Chapter 3 Parties And Memory's

sorry could not think of a good name for the chapter

The dream started sweetly, with Shooting Star climbing a cake mountain with Pinkie Pie in tow. Most of the dream was spent climbing the crumbly, tasty mountain, talking to several animated desserts as Shooting Star and Pinkie hiked along. Right before they reached the top, there was utter blackness, and Shooting Star felt cold all over, even though he was probably

wrapped up in a nest of blankets. Shooting Star suddenly felt very scared, and kept screaming to himself “wake up, wake up, WAKE UP!!” But he did not wake. Instead he was dropped into a gray place, with tall buildings surrounding him, and strange machines that made a lot of noise and smoke.

There was rain, thunder, lightning, and Star was wrapped in a soaked cloth of some sort. He was walking on two legs. On two
legs!? Since when did he have two legs? A name echoed in the confines of his subconscious. Demon, was it? or dark man? Wait…”Damian” it said to him slowly, placatingly. It was enchanting, and hauntingly familiar. Was that his name in this other world, this other body? Damian? He wasn’t sure what to make of this dream, but he was scared.

Star began to run, tripping and falling into mud puddles and garbage heaps. Things were being thrown at him. Rocks, cans, all manner of garbage. Star was crying, being chased by monsters, on two legs just the same as he. They were laughing at him and calling him names. He didn’t know why they were being so cruel to him. Star ran into a dark alleyway, rain beating down on him. The pale monsters caught up to him, and he got a good look at them.

The monsters were pale and tall. There were three of them. Two of them had dust colored manes, and the third one, the biggest, had a dark brown, mud colored mane. They stood on two legs, and did not have hooves on any of their limbs. They were wearing cloths, similar to what he was wearing. Also, he realized that they had no fur either. Whatever these were, they
were certainly not ponies. And certainly not from Equestria, if his old story books had any truth within them. The monsters approached him, brandishing sticks and pipes.

Star acted on instinct, though he didn’t realize what kind of instinct he was acting upon. He picked up some sort of long, wooden object, with metal bits sticking out of it. He then charged the nearest monster, swinging his ill-suited weapon at its torso. The monster easily sidestepped him and hit him across his back with a grey pipe. Star felt the sharpest jolt of pain he

had ever experienced, and he collapsed under the jolt. He felt the other monsters beating upon him, laughing and yelling, as if they enjoyed every second of his torture. With three final hits, they dropped their weapons on him, and left him for dead. Gasping for air, he collapsed in a final white light.
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Shooting Star jolted awake with a scream that was quite unlike him. Twilight and Spike barged into his room, Twilight activating a magically powered lamp on his bedstand. Twilight rushed to Star’s side, cradling him in her forehooves. He was sobbing loudly, and shaking. Star was also drenched in a cold sweat, even though the bedroom was pleasantly cool for being the middle of the summer.

Twilight was still holding Shooting Star, rocking him gently. She told Spike to make some warm tea and bring it up to the room, while she talked to Shooting Star. She asked him about his nightmare, and he recounted every last horrifying detail, erupting into fresh sobs every time a particularly painful piece came forth. As Twilight held Star gently, Spike had returned with the tea, and Shooting Star drank deeply, having cried himself nearly hoarse. Twilight waited until he fell asleep, and

returned to bed herself. Twilight hoped that tomorrow’s festivities would take Star’s mind off of his horrifying dream.
Twilight dwelt upon Star’s nightmare for a few moments. From what Star had told her, it seemed like he had lived through the events, rather than dreamt them. She had heard of lucid dreaming, where the dream feels real while you sleep, but hadn’t yet come across a case where it woke the dreamer up with such vivid recollection. Twilight placed the dream to the back of her mind and dozed off. She had to help Pinkie with the party preparations, so she would need to be up early.
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The next day, Star woke up at about 10am, judging by the sunlight streaming through his curtains. He saw a note tacked to his lamp. The note read as follows:“Shooting Star, today’s the day of Pinkie’s welcoming party for you. Please tidy yourself up and come downstairs when you’re ready. Signed, Twilight Sparkle.”

Shooting Star frowned and looked at himself in the mirror. Living at the castle required a certain amount of grooming which he never liked. Nonetheless, he ran a wide-toothed combed through his mane, checked himself in the mirror, and trotted downstairs to a waiting breakfast. After cleaning his plate, Twilight entered the library with a smile, telekinetically placing a midnight blue bowtie around Star’s neck. Star grumbled at this, but kept it on for Twilight’s sake. After that, Twilight and Star
climbed into a waiting carriage, driven by none other than Spike himself.

