Jared doesn't like to sleep, although if you read the description you should know that already. So, in an effort to save time, I'll skip the unnecessary introduction and go straight to the more important bits. Jared is a seventeen year old high-schooler from Owatonna, Minnesota. A small city about an hour outside of Minneapolis, from the same state. He's a gamer, an occasional writer, and, more than any of that, a brony. In case you aren't keeping up with the internet, that means he is a regular viewer of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Although, if you needed to know that, it does beg the question of how you got here...
Oh well, anyway, he doesn't tell anyone about this, except for his parents, and even then he doesn't mention it much. The point is that he isn't the kind of guy who walks up to the new kid in school and says "Hey, my name is Jared, and I am a brony,". That's not him.
Anyway, it was about 10:00 at night, and, as was mentioned before, Jared hates sleeping, so naturally, he was awake. He was drinking Mountain Dew, eating bacon, doing whatever was necessary to keep from falling asleep. He had music on full volume through his headphones, and was playing Halo as though his life depended on it. He was leading his team too, at 30 kills and only 6 deaths, a solid 5.0 K/D. If you asked him how he got that good, he'd probably respond with "Halo's too easy,"
His Gamertag, FallingStar, wasn't just known, it was feared. Plenty of players would rather unplug their Xbox's than play against Falling Star, and with good reason. In Call of Duty, he maintained a lifetime K/D of 10.47, in Halo, 11.50, and in Crysis, a whopping 15.98. If there was a button that let you have your in game character put a gun to their head and pull the trigger, his opponents certainly would use it. Still, it was no reason to brag, or, that's what he would say if you brought it up. It's not like he went pro or anything, he didin't play games because he was good, he played games because they were fun.
He managed the final kill, and left the lobby, it was no fun playing the same people twice, so he started up another lobby, this time with Grifball. He invited a few friends to the lobby, and waited for the game to start. About midway through, he got the error message he had been fearing.
Error: You have been disconnected from Xbox Live.
His parents must have noticed he was playing online, and disconnected the router. "Oh well, what to do now," his gaze drifted from one object to the next in his room, before finally settling on his footstool. "Eh, why not?" He lifted the top from the footstool, and pulled out his complete collection of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic DVDs. He picked Season 2, and skipped past "Return of Harmony", that was his least favorite episode, and went on to “Lesson Zero”. It was his favorite episode featuring his favorite pony, Twilight Sparkle.
If you asked him “Why Twilight?” or “Why not Rainbow Dash” or “What’s wrong with you? Pinkie Pie is best pony!” he wouldn’t be able to answer properly, as he didn’t know. Perhaps it was her determination to do well, or maybe she reminded him of himself, or perhaps he had just chosen at random, but whatever it was, he trusted his decision.
Oh dear, this exposition is getting a bit long, sorry about that. Don’t worry it’ll be finished soon.
Anyway, after Lesson Zero was finished, his eyelids began to get heavy, and droop. He refused to let himself fall asleep yet, he grabbed his 12-pack of Mountain Dew, only to find it was empty. But he had drank one can an hour, and it had only been 5 hours, he had 7 cans last night, which meant…
Cassidy. His sister must have gotten into his room and drank two cans. He was going to get up and turn on the light so that he wouldn’t fall asleep, when the next effect of being extremely tired befell him. His motions were slowed from a lack of energy, and eventually, he just gave up and fell back into his bed.
His eyes drifted shut, as the opening theme for MLP began to play through his speakers.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Twilight Sparkle relaxed in her bed, with a book in hoof. She loved to read, although if you’ve ever watched the show you would know that. This particular book she had read multiple times. It was “A Collection of Theories: Alternate Dimensions” the fifth book in a series of non-fiction. Many ponies thought her crazy for reading non-fiction recreationally, but that wasn’t what made her so. It was the fact that she worried to much, some could say she was paranoid, but that wasn’t perfectly true.
She was thoroughly enjoying her reading, Spike was out for the day, she didn’t have any scheduled visitors, all she had to do was sit back and relish the book before her Yes nothing could ruin this day, and she-*CRASH*. And she was just asking for that one wasn’t she.
She suspected it was Rainbow Dash, that pegasus went through Daring Do books like mad, almost as fast as Twilight. Almost.
