Starlight

Chapter 2: Star Gazing

     “Star Chaser, huh?” I asked, trying to be cautious about my questions. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she suffers from multiple personality disorder or bi-polar disorder. However, I’m not a doctor. I can’t say for sure. I watched the stance Star Chaser stood in. Her hooves close together as she stood up straight on all four hooves. Like a superhero would stand after arriving to the location of the villain’s headquarters while feeling pumped up for the upcoming battle. Well, that’s how I imagined it as, being a fan of classic superheros like Batcolt and Spidercolt.

     “That’s right!” the peppy yellow maned pegasus confirmed, grinning ear to ear with her eyes closed proudly.

     “Where’d you come from?” I asked.

     “Wh- what do you mean?” she snapped, “I came from my mother, like everypony else!”

     “That’s… not what I meant.” I said, kicking a small pebble on the ground. “Where were you before you came here?”

     “In the sky.” she quickly answered. At this point, it was hard for me to tell if she was being elusive or just plain stupid.

     “Never mind that. Why did you attack me?”

     “You rolled your eyes at me.” she said. I couldn’t even tell if she was serious or not. “Where I come from, that’s a sign of attack.” I stopped in my train of thought real quick. Did I really roll my eyes at her? It’s possible I did after the flash, but otherwise I don’t recall a thing. Judging by what I have gathered from this mare already, she could even be finding an excuse just to justify her actions for attacking me.

     “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” I felt it was better just to play along. “Do you have anywhere to go? I need to get back to the office in Cloudsdale.” I desperately just wanted to get away from this crazy pony. I get enough crazy at the office.

     “Cloudsdale?” she said slowly, as if she was saying it for the first time. I tilted my head at her, my mind warped as to what was going on now.

     “Yeah. The… place where pegasi live. You’ve never been there?” I asked. I would normally try not to ask so many questions just because she could have suffered amnesia or something from the fall, but I’m a reporter. I couldn’t help myself.

     “No. I’ve never been in this land at all.” she replied. This shocked me with relief for a moment. I thought I was dealing with someone crazy who was ‘born of the stars’ as my mind first described her since I needed something to classify her as. I guess she’s just a foreigner.

     “Oh, so you’re not native to this land.” I assumed based on what she told me. That seemed like an obvious statement anyway. Or an understatement as the case may be. “Do you have any way to get back home?”

     “No.” she said. That was it. She just shook her head, frowned, looked down, and said ‘No.’ I hated where my mind was going with this as it seemed to speak for me without stopping to think.

     “You can come back with me to Cloudsdale if you want.” I said, now wanting to cuff myself with regret for suggesting that. Perhaps it wasn’t the fact that I said it that bothered me. Rather, it was how after I said it, she looked up beaming at me with a peppy expression on her face, jumping up and down saying quickly,

“Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” for a few moments.

“It’s… no problem. Really.” what was I thinking? It was a huge problem! I sighed, the happiness of Star Chaser really making me feel happy myself.

     “Should we go, Star Chaser?”

     “Call me Star. Let’s go!” she said, not even giving me a moment to acknowledge what she said before blasting off into the sky. It took me a small moment, and I decided to go after her. She didn’t even know where she was going after all.

     “Follow me, Star!” I yelled to her as I got close next to her. She reduced her speed slightly and allowed me to take the lead. Cloudsdale was in sight, but I’d still feel safer knowing she couldn’t possibly get lost following me. She had to at least be somewhat coherent. As we flew past, I took out my notepad once again. Mare in the Stars. I wrote. Putting my notepad and pencil away, I felt a rush of wind hit against my backside as Star blasted off from behind me towards Cloudsdale. At least she was heading in the right direction. I was surprised by her speed. She was quick and reckless, but knew what she was doing.

     Arriving at Cloudsdale a few minutes after I realized Star’s speed, I landed close to the office building, looking at Star do random circles with increasing speed every time she completed a circle.

     “Come on, Star!” I yelled towards her. She came to a halt, and started to move down. My eyes focused on her. How her red clothing gracefully flowed loosely in the wind. How her beautiful sapphire eyes glared in the sunlight that gleamed over Cloudsdale. How her wings folded slowly as she landed on the cloud. And how she looked at me like an idiot for staring at her with my mouth open, admiring her form. I shook my head, pulling myself back together.