The long walk to Sweet Apple Acres was not an easy one, so Twilight decided to rent a carriage for the day. Even though other young fillies and colts walked the same route, Twilight felt the young prince shouldn’t have had to. They arrived at Sweet Apple Acres at just about 11:30, and the party guests were filtering in as pairs or threes. All the faces were new to Shooting Star, except for Spike, Twilight, and Pinkie.

Twilight led Shooting Star to a lavishly decorated table, marked “Guests of Honor”. At this table were 7 chairs, and Twilight seated Shooting Star at the most lavish of the chairs. She then proceeded to introduce Shooting Star to her 5 best friends. First up was a yellow Pegasus with a butterfly cutie mark. She introduced herself as Fluttershy, rather shyly as her name

implied. She seated herself at one of the chairs. Next, a rather pretty unicorn introduced herself as Rarity. She ran the Carousel Boutique, designing clothes for the rich and famous as well as the less privileged. She was a sparkling white color with three gems as a cutie mark and a purple mane. Spike’s eyes went all googly with little hearts in them every time he looked at Rarity, Star noted.

Third was a rather well built earth pony with three apples as her cutie mark. She had an orange coat and dirty blonde hair. She was the proprietor of the very farm they were at. She introduced herself as Applejack, giving Star a warm smile and
rather vigorous hoofshake, leaving Star’s eyes spinning in their sockets. Lastly, a rather colorful Pegasus flew above the

crowd and directly to their table. Introducing herself as Rainbow Dash, she went on about how she was the best young flier in Equestria, destined to become captain of the Wonderbolts. She filled the last chair at the table, and the group began to chat excitedly among themselves.

They were equally astonished that there was another Alicorn among the ponies of Equestria. The last anypony had seen of an Alicorn besides the princesses, was over a millennia ago, before Nightmare Moon’s exile. The ponies chatted amongst themselves about nothing in particular, which bored the horseshoes off of Shooting Star. After he’d had quite enough of the conversation he didn’t understand, he began to mingle among the other ponies. They were all adults, well most of them, so he didn’t get too much excitement from them.

Sitting alone in a corner were three young fillies. Shooting Star approached them, unsure of what he was going to say. Ultimately, he introduced himself and they happily introduced themselves. Their names were Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo was a brash orange Pegasus with tiny wings and purple hair. Her attitude reflected Rainbow Dash’s, albeit younger. Apple Bloom was a slightly chunky Earth pony with red hair that was related to Applejack. Even her

voice reflected her older sister’s. Sweetie Belle was a white unicorn with a pink stripe in her blue-purple mane, related to none other than Rarity, the boutique owner. They called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders, revealing their blank hindquarters.

Shooting Star sat and chatted for a good long while with the young fillies, and found that they had many interesting stories to tell about their adventures in seeking their cutie marks. He found that some of the stories were outright ridiculous, and they all laughed about them. The party went on around him, occasionally a new pony would introduce themselves to him, but he

barely remembered their name a few seconds afterwards. It’s not that he was particularly mean or ungrateful, but he was still young and couldn’t hold very many thoughts at once. As the long night drew on, Star felt himself getting sleepier and sleepier. Taking leave of his new friends, he made his way to the Honored table, and asked Twilight if they were ready to go home.

Twilight garnered everypony’s attention with a purple flash, and announced the party to be a complete success, as well as over. Seeing other ponies out the barn doors, Twilight bid each of them goodnight, and thanked them for coming. After the cleanup was finished, Twilight levitated a barely awake Shooting Star into their waiting carriage. The trip home was quiet and uneventful, and Star somehow managed to stay partly awake.

As Twilight and her protégé disembarked the carriage, Star wandered into the treehouse, barely able to keep his eyes open. Twilight wasn’t watching him as she was busy. Twilight barely had time to lock up before she heard a loud thunk of skull on wood. Whipping around, she noticed that there was a crying Alicorn Prince on her floor, before there was a brilliant flash of cobalt blue light and a resounding explosion that blew all the windows out of the treehouse. After the magical aura disappeared, Twilight looked around at her now exploded main room. Books littered the floor, some damaged, some just cast about as if they were thrown. Twilight looked on in amazement. She knew Alicorns had immeasurable power, even at a young age, but she had never seen a magical discharge this powerful, even from herself as a young filly.