She teleported to the base of the stairs, and trotted outside.
“Rainbow Dash, could you please try using my door once in a while, it’s starting to get bothersome having you crash into my house every time you want a new-,” She paused when she realized that the stallion lodged in the roof of the library was, in fact, not Rainbow Dash. “-book…hm,” She blushed a little, and admitted to herself that he was kind of cute.
The pegasus removed himself from the wooden planks, and carefully glided to the ground. “Mental note, learn how to fly properly,” He brushed his wings off before he looked up at the unicorn before him, and froze. “T-Twilight S-Sparkle?”
“That would be me, Yes. Can I help you in some way?”
“Yes, actually. Ummm, I assume this is Equestria, right?”
“…Yeeaaah,” said Twilight, cocking her head to her right.
“Then, that means that I’m a pony, right?”
“…Yeeaaah,” she repeated herself, but this time she appeared more confused than the last.
“Okay, then we have a lot to explain to each other, although, I might need to talk to Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy about my new appendages,”
“Yeah, I guess-wait, how do you know about Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy? Also, new appendages?”
“Like I said, a lot to explain to each other,”
“So wait, where you come from, your people watch the kind of things we do every day?”
“Well, not every day, but any day,”
“Oh dear, that’s…umm…embarrassing,” She began to blush again, this time more profusely.
“Well, where I come from, it’s a show meant for kids, so if there is a direct link, there would be a limit to what kind of content goes around,”
“Oh, okay,” Her blush lessened. “You know, I always entertained the idea of meeting an other-worlder, but now that I have, I don’t have anything to say,”
“You know, you were my favorite character to watch,”
Twilight’s blush returned, along with a look of surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah, I don’t know why, but something about you really resonated with me,”
“Wow, you aren’t just kidding to flatter me are you?”
“No, I would never do such a thing,”
“Alright then, well, we should probably come up with a name for you to use while you’re here, ponies would get suspicious if we told them your name was Jared. Around here that sounds like something out of an old mare’s tale”
“Oh, right,” He thought for a moment before settling on a pseudonym he used a lot. “I guess you can call me Falling Star,”
“Falling Star, huh? Not bad,”
“Yeah, it’s an alias I used when I was online back home,”
“I’m sorry, online?”
Star sighed and rolled his eyes. “When I was connected to the internet,”
Twilight continued to look confused.
“The network for communicating with the rest of the world,”
“Oh, yes, right. Sorry, I’ve just never heard of anything like this before, I mean, I’ve read plenty of theories, but there was never any proof that there was an alternate version of our world,”
“Yeah, same here,”
“Anyway, I can tell that you aren’t quite used to those wings of yours, so-,”
“Hang on, how can you tell that?”
She tapped his right wing, which immediately extended. “Oh,”
“So, maybe I should introduce you to one of the many pegasus ponies here. You mentioned Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, so why don’t we start there, hm?”
“Uh, yeah, sure. One sec,” He pressed his right wing back into a folded position. “Okay, I’ll follow you then. I have no idea how to get from place to place around here,”
“No problem, we should probably visit Dash first, she uses her wings more than any of the other pegasi in town,”
“But, how are we going to do that? Doesn’t she live in a cloud mansion? How do you plan to walk on clouds?”
“I know a spell or two,”
“Oh, right…I knew that,”
They walked to the eastern edge of ponyville, and then continued for about a half mile.
“Okay, can you fly, at all?”
“Uhh, yeah, but I’ll probably crash right through her wall,”
“Oh, that’s fine, she does that a lot herself,”
“Oh, okay,”
He extended his wings, and began to lift himself from the ground. Twilight disappeared in a flash of pale, purple light, leaving him to “fly” up to the cloud on his own, and just as he predicted, he crashed right through the wall, and face-planted right in the entrance hall. Twilight was already there, and carrying out a conversation with Rainbow Dash.
“Oh hey!” said the cyan pegasus “Not bad, you’re doing almost as well as I was when I was just learning to fly,”
He pried himself up off the ground. “Really?”
“Well…not really, but hey, it’s your first time. Plus if what you say is true, you’re not used to this body of yours, so yeah,”
“Yeah,” He retracted his wings.