     “Are you okay?” she asked. I must have seemed like an idiot. I didn’t want her to think that. What was wrong with me? Now all of a sudden I care about what she thinks about me as opposed to less than half an hour ago when all I wanted was to get away from her? Celestia, if there was ever a time in the world to need a drink…

     “Yeah. Of course.” I said. I let a moment of silence take over as I thought about what to do next. Do I really show her to Money Bags, who would probably want interviews and reports left and right? I don’t. I did NOT want to have her crowded by colts left and right. She was walking towards the office door happily. “Wait!” I said, losing hope the closer she got. Luckily for me, she stopped in her tracks, just a few feet from the door.

     “What?” she asked, turning around.

     “Let me show you around Cloudsdale first.” I suggested, desperately not wanting to let Money Bags see her through a window.

     “Okey dokey!” she said, surprisingly cooperative and walking happily towards me now.

     “There’s a lot of sights to see in Cloudsdale.”

     “Then let’s go! Get your flank in gear!” she said. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. My wings started to flap as I flew up into the air, waiting for her to do the same. When we were both looking eye to eye, I began to head for the biggest sight first. The Wonderbolts performance that is currently going on right now. If she loves flying, she’ll love seeing some of the best in action.

     Soaring through the sky, my mind was filled with thoughts of sitting together and watching the Wonderbolts. Then they were filled with how stupid I was being. This mare comes from who knows where and doesn’t even belong in this land and the first thing I think of is trying to impress her by taking her to a group of professional flyers. Yeah, this will go over well.

     The Cloudsdale Stadium was directly ahead of us. It was the biggest landmark in all of Cloudsdale, and I’ve been there many times. Not many can say they’ve been to a Wonderbolts performance about seventeen times, but in the life of a reporter, somepony needs to try and get interviews with some of the fastest known flyers in history. It was a large building, looking like a colosseum-style building with an open arena-looking center that when looked down from has a direct sight towards the ground itself.

     Landing outside of the entrance to the Cloudsdale Stadium, I looked at Star’s expression. Her face was filled with expressions of excitement as she beamed at the site of the colossal landmark right in front of her. She couldn’t take her eyes off the building.

     “Wow…” she said, admiring the handiwork of the stadium. Her face went from side to side, observing the building from what I could tell. In front of us was a pony collecting tickets to get inside the stadium. He seemed buff, tall, and a completely white pegasus with a black flat mane with a short stub of a tail.

     Walking up to the pegasus, Star tried to trot happily inside, but was pushed back by the ticket collector.

     “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he said, his rugged voice halting us in our steps. “Where’s your ticket?”

     “Ticket?” Star asked, confused. I wasn’t sure if she was confused by the fact that they needed a ticket or if she even knew what a ticket was. I walked up towards the ticket collector and flashed my golden flat and circular token at him which signified that I was a reporter in Cloudsdale.

     “We’re all set.” I said, trying not to make eye contact with him.

     “Alright, you two are clear. Go on inside.” he said, letting us pass through the doorway of the stadium. Star looked at me happily, now thinking we’re some sort of V.I.P. guests or something. I wasn’t about to spoil her fun.

     Walking through the halls of the Cloudsdale Stadium, we noticed a lot of paintings and artwork hanging around the walls. Statues of the Wonderbolts, paintings dedicated to the history of fast fliers in history. I’ve seen them all multiple times, but watching Star’s expression seemed to make it feel like I was here for the first time again. The carved marble sculptures of the Wonderbolts, most notably Spitfire, caught Star’s attention. Even though the sculptures weren’t in color, I could tell she had no problem matching the paintings of them with the sculptures of them, and there was something about Spitfire that inspired her.

     After finally regaining Star’s attention, we quickly made our way to the designated cloud reserved for news reporters. Of course, I wasn’t supposed to be there, so Golden Dusk took the spot on the cloud where I would have been if it was my turn. We flew over to the cloud and sat next to him. It took him a moment to notice, but when he did, he nearly jumped off the cloud.

     “What are you doing here, Grass?” asked Golden Dusk. He lowered his camera which was hung by a strap around his neck.

     “Figured I’d come and see the show.” I said, deciding not to explain the whole story yet if I didn’t have to. It couldn’t be that big of a deal.

     “And who’s this?” Golden Dusk said, motioning towards Star acting charmingly. I took in front of Star and glared at Golden Dusk, almost jealous.

     “Star Chaser.” she said, peering from behind my back to see him.

     “Hello Star Chaser!” Golden Dusk said, smiling. I sighed and moved out of the way, realizing how kiddish I was being on the situation.

     “Star, this is Golden Dusk. He’s a news reporter like me.” I introduced them, trying to keep it short.

     “A pleasure to meet you.” Golden Dusk said. I was going to try and explain a bit more as to why Star Chaser and I were together when I shouldn’t be, but then the announcements came on.