Shooting Star woke up in a daze, bandages on his head, in his own bed. He had remembered leaving the party and getting back home, but not much after that. He stumbled downstairs dizzily, supporting himself on the sturdy oak rails. He walked blearily into the kitchen, surprising Twilight and Spike. Just then he noticed the library was all but destroyed, as if an
explosion occurred within the sturdy oak building. Frightened, Star ran to Twilight, asking her what had happened.

Twilight explained to Shooting Star that he had caused a magical discharge, by being so tired and bumping his head on one of the tables that dotted the library. The resulting explosion had damaged and scattered some books, and broke some windows. Twilight saw the hurt on her nephew’s face. She immediately comforted him, saying that it wasn’t his fault, and that even young unicorns can have astounding magical discharges. His was only so powerful because he was an Alicorn.

Holding back tears, Shooting Star offered to help clean up the library along with Spike, while Twilight was repairing the shattered windows. Twilight though this was an excellent idea and gave Shooting Star permission to help. During that time, he and Spike bonded little by little, goofing around here or there when Twilight wasn’t watching. By time the work was all

done, it was leaning towards late afternoon, leaving little time for Star’s studies. Twilight decided that Shooting Star and Spike should play together for the rest of the evening, while she caught up on studies of her own. To this end, Spike and Shooting Star sat down for a game of checkers, placing candies and sweets up as bets for who would win the game.

Spike enjoyed playing with Shooting Star. It was nice to have somepony to be a kid with, even if he was royalty. Spike often was bored or frustrated with the tasks he was often assigned by Twilight or Rarity, and it was good to just enjoy a game or two with a friend. The Cutie Mark Crusaders rarely came around, unless looking for new cutie mark shenanigans. And the other fillies and colts from Cheerilee’s class never stopped by the library unless on some sort of school trip. So it was always Spike, Twilight, and Shooting Star.

Twilight visibly saw an improvement in Star’s demeanor and mannerisms when he was free to play around. He smiled more, grumbled less, and was more prone to study harder if he was given frequent rests. He still had several years ahead of him before he would really need his magic, so Twilight saw no harm in his innocent games. Magic did require intensive study. Too much studying impeded the process for everypony except Twilight, who enjoyed studying. Twilight made it a point to

give Star a few breaks a day to get some fresh air or play a game, and his attitude began to stay positive as time passed. He would even ask to write to his mother occasionally if Spike weren’t available to play right away. In this respect, he felt closer to his mother. His first letter went along these lines:

“Hi mom. It’s me, Shooting Star. For the first few days I was living in Ponyville, I was very sad and scared. But after I had gotten to know other ponies thanks to Pinkie Pie and Aunt Twilight, I felt much happier. I also made some new friends with these three fillies that go to school here. I want to go to school just like them someday. I also play games with Spike. He wins a lot, but sometimes I win. Then I get a bellyache from all the candy I win. Just today, My new friends came by and asked if I wanted to go crusading with them and Aunt Twilight let me as long as I was home before dark. She takes very good care of me. Thank you for sending me here, mommy. I need to go to bed now because I have to get up early for studies.

Love, your Shooting Star”

Star held the pendant he had received from his mother close to his heart. He asked Spike to send the letter for him, and with a burp, it went up in green flames. Spike explained how his dragon flames worked. His letter wasn’t really burned up, it was just magically fixed after it was sent.

After a few weeks had passed, Star had gotten his very first visit from both Aunt Luna and his mother. He was overjoyed that day, tears streaming down his muzzle as he was hugged both by Luna and Celestia. They talked all day about everything Star had learned. He even showed his mom that he could lift and move things with his magic, dumping a glass of water over

Spike’s head, accidentally (though it really wasn’t). His mom even played some games with him, as did Aunt Luna, and eventually they were all laughing and playing and having fun. Aunt Twilight even got pelted with a fluffy pillow thrown by Celestia herself.

As night drew near, Aunt Luna had to do her job and raise the moon, and Celestia was tuckered out from the events of the day. With bittersweet smiles, The colt and his family parted ways, but not until they shared a dinner and a huge hug. After he watched his mom leave, Shooting Star finally realized how tired he was, and dozed off on the couch in front of the fireplace. Twilight couldn’t bear to disturb him, so she pulled a terrycloth blanket over him and Spike, as they had both fallen asleep

relatively quickly. With a bemused smile, Twilight collected up the pillow that had been thrown at her, and trotted lazily to her room. Burying herself in a nest of blankets, she also fell asleep rather quickly. Tomorrow was Sunday, so it was going to be a relatively quiet and easy day. She made it a point to at least give her boys a day off from their duties, and Sunday was that day. She would even allow herself to sleep in, but not too much.