“Don’t worry yourself one bit, I’ll have you flying circles around most of the ponies in Ponyville in a few hours,”
“Great, I’d like to pass up crashing every time I want to land,”
Rainbow and Twilight chuckled, Twilight slightly more.
“Then we should get started,”
Star’s muscles were sore, and that means all his muscles. His wings, his back, even his neck was sore. But it was worth it, he was a much better flier, in fact he had even learned some sky-clearing tips. He could clear a cloudy day in 21.2 seconds. Nothing special compared to Rainbow’s 10.0, but she was the captain of the weather team, and the fastest flier in Equestria to boot. The point being, he’d probably never be that good.
But he wouldn’t ever need to be, seeing as how he had no idea how long he’d be here. But, as long as he was, he decided to make the best of it.
Since this did appear to be the exact world that he had viewed from one side of a T.V. screen, he wanted to meet the entire main cast. He thanked Rainbow for her help, and asked Twilight to guide him to Fluttershy’s cottage. She was reluctant at first, saying that Fluttershy would be too shy for a proper introduction, but after a short argument, he was able to convince her to lead the way.
They walked up the steps and Twilight knocked on the door. There was a loud crash. Followed by some muttering, a yelp, another loud crash and then soft hoofsteps headed for the door.
The door opened slowly revealing a yellow pegasus with a pink mane covering one eye. Fluttershy.
“Hi Twilight, how are you-,” She stopped when she saw the stranger accompanying the unicorn. “Oh…Hello,” She hid behind her mane.
“Fluttershy, I would like you to meet Lightning Runner,”
“Hi,”
“Hello,” Star quick looked her over, and made note of the fact that she was shorter than he was.
“He’s from another world,”
“Huh…Wait, what?!”
“Yeah, another world,”
“How did you get here?”
“Hell if I know,”
Silence.
“I’m sorry, ‘hell if I know’?” asked Twilight.
“Oh, sorry. It’s just a phrase from my world. It pretty much means ‘I have no idea’,”
“Oh,” Despite quite obviously still being frightened, Fluttershy had suddenly become a lot more hospitable. “W-Would you like to come in?”
“Yes, please,” He motioned for Twilight to go before him, and she did, but not before bowing her head. The two of the headed for the table in the center of the room and sat down.
“D-Do you want some tea?”
“Sure,” Fluttershy headed into the kitchen, leaving Star and Twilight alone.
Star looked at Twilight, she looked away, and blushed. “There it is again. That’s the fourth time you’ve blushed,” He joked.
“S-Shut up,”
“Oh, right. I’m going to need somewhere to stay. Would you be able to let me stay at the library?”
“Well, I have to beds, but they’re in the same room. Are you okay with that?”
“Yeah, as long you are,”
She blushed again. “Jeez, you’re blushing so much I’d think you had a chronic condition or something,”
“Alright, there you go,” Twilight had quickly pulled together some blankets from her storage closet, and had made a very comfortable bed for him.
“Wow, thank you,”
Twilight yawned. “Well, I’m going to get some rest. Good night Falling Star,”
“Good night Twilight Sparkle,” He sat down in his bed until he thought Twilight was asleep, at which point he got up out of bed and trotted down the stairs.
He grabbed a large stack of books, sat down and began to read. He was about halfway through his fourth book, when he heard hoofsteps coming down the stairs.
“Hey Twilight” said Star, not looking up from his book.
“What are you doing awake?” Twilight asked, groggily.
“I don’t like sleeping. I think it’s a waste of time,”
Twilight cocked her head. “I assume that isn’t normal in your world,”
“No,”
Twilight stood awkwardly for a moment, then trotted over to Star. “What are you reading?”
“A book about the early Equestrian Diarchy,”
“Oh, what do you think?”
“I think it maintains the benefits of a checks and balance system, while keeping the power of a monarchy,”
“That’s what I thought when I read it,”
“Although, I have one question,”
Twilight leaned in to read over his shoulder. “Yes?”
“It says here that both Luna and Celestia had their own council to help them with difficult decisions, do those still…exist?” Star froze.
“No, Celestia disbanded the councils after Luna was…banished,” Twilight froze when she discovered what Star had only moments before. Their muzzles were only a few inches away from contact. Neither pony dared move for a few seconds, until they started to move closer to each other.