     “Attention mares and gentlecolts! Fillies of all ages! I present to you the one, the only, the Wonderbolts!” the announcer said with enthusiasm.

     “Star! Look!” I said, pointing at Spitfire as she led a triangle-shaped formation of five Wonderbolts. They split up as they flew into they flew into the sky, two Wonderbolts going left and two going right while Spitfire flew straight up. They looked like they were going to do what I call their “Sky Bomb” performance, which was basically just all meeting up in the middle where Spitfire was going and all flying down at bolting speed in a single-file line going straight down the center of the stadium. I knew Star would enjoy seeing something like that. Looking at Star, she seemed very happy, her face continuing to beam wider and wider until she let out a chuckle. “What’s so funny?” I asked.

     “I can do better than that!” she said, feeling challenged.

     “They’re doing great!” Golden Dusk said, taking pictures as they four of the Wonderbolts met back up with Spitfire, who began to dash straight down with the others following her, just as I described earlier. As they passed by us, I noticed Star begin to move. For some reason, she flew off into the center of the stadium and dashed after the Wonderbolts, following them.

     “Star!” I yelled, trying to get her attention to no effect. She followed her new-found idol, Spitfire, while still having to follow behind the other four Wonderbolt performers. “Golden, what do we do?” I asked, turning towards Golden Dusk as he snapped photos of the performance, making sure to zoom in specifically on Star.

     “I don’t know! We can’t just go after her. They’ll kick us ALL out.” he explained as he snapped a photo every few seconds. The crowd was buzzing with chatter and cheers as they watched Star’s expert performance with the Wonderbolts. This went on for a while. She followed their routines and matched it up symmetrically if they needed to disperse. If they ended up doing another of the sky bomb routines, she just followed Spitfire. The weird thing was, they acted like she was never there and if she got in their way, they acted like it was just part of the performance. Before I knew it, it was time for their finale.

     “This is a disaster…” I muttered to myself.

     “Are you kidding? This is fantastic!” Golden Dusk said, taking picture after picture. His mouth was almost watering with the thought of being responsible for a story like this. The Wonderbolts spun in a wide circle, big enough for everypony to see. Eventually, the circle looked like a solid blue ring that blended perfectly with the color of Star, despite her red clothing, which worked surprisingly well for the performance.

     “Here it comes…” I said, becoming very nervous on the performance. All of the Wonderbolts, including Star Chaser, broke off into different directions and flew up simultaneously until they did a group pose together, in which Star joined in the back. I slammed my hoof against my forehead, not wanting to believe what I just saw. As always, there was Golden Dusk taking even more pictures. Some part of me wanted to smash his camera. I wasn’t sure what that reason was for. Maybe just because I didn’t want him to have pictures of her with his mouth wide open like it was and his tongue hanging out. As the Wonderbolts flew into the same spot in the stadium where they flew in from, Star came back to us.

     “Star…” I began to say. She cut me off.

     “Did you see that? It was awesome! Why didn’t anypony else jump in?” she asked. I didn’t get to finish what I started to say earlier before pegasus guards flew to our cloud.

     “Ma’am, we have to ask you to leave. Now.” one of the guards said, grabbing Star’s arm.

     “Hey! Leave her alone!” I said, grabbing her other arm.

     “Gold!” Golden Dusk said. That just happened to be his catch phrase. He snapped pictures of us arguing, and as soon as I realized the constant flash of his camera, I let go of Star and looked at Golden Dusk to yell at him for taking pictures of our small fight. I didn’t get a word out of my mouth until Star was being taken away, her body trying to wiggle her way out of their grasp. I flew after Star, leaving Golden Dusk to wrap up his job.

     Finally, Star was thrown out of the stadium. She landed on the cloud with a “Oof!” and stood back up, getting ready to charge at them until I quickly dashed in front of her and held her still.

     “Star! Calm down. It’s alright. The performance was over anyway!” I said, noticing a small tear in her eyes.

     “But I wanted to meet them!” Star protested, trying to push me away. Then I noticed that for some reason, she really looked up to Spitfire. As an idol or friend or something. I thought of it as a little sister to big sister feeling.

     “They’re swamped with wrapping up now. You’ll have your chance.” I said, loosening my grip on her. “I promise.”

     “What’s that?” she said. At first, I thought she was referencing what a ‘promise’ was, and then I caught her glare around my neck. No, it wasn’t a camera. Around my neck was a piece of sturdy tan string with a wooden Wing-Shaped charm around it.

