you work for the princesses!” She had one more little jump off of her mother’s back before she ran out of the shop as fast as her small legs could carry her. Her mother watched her out of the door with a motherly grin. She returned her attention to the human in front of her and began to place her order.

“I guess that makes it only 2 Muffins, one banana nut and one of your choosing.” The order seemed a bit weird…

“Why would I choose one? They’re your muffins aren’t they?” Star wondered why she would have given him choice over her order…

“Well I did promise you a muffin when you helped me after I fell a while ago.”

The memory was slow to arise but Star eventually remembered helping her up and making sure that she and her daughter were all right.

“So you did.” After scoring up the order Star collected the two muffins, one was a banana nut muffin and one was chocolate and vanilla. “That will be 4 bits please Derpy and thank you for the muffin.”

Derpy handed over the necessary bits from a pouch that she pulled from seemingly nowhere. The currency was a much simpler thing in Equestria than where Star had come from. His home had a smaller unit of currency but here everything was paid with in bits, plain and simple.

The money was swept from the counter and into the register of Sugercube corner. The two simply held their respective muffins in their appendages and took their first bites…before absolutely demolishing the treats. Crumbs went flying everywhere as the two consumed the muffins with seemingly endless fervour. As if things didn’t seem to be comical enough, there was a rather thick cloud appearing as fists and hooves began flying grasping the delicacies. A small time and whirlwind later and Derpy and Star both laid across the shop’s floor with muffin crumbs and chocolate squares covering the two of them. They looked at each other before breaking out into laughter. As the pandemonium died down and everything went back to as close as things got to normality in Sugercube Corner, Star had said his farewells to Derpy and cleaned up the danger zone he and the Pegasus had created.

The day had slowly come to an end and Star thanked the Cakes and Pinkie as he received his very modest payment. As they closed up for the night, Star made his way back towards Twilight’s house. It was eventful. His walk included a nice talk with Fluttershy about her time at the Gala and how many little friends that she had made and with the florist Roseluck on how she was intending to fix the small tree that had been knocked over by Rainbow Dash’s loss of control.

It was night once again and that brought a smile to Star’s face. If he had been wearing his Shokozu, ponies would have likely confused him for a shadow on a wall…which was kind of his job now that he thought of it…

A shrug later and he began to walk home, a nice breeze speeding his journey. He came to the front of the library without interruptions and entered to find no one in the main room. Nothing but what would be a metric shit ton of paper was present.

“Hello? Anyone home?” Star called out. The lights were on and were flickering gently which meant that someone must have been home. He moved slowly, always thinking the worst, and made a slow shuffle towards the darker kitchen. As he slithered up to the kitchen’s archway, he heard a scratching…

He poked his head through the arch slightly and saw a small figure standing on one of the step ladders that Twilight kept in the library. It was trying to reach into a glass jar…

Oh for the love of…

“Spike? Is that you?” At the question and sudden interruption, the figure jumped in his scales. Now caught with his hand in a cookie jar…literally, Spike could only look at Star with a terribly cheesy smile.

“I didn’t notice that you were back from work, Star…I suppose you’re looking for twilight…”

The human looked at him with a sly smirk. He pointed a finger to Spike’s hand which was still inside the cookie jar.

“I take it Twi wouldn’t usually let you have a cookie at this hour?” He moved over to the little dragon and loomed over him slightly. The little dragon looked up to the human with what looked almost like fear but also shame of being caught.

“I guess your gonna tell me off now huh?”

Star laughed lightly and placed a hand on the small dragon’s head and patted it lightly. With his other hand he slid past spike’s small, scaly digits and slipped a cookie into the little tyke’s hand. With a shocked gasp, Spike looked up to find Star smiling back at him.

“I don’t mind you having snacks, Spike. As long as it’s all in moderation.”

The little dragon smiled up at the human and quickly scampered off, taking the small step ladder that he was upon with him. Star just couldn’t wait to hit the hay…so to speak…

He made for the bathroom and had a quick shower to remove the day’s stress and troubles, no matter how few had occurred and slowly crept his way upstairs. As he did he made for his room and reached the door. With a quiet turn of the handle, the door swung open slowly, letting the dim light in the corridor seep in which illuminated a lump in Star’s bed. The lump was slowly rising and falling, like someone breathing. He moved as quietly as possible and reached the side of his bed. A slight tug of the covers showed a small patch of purple fur peeking out of the sheet and Star knew who it was. He pulled the sheet back slightly to allow him access to the bed and found Twi desperately fighting for the warmth of the covers; she tugged lightly to stop the slight cold of the night from creeping up her back. Star had to move quickly and ditched his t shirt and pants as fast as possible, leaving him in only his underwear. He slid in without so much as a light bounce and as soon as his stomach made contact with her back, Twi brushed up against the newfound warmth and made a sighing noise before beginning to snore lightly.

Star slid his arm under her neck so he wouldn’t have to sleep on it and began to drift off, placing one arm over his mare. Sleep soon found him and he embraced Twi as he began to dream.