“No!” Shouted Star, turning away just before their lips touched.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight became aware of the warmth in her cheeks.
“You see- I- It’s not that I don’t want to kiss you, I do, It’s just-,”Star sighed. “It’s just the last time I kissed a girl before dating her didn’t end well. So I promised myself I wouldn’t do it again,”
Twilight paused. “Was that a really indirect way of asking me out?”
“Yeah, kinda,”
“Alright. Tomorrow morning, you and I will go out. I’ll pay all expenses since you lack funds, on one condition. Before the end of the date, you have to kiss me,”
“Deal,”
Star woke up with his face in a book. Literally. Apparently he had fallen asleep reading about the “Age of Discord”. As always, his memories from the previous night were misty, so he retraced his steps. Twilight went to bed, he was reading, she came downstairs, they talked, and…oh. “Oh!” He shot up, and ran up the stairs to Twilight’s room.
He was about to kick the door open, when he realized that she might still be asleep. So, he opened it calmly, and a good thing too, the unicorn was still fast asleep.
Star smiled, she really was cute when she was asleep. He shook his head out, and closed the door.
“How to pass the time…,” He thought silently for a few moments, and then perked up at discovering an idea. He walked out the door, but not before leaving a note on the table.
Twilight awoke, her face buried in the pillow, and her cheeks warm. She groaned, and then shot up when she actually noticed the warmth in her cheeks, she lifted up the blanket, looked under, and sighed with relief.
“That could’ve been embarrassing,” She got up out of bed. “I should probably take a shower though,” She trotted into the bathroom, and started the water. She waited for the water to warm up, and then stepped into the shower, sliding the door closed behind her.
She let the water run through her mane, and slide down her coat before slipping past her hooves and pooling on the smooth tile beneath her. She raised her head, and closed her eyes, listening to the droplets hitting the tile floor, and glass door. She cleared her mind, and relished the absolute peace and serenity of the nearly empty library.
Her calm was interrupted by her brain deciding to throw an image of Falling Star at her. She brought her head down to normal level, her cheeks warming up again.
“Maybe I need a cold shower,” She turned the knob all the way to her right, and waited in the stream for the water to cool. However, despite how much less warm the rest of her body felt, her cheeks refused to cool. If anything, they got warmer. Her mouth also started to dry, and she slowly began to feel warm in…other…places.
“Okay, maybe no shower,” She pushed the knob inward, and climbed out of the shower. She levitated a towel put of the closet, shook out her coat, and started to dry her mane. She looked at herself in the mirror.
“Ten years. Ten straight years of never falling for any stallion, no matter how bad you looked for somepony. And now that you’ve finally stopped searching, you completely fall apart over somepony from another world. Pathetic,” She smiled. “Then again, maybe it’ll work out,” She trotted out of the bathroom, and down the stairs. She looked over to the table, and was surprised to find that Star wasn’t there. She was about to decide he had ditched her when she saw the note. She levitated it up to her eyes, and read it aloud.
“Went out to research some things. Be back by 5:00. Love, Star,” She blushed again.
“Who’s Star?” Asked a childish, but raspy and slightly masculine voice. Twilight looked over the note and saw a baby dragon with green spines and purple scales.
“Oh, hello Spike!” Twilight folded the note and hid it behind her. “How was your trip to Canterlot?”
“…Good,” He raised his right eyebrow. “You didn’t answer my question,”
“Wha-. Question? What question?” She said, desperately trying to avoid answering.
“I asked who Star was,”
Twilight started to blush. “Oh, that question. He’s just a stallion that I met yesterday,”
“Oh? Do tell,” Spike walked over to the table and sat down.
“You’re seriously starting to become as gossipy as Rarity,”
“Well, don’t act like you’re that surprised. I spend a lot of time with her,”
“Anyway, he’s just a stallion from another world who’s staying here for a while,”
“Oh, is that all?”
Twilight’s blush deepened. “It’s not what it sounds like,”
“Then why are you blushing?” Spike smiled.
“S-Shut up. What time is it?”