     “This?” I said, moving my necklace so she can get a better look at it. “It’s a good luck charm. They’re rare. I found it in a dumpster in Cloudsdale one day.” I smiled at her. “Maybe I’ll tell you the whole story one day.” She surely wasn’t one to stay on one specific topic for too long.

     “Okay!” she said, perking right back up.

     “How would you feel if we went to go get some lunch?” I asked, feeling my stomach rumble from not having eaten anything all day. Usually by this point, I’ve at least had my lunch break. Star just nodded her head. “Okay. What are you in the mood for?” she shrugged. No answer, just a shrug. I chuckled a little, and grabbed her hoof, trying to pull her into the air so we could fly. “Come on. I know a place we can go to.” and I looked towards the direction of a small grab-and-go café that sells dandelion sandwiches and make amazing hay shakes. That’s where I usually go during my break.

     Coming up to the café, which wasn’t far from the stadium at all and was now starting to get busier with the recent event just getting over, I looked at Star again. She looked straight at the menu which hung over the mobile kiosk. There were maybe about seven other ponies there looking to get food. So we just had to sit back and wait for a while.

     When it finally became our turn to get food, Star ran up to the kiosk as if she were a filly experiencing a candy shop for the first time. She looked right at the menu, her tongue hanging out at the sight of a picture of a dandelion sandwich. I looked at her and smiled.

     “That’s what I get every day. You should like it.” I said to her as if she was even paying attention to me in the first place. I looked at the cook, who knew me so well by now that all I had to do was lift a hoof and he knew exactly what I wanted. Two dandelion sandwiches and two hay shakes. They had other things, but I was desperate to see if she and I were compatible in any way.

     It only took the food a moment to get ready. Next thing we knew, we had a paper bag with two sandwiches wrapped in thin paper and two shakes on the counter. I grabbed everything, having to hold the bag with my mouth, and Star followed me to a small bench that sat at the exterior of the stadium. I put the drink down on the bench and sat down, and Star followed my lead. I opened the paper bag, handed her her sandwich, which she proceeded to grab quickly, and took out my own.

     I expected her to unwrap it and eat it all in one big bite. However, this time she actually showed some sort of courtesy. She unwrapped the paper so it didn’t rip it all. I couldn’t even do that. I usually just tore the paper and threw it away. Looking at the sandwich, she took a bite out of it. Not even a big one. After swallowing, she looked at me curiously. I immediately turned away. I think she thought I was being creepy by watching her eat.

     I did the same as her, trying to be careful with my typical eating habits. I looked at my sandwich and took a bite, wishing I got something different. It’s just awkward saying no when somepony already assumed what you wanted based on what you’ve had in the past and goes to prepare it. Maybe I’m just getting sick of the taste of dandelion sandwiches every day.

     There didn’t seem to be much conversation at all. In fact, all she was doing was sitting there, eating her sandwich and drinking her shake. No looking around the city, no nothing. I couldn’t tell if I was more surprised or knocked back. This entire time I’ve been preparing myself on how to deal with this mare who seemed to cause trouble at every turn, and now all of a sudden she’s calm and polite about what she is doing.

     “So…” I said, hoping to spike some sort of conversation. “You wanted to know about the necklace?”

     “Mhm!” she said, taking another bite of the sandwich and showing a faint smile.

     “When I was a child, my mother gave me this necklace…” I started, knowing this story would be a long one. “This was just before they left. You see, mother and father never really wanted a child. When they had one, father decided he needed a break from all of the hospitality and care they had to create for me and my mother agreed.” I stopped for a moment, letting her finish taking a sip so she could pay attention.

     “That’s not nice.” she said. She seemed to have a clear definition set in her mind between right and wrong.

     “They never came back.” I said, feeling a little bit of pain in my heart. “But when my mother gave me this necklace, she told me that no matter what, it would bring me good luck and that there’s only a handful of them in existence.” I finished, now realizing I was holding back a tear while looking at my charm.

     I don’t know if she understood what I said. We sat there for a while even after we finished our food and threw it away. We didn’t talk about much. Just different sites in Cloudsdale and some of the people I’ve met. Money Bags, Flare Skates, Spitfire, Golden Dusk, and just other random miscellaneous pegasus who played a part in Cloudsdale. I sat there, thinking for a moment to myself about what was going on.

     Here I was sitting in a daze. My mind was completely oblivious to the outside world. I was thinking about my parents again. How I never knew where they were or if they’d ever come back or if I even wanted them back. I see fillies with their parents every day and never before have I seen such a sight that looked as aesthetically pleasing as running around and playing with a little one. I thought of Money Bags. How, even though he was probably the last person I’d save if something bad were to happen, he was the closest thing I had to a father, but I’d never let him or anypony else know that.