--

Star felt like he was floating through nothingness before he fell into a familiar spot. He was in a library and in the distance was a onyx mare that was sat quite comfortably in his favourite armchair reading one of the many books that made up everything that he knew. He walked up slowly, making no effort to hide himself and leaned onto the chair. The sudden weight difference shifted Nightmare slightly which made her look up to find the human that she was stuck in staring at her with a smug grin.

“Well hello Ms Moon. A lovely night we’re having isn’t it?”

Nightmare placed the book on the arm of the chair and smiled with just as smug a grin.

“The world inside your head is always night, though I think that one is on me.”

Star simply thought up another, identical chair and sat down to join Nightmare.

“Well it’s not bothering me. I prefer the calm of the night…Actually, do you know what’s strange?”

Nightmare shook her head with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ve had a lucid dream every night sine you have been in my head. They normally only happen to humans if we know how to do it...do you have anything to do with it?”

Nightmare just threw her hooves up with a smile.

“I’m the mistress of the night. I probably do, being as I can enter dreams at will, though if I wasn’t in here normally, I’d have some difficulty entering yours…”

“Luna said the same thing when she was in here once.”

Nightmare moved a hoof to her chin in thought for a moment before she reached a conclusion.

“I guess that’s why I ended up in here. Her affection reached a high enough level while she was in one of your dreams that I broke free within the confines of your dream and when it collapsed, I was left as part of your consciousness…”

Star twitched slightly at the thought...

“That’s not permanent, right?” Nightmare looked almost like that had hurt…almost; her playful smile was always there.

“I thought you would like spending time with the mare that creates the wondrous nights you have come to love. Do I bother you that much?” A small giggle could be heard from Nightmare. Star just laughed it off with a quick rub of the back of his neck.

“You don’t bother me Nightmare, although I’ve never had someone inside my head before in such a literal sense…”

She moved from Star’s favourite chair in one motion and stretched her large wings and gave them a test flap before beginning to tuck them away.

“I’ve rather become accustomed to living in here, it’s nice and quiet all the time and there’s so much to learn! I think I’m starting to sound a little like your little mare.”

Star laughed a little. She wasn’t wrong there. Twilight had an addiction for knowledge.

Nightmare moved towards one of the bookcases and it seemed to bend and move away from her, leaving an open space free from books in which a bed soon formed…one made for two…

Star saw the bed and caught his breath in a stifle as he thought what Nightmare could have needed a double bed for…until the thought of stupidity flew over his head in the shape of a crudely drawn bird. The silly looking thing flew into a bookcase and landed near Nightmare. She bent over slightly, attempting to pick it up whilst affording Star a long and purposeful glance at her wonderful breasts.

The look was enough for Star to begin to blush which you would think after dealing with sexual situations rather often since his landing in Equestria but something inside of him mad him feel childishly nervous about sexual encounters.

“That would be me! Sorry dude…” A voice came from out of nowhere. Star and Nightmare both jumped and looked around in a half panic. As they searched, Star could spot a pair of dangling legs from high up on one of the bookcases that stored his knowledge and found the legs attached to a young looking male. He was sitting on a bookcase ladder and looking down with a smug grin.

“Do I know you?” Star asked the teenager. The young kid looked at him with a kind of condescending stare. He was swinging his legs up high one moment and the next he was next to Nightmare, who was laid, fore-hooves crossed looking at him with a face of surprise.

“You haven’t forgotten me again have you? We only talked a while ago…”

The pieces were fitting together slowly but surely…..

*Chck!*

A image of gears grinding together flew overhead which got a small adorable chortle from Nightmare while Star only gave a small sigh of annoyance.

“I hate being in here when my brain does that…” He imaged up a seat and sat down.

“So do you know who I am now, Star?” The small kid hooked one arm around Nightmare’s neck which got him a half-hearted death stare. He simply shrugged it off while hugging her close.

“Yup. Nightmare Moon, meet my younger humanity.” Nightmare looked from Star to the kid with a look of disbelief.

“I don’t believe you. Why the hell would you guys be so different from each other?” All the while Nightmare was giving this quizzical look, the young teen wandered off.

“Turns out that my clan when I was in my world were capable of severing our morals to allow us the be truly heartless and perform tasks that most would not. I can’t say that I remember most of them but I’m glad I can’t feel the guilt from it…I’d likely be dead now if I could have.”

Nightmare ushered him closer till he was on the bed and laid a wing over him.

“ I take it he’s slowly getting better. That means that so are you.” Star couldn’t help it after that. He turned and hugged Nightmare around the neck. Nightmare simply laid her head on his shoulder, feeling his warmth heat her fur. If it wasn’t onyx black, Star may have seen her blush.

“Thanks Nightmare. I hope you enjoy your night.” With that Star stood up from the bed and felt himself quickly returning to reality. The last thing he heard was Nightmare suddenly cry out.

“Star wai-“ and he was gone. Nightmare bopped the sheets of her bed with a hoof softly in frustration.

“Oh you are going to pay for leaving me in need tomorrow…”

If there was one thing that Nightmare needed Star to know. It was that it wouldn’t be wise to leave her in need…