Spike looked at the sundial in the window. “Four fifty-one, Celestial Shift,”
Almost the moment he said that, the door opened, revealing a storm grey pegasus with platinum eyes that could only be Falling Star. He stopped in the doorway when he saw the dragon.
“Oh, well speak of the devil. Hello there, I’m-,”
“Hello Spike,” He walked past the awestruck dragon, and up to Twilight. “Ready to go?”
She smiled. “Absolutely,” She turned to Spike. “We’ll be gone for a few hours. Help yourself for lunch. Oh, and don’t forget to feed Owlicious,”
“No problem, just one thing,”
“Yes?” Star turned to Spike.
“Your eyes look platinum,”
“Because they are. Goodbye, we’ll be back before dinner,” And, with that they closed the door behind them.
Spike went to the window to watch them leave. “What a strange pony,”
“So Star,” Began Twilight, sticking fairly close to the black pegasus. “Where shall we go?”
“Well, I was informed by somepony that there was a comedy show going on from somepony named ‘Amusant Stage’ in the town hall. So I thought we’d start there. Afterwards we’d go get some dinner, and then I was told that there was a new flavor of cupcake for sale at Sugarcube Corner, so there for some dessert. Then I thought we’d go walk through the trees just past the apple orchard. And by the time we get to our final destination, the stars should be out, and we can do some star-gazing,”
“Oh! I do love star-gazing,”
“I thought you might, so, shall we?”
“Absolutely,”
“Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother, she’s a great mother. It’s just she’s sort of what some people would consider…clinically insane,” Twilight and Star laughed with the crowd.
“Good call, choosing to go here,” Twilight whispered to Star.
“Thanks,” He whispered back.
“It’s just, she’s one of those people who says something, and it sounds like it makes sense. And then she’d say something else and it’s like-,” The performing stallion did a double take. “What- No!”
The audience laughed again. “One thing she always used to tell me is ‘I cannot do eight things at once, I am not an octopus!’,” He looked out into the crowd with his head cocked, and one eyebrow raised, and the ponies laughed. “What Ma? ‘Well I can’t clean the kitchen and make your breakfast and get the mail- I’m not an octopus,” The crowd laughed again as he returned the look of complete disbelief and confusion. “An octopus can’t do that!” He gestured with his hooves when he said so in a manner that caused the audience to laugh again. “…I mean maybe I’m overthinking this a little but really!” The audience laughed again. Star wiped a tear from his right eye, and Twilight leaned into his left shoulder. He froze for a moment, but then placed his left hoof on her opposite shoulder.
“While we’re on the topic of mothers can I just ask…What’s with mothers and people getting their eyes gouged out?” The audience laughed, but quieter than before. “‘Stop playing with that before you gouge out someone’s eye!’ ‘Oh, it’s all fun and games until someone’s eye gets gouged out!’” The crowd laughed yet again. “Now, that’s fine most of the time but my mom used to say that about things you couldn’t gouge somepony’s eye out with, even in an emergency!” The crowd laughed louder this time. “It could happen!” He chuckled to himself. “I just imagine a surgery room where everypony’s wearing the facemasks and they’re all very serious and the whole ‘Scalpel’,” He turned right. “‘Scalpel,” he turned back “‘Forceps’ ‘Forceps’…‘Eye poppy-out thing’,” He turned right. “‘I’m sorry sir but we can’t find the eye poopy-out thing’,” He paused.
“Well, that’s alright go get me the snowglobe from Mrs. Stage’s living room because apparently you can take someone’s eye out with that!” The audience laughed hysterically.
He chuckled. “And with that, I’m afraid I must leave you tonight. Thank you,” The lights on the stage went out, and the lights in the seating powered up, although barely noticed by the cheering crowd.
After a few minutes, the audience realized that there was not going to be an encore, so the ponies began to disperse into Ponyville, Twilight and Star bringing up the back.
“That was a really great show,” said Twilight, keeping very close to Star.
“I thought so too. Although, he reminds me of someone…,”
“Really? Who?”
Star shrugged “Can’t put a name to the face. Anyway, dinner!” He gestured to a small restaurant on the corner of the street.
“‘Le Cuisine du Cheval’,” Twilight winced. “Sounds expensive,”
“Oh, no. God no. I wouldn’t take advantage of your kindness. If you’re willing to go somewhere expensive, we can. But I actually went and checked the menu. I promise you, the title is just for show,” He smiled. “We can actually get a decent meal there for around twenty bits!”