     It took some time before I refocused back on the reality at hand. When I did, I felt a bit of weight left on my shoulder. Before you start making assumptions, no, I’m not speaking metaphorically. I looked to my left where I saw Star laying her head down on my shoulder, asleep. I wondered if she was just exhausted from all of the excitement, and then I realized it was nearly sunset.

     “Star?” I asked, trying to wake her up. No movement. She was peacefully breathing out of her slightly open mouth and I cracked a smile. I picked her up, holding her by my hooves and carrying her like a child, trying to support her head. She was beyond passed out. I felt like I was kidnapping her at first. She doesn’t even live here. At the same time, I couldn’t just abandon her. I had to keep her safe.

     Ignoring everything else, I hastily made my way to my small house. Her small yawns causing me to let out yawns and smiles of my own. I opened the door with my bottom hoof, trying hard not to wake or disturb Star as she slept. My legs were starting to shake and my eyes were closing every few seconds. My stairs suddenly looked like they could stretch on for miles. I groaned, looking around my small living room and realizing how tempting the couch looked. I walked over, laying Star down on the couch and sitting peacefully at her head, which was half way across the couch.

     “Hello, I’m Star Chaser…” she mumbled. I looked down, listening to her talk in her sleep. “Grass Marks… shooting stars.” It appeared to be a list of things she was talking about. Maybe recalling what had just happened. I looked at her as she started to move, her eyes still closed. I thought she perhaps had just woken up until she moved closer to me and wrapped her hooves around my neck loosely, pressing her soft lips against mine. My heart began to race, pounding against my chest as I blushed intensely, kissing Star.

     I held Star close, suddenly feeling glad to be alive. Next thing I knew, she was moving even closer to me, getting out of her relaxed position and crawling her way onto me. She sat down on my lap, her eyes still closed as she kissed me. I closed my eyes with her, not being fully aware if she’s even aware of what she’s doing and for a moment, not even caring. It sounds selfish, I know, but the feeling was so intense and so powerful that I didn’t have a care in the world for once in my life. This was our moment together.

     Star opened her eyes slowly. I did the same almost in perfect harmony. She looked at me, her eyes half way open and stopping there. She blushed, slipping her tongue in my mouth, and closed them again, pressing her body against mine and forcing my back against the couch. Our tongues swirled around each other, the feeling tingling in my mouth.

     I couldn’t help but feel great ecstasy overcome my body. She soon found this out when, as we were kissing, she was poked from behind. The second this second her eyes opened and she looked at me to see me blushing more furiously than when we started.  My eyes met with hers and my I kissed her again, letting the moment wash over every bit of worry I had. She sat herself up, keeping her eyes focused on me and lowering her red skirt until it was completely removed from her body. For whatever reason, seeing her without some sort of fabric covering her just made the heated moment even hotter. I mean, most ponies don’t wear clothing anyway, but it was the fact that she did that made seeing her without it hotter to me.

     I soon felt weight being pressed down around me, knowing I was entering inside her. The feeling of having her clenched tightly around me as she moved slowly and hearing her moans as she moved just made me lean back and enjoy the moment. It took a moment for her to reach all the way down me, but when she did, she immediately leaned forward and kissed me passionately with her eyes closed.

     Moments passed with the same motions, but the feeling never died down. I couldn’t lie to myself. It felt amazing. An absolute trance of pleasure and enjoyment. I looked at her in the eyes as she continued to bounce on my lap, and the look let her know what was about to happen. She started to move faster, getting louder as she moaned in both pleasure and slight pain. She looked at me, one eye open and with a wide grin from ear to ear stretched across her beautiful blue face. I groaned her nice in a whisper, and she heard it well. It was just as if she didn’t care. It was impossible for me to hold it any longer. I released inside of her, feeling multiple pulses shake through my body as she arched her head back and smiled with her eyes shut. After it was over, she fell sideways, panting with her mouth open. I followed her position until we were both laying down together on the couch, my arm reached across her body.

     “Star?” I asked, feeling my heart pound against my chest from exhaustion.

     “I’m never leaving…” she said. I believed every word of it. I smiled and hugged her tightly.

     “I love you…” I said, pulling a small blanket up to try and cover us, but intentionally giving her more of it.

     “I love you too.” she replied as her eyes closed shut and we both drifted off to sleep.

     That sealed the deal.