Twilight sighed with relief. “Good. Though that does beg the question. What does the title mean?”
“‘The food of the horse’,” Stated Star, matter of factly.
Twilight cocked her head. “You know French?”
“One year. One year of middle school French,”
“Cool,” The two walked in and were sat down almost immediately.
Twilight opened the menu they were given, and was greeted by five pages of food and drink. Her eyes widened.
“Take your time. I’ve already decided,”
Twilight’s jaw fell open. “Already?”
“I told you I was here earlier,”
Twilight walked out of the building, closely followed by Star. “Wow, that was so good!” She licked her lips. “I can’t believe how well this is going!”
“Well, since it was about 1:00 when I woke up, plus you were still asleep, I decided to go get some information on today’s happenings, as well as meet Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie,”
Twilight smiled. “So, where to now?”
“Same place as it was an hour ago. Sugarcube corner,” They turned right. “Which is right around this corner,” And he was right.
Twilight blushed. He planned out the route and everything. All for me! He’s so romantic!
Star smiled. “You’re blushing again,”
She tried to hide behind her mane like Fluttershy did, but she soon saw that she kept her mane too short to do so. So, all she ended up doing was slightly turning her head away, while still making eye contact.
Star chuckled. “You know, I think you’d look better if you kept your mane longer,”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I like a girl-,” He stopped briefly. “Mare with long hair. Not fur though. Keep your fur the way it is,”
Twilight giggled, and moved closer to Star so that their shoulders were touching, but she made sure to keep their flanks apart. A subtle motion, which Star made note of.
Star opened the door to Sugarcube Corner, and gestured inward with his hoof. “You first,” He offered, compassionately.
Her blush grew more noticeable, and didn’t show signs of backing down. Honestly, if Star didn’t know any better he’d think that she had some sort of medical condition.
Well, that could have been the case, but if it was, then it wasn’t something that could be treated with common medicine. If it was that that was causing the warmth in her cheeks…
He hurriedly cleared the thought, and focused himself on the here and now.
Twilight however, was looking at her possible future, and was absentmindedly walking through the doorway. When she passed by, she accidentally (at least Star hoped it was by accident) brushed her tail over his muzzle, causing his recently cleared thought to return momentarily. He had never been so thankful that he could clear his mind so easily.
Once Twilight entered the building, she was forced to backpedal by the pink earth pony, who was seemingly hanging in midair in front of her face. When she did, she collided into Star, who, being just as surprised as she was, fell over onto his back, which soon led to Twilight’s back falling onto his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.
“Hiya Twilight!” Said Pinkie Pie, enthusiastically. “What are you doing here? Oh wait, I knew you’d be here because Falling Star told me he’d be coming back here with you later. So it must be later now, huh? Hi Star!” Pinkie Pie fired the words at the two ponies at a rate which made it almost impossible to differentiate one sentence from the next. She didn’t even breathe until she had finished speaking.
“*gasp* Hello *wheeze* Pinkie *cough* Pie,” Replied Star, clutching at his ribcage, which until only moments before had been supporting an entire pony.
“I’m so sorry Star!” Said Twilight, desperately trying to help.
“It’s *cough* fine,” He slowly stood up, his breaths still somewhat raggedy.
“I bet that you guys are here for the new flavor of cupcake, right?” Said Pinkie, hopefully.
“Yes, as a matter of fact,”
“Great! I made it myself a few days ago! Mr. Cake finally let me release them to the public!” Pinkie was beaming, and leaning forward on her front hooves to the point where she was practically levitating.
“Yeah? What flavor are they?” Asked Star, doing his best to ignore the pure impossibility of her actions.
“I call it Love Potion!”
Twilight and Star exchanged a glance. “Uh, Love Potion? That’s kinda cheesy,”
“Cheesy?” Pinkie looked confused. “There isn’t any cheese in it! It has vanilla, raspberry, and chocolate!”
“No Pinkie, it’s- oh never mind, how much are they?”
“You don’t have to buy free samples silly! That’s why they’re free!”
“Oh, okay then,” He turned to Twilight. “Are you interested?”
“Sure,” The unicorn shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, alright then, would you go get us one of those…Love Potion…cupcakes?” Star put an added dose of annoyance on the name of the flavor.
“Okie Dokie Lokie!” She skipped toward the kitchen and Twilight turned to Star.
“One cupcake? But there’s two of us,”
“Yes,” He stepped slightly closer to her. “Are you alright with sharing?”
“I-I guess. But how will we divide it up? Will we split it 50/50? Or will I have slightly less and we split it 60/40? Or maybe-,” She was interrupted by star placing his hoof over her mouth.
“How about we just eat the cupcake?” As if she had sensed the proper timing, Pinkie Pie came hopping out of the kitchen, carrying a vanilla cupcake with red frosting, drizzled with chocolate syrup.
Upon visual contact with it, both Twilight and Star’s mouths began to water.
“Wow Pinkie,” Began Twilight, her mouth hanging open. “That looks delicious,”
“I hope so, If it didn’t then nopony would eat it,” She tossed it over to the two ponies, and Star caught it on his right wing.
“Huh,” Commented Star, somewhat surprised. “Didn’t know I could do that,” Twilight and Pinkie giggled, and Twilight levitated the cupcake off his wing.
“Thank you, Pinkie Pie. However, we should probably get going. Goodbye Pinkie,”
“Goodbye Twilight!” She paused when she looked at Star, her eyes fluttered, her ears flopped, and she rolled out her shoulder. Her mood then dropped to near depression. “Goodbye Star…,”
The two exchanged a glance, and then left.
“Hey, Star?” Asked Twilight, a small amount of worry in her voice. “What happened to Pinkie Pie just now?”
“Hm?” Star was pulled out of his mind by the unexpected question. “Oh, uh, I dunno,” He dismissed. “Anyway, shall we start on the cupcake?”
Twilight smiled. “Definitely!” The two leaned in, and took a bite from the small cake simultaneously.
There was a moment of pause as the two ponies silently judged the fluffy material in their mouths. “Wow!” Star licked his lips. “That’s delicious!
“Yeah!” Twilight did the same. “Pinkie Pie must be some sort of genius with cake!”
“I’ll say!” The two trotted onward, taking bites of the cupcake, and praising the flavor, texture, and anything else they could. Until they finished eating, and began to discuss any other topic that came to mind, whilst they neared the forest.
“So Star,” Began Twilight, who was trotting fairly close to Falling Star. “What’s it like in your world?”
“Well…,” He thought for a moment as to where begin. “First off, it looks very different, like, way more detailed then all this,” He gestured to most of the area around him. “Like, you know how a painting looks, right?”
“Yeah,” She replied, obviously interested.
“Well, imagine living in a world where everything looks like that. Next, we’re way more technologically advanced than you guys are. And, most importantly, a human does not look anything like a pony,” He paused for a second, trying to decide how to describe the human race to a pony, and gave up. “I can’t even describe it,”
“Whoa, that’s pretty cool!”
“I’m sure it would be if you didn’t live in it every day for seventeen year,”
Twilight cocked her head. “You don’t like your world?”
It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just-,” Star sighed. “It just gets boring after a while, that’s all,”
“I’d like to say I know what you mean, but I can’t,” She paused, momentarily. “There’s always been some new thing to change up life in Equestria. The return of Nightmare Moon, the return of Discord, the Changeling invasion, the return of the Crystal Empire and King Sombra,” She could’ve gone on, but she knew it wasn’t necessary.
“Yeah, stuff like that doesn’t usually happen in my world,” He stopped trotting, much to Twilight’s surprise.
“Here we are!” The look of surprise on Twilight’s face was not missed. She had no Idea how long they had been walking, but it had apparently been a while, since it was light out when they left Sugarcube Corner, and it was dark now.
“Wow, I thought we had only been walking for a few-,” Twilight stopped when she saw the stars and the night sky. “Wow,” She sat down, and Star walked up, sat down next to her, and gestured for her to lie down. And after a few seconds, she did.
“You know, I know absolutely nothing about pony constellations,”
“Really?” She turned her head left, to look at the storm grey pegasus. “Nothing, unless they’re exactly the same as human constellations, which I doubt,” He analyzed the sky for a few moments. “Then again, perhaps I’m wrong,” He turned to Twilight. “They are exactly the same,”
“Huh, that’s pretty weird,” The two turned back to the sky.
Star pointed toward Scorpius. “See that constellation?”
“Yeah,”
“When I first saw it, I thought it looked a snake as opposed to a scorpion,”
“Really? I always thought that it looked like a wingless bird,”
“Huh, never thought of it that way,” He looked around the sky for something else to emphasize, but Twilight beat him to it.
“See that one there?” She pointed toward a seemingly randomized group of stars. “I always thought that it looked like Princess Celestia,”
“Really?” He paused for a moment. “Nah, can’t see it. I guess I’m just not as creative as you are Twilight,”
The unicorn giggled, and blushed. “Thanks,” She turned back to Star. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about anypony before,”
Star smiled, and turned to Twilight. “Don’t go getting sappy on me now,”
Twilight blushed more. “Yeah, but it’s true,” She then realized that their muzzles were only a few inches apart. “Uh, Star?”
“Yeah?” He appeared to lose himself in her eyes.
“Today was really…wonderful,”
“Well, I’m glad you felt that way,” Twilight then lost herself in Stars eyes.
The two didn’t move for four long seconds, until, slowly but surely, their muzzles moved closer to one another. The warmth in Twilight’s cheeks elevated to the point of actual heat, but she didn’t care. Her eyes drifted shut. At this moment, all Twilight cared about was her, and Star, and the very short distance between their lips. However, she had no need to worry about the latter for very long, as the distance closed fast, and their lips contacted.
For uncountable seconds, all that existed to the two, was each other. They didn’t care about the Stars above them, the ground beneath them, or the air around them. It was just Twilight Sparkle, and Falling Star. They barely even had to stop to breathe. It must have been at least a minute before they broke it off. At which point they didn’t move much.
Twilight smiled. In fact, she was practically beaming. “Would you like to head home now?”
Star laughed nervously. “As much as I’d love to, I’m afraid that I can’t,”
Twilight sat up. “What do you mean?”
Star sighed. “For you, this is reality. This is your home. But for me, I’m actually asleep. As real as I’m almost certain this is, I can’t stay forever. In fact, I think I’m going to be pulled out any minute,”
Twilight looked like somepony had just torn out her heart. Which was more or less the case. Tears began to stream down her cheeks. “But-But I thought that we-,”
Star placed his hoof over Twilight’s mouth. “I know, and maybe someday, we will. But for now, that won’t happen,” He yawned. “I think that once I fall asleep, I’ll be headed home,” He removed his hoof from Twilight’s mouth. “Although, I doubt my body will disappear. Maybe you can convince Celestia to keep it somewhere safe?”
Twilight nodded. “Of course,”
“You know, I think I finally…understand *yawn* why you’re…my favorite…pony…,” Star’s eyes fell shut, and his breathing lowered to a regular rate.
For the first time in Twilight’s life, she swore.
“Shit,”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jared is a brony. Although, it isn’t difficult to know that when he talks about FiM all the time. He’s also a gamer, but again, he talks about games all the time. His eyes are platinum colored, some strange mutation that isn't known by most of the world, but is true. One thing he doesn’t talk about much though, is dreams, and sleep. He’s been studying sleep, the REM cycle, and dreams. And he’s probably the most educated on the subject of his age. But back to MLP, his life is practically centered around the series. He writes songs about it, draws pictures for it, posts videos about it, and lastly, composes some of the most accurate theories about it.
But, what about the question that every brony is asked? Who is his favorite pony? He would answer you in less than a heartbeat. Twilight Sparkle. If you asked “Why Twilight?” or “Why not Rainbow Dash?” or “What’s wrong with you? Pinkie Pie is best pony!” he would give an immediate and decisive answer.
“Because I love her,”
Author's Note
Well, here it is! It's been nearly four months, countless writers blocks, and occasional dropped hints about it's existence. But I've finally finished my first HiE ever. I hope you enjoyed reading it! If you did, tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell nobody! i don't care! It's your life and opinions after all. If you did not like it, I always appreciate constructive criticism in the comments. Thank you for reading!
