Star Dust - Chapter 9

Star Dust

Chapter 9

Slumber Night


“AA-HA!” Star exclaimed as her pillow swang towards Twilight who barely dodged the incoming pillow that came from her left. "I think she takes this a bit way too seriously..." Twilight thought as a small amount of feathers escaped from Star’s pillow as it hit the wall. "But this certainly bring back some memories of my first slumber party."

It was rather strange that Star was using the pillows like, well, like a sword; like the unicorns of old did. And the battle stance she took was also a reflection of those ancient warriors.

"Only, maybe that “fight” wasn't this serious…" Twilight this time dodged two pillows that came from both sides. She then tried to “counter-attack”, but Star was able to block it while sending another pillow at Twilight.

"She's good at this," Twilight thought worriedly. "A bit too good." Suddenly another pillow flew only a few inches from her face. “AH!” This was getting a bit too dangerous, at least in Twilight's opinion.

“Say Star?” Twilight asked, as she dodged a pillow that was attacking her from above.

“YES!” Star answered, or rather exclaimed.

“What do you say if-” Another dodge; this time three pillows at once. "Why did I get this many pillows again?"

“We might change our activity- ah!” Before Twilight could fully register, at least five pillows attacked her from different directions at breakneck speed, not giving Twilight enough time to fully react. At least three of the five pillows impacted right on her face and throwing her off of her balance.

“I'm sorry Twilight!” Star exclaimed and quickly ran beside dumbfounded Twilight.

“Did you hardern those pillows with your magic?” she asked, confused, trying to focus her gaze

“I... I...” Star stammered. “I don't think so...” she blushed.

Twilight stared at Star, well the best she could as the world was still spinning around her. “I really need to ask her about her magic at some point.” she thought to herself.

“I just got a little too excited,” Star said sheepishly.

“A little?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow. Star nodded.

“I'm so sorry about that,” she apologized, lowering her head, while Twilight was slowly getting up.

“Don't worry.” Twilight shrugged it off. “As you can see, I'm completely fine. No sign of damage, internal or external.” She offered Star a warm smile. “And besides, you weren't hitting me that hard to begin with,” she added smugly.

That changed Star’s mood swiftly. “Oh, you want me to hit you into unconsciousness with pillows?” Star challenged playfully.

“Maybe,” Twilight said, smirking.

A moment of silence passed before both of them erupted into good willed laughter. “But with all seriousness.” Twilight giggled. “I think we should leave out the pillow fights for now. Or maybe for the rest of the slumber party.”

Star smiled at this. “That's fine with me. But I really enjoyed it.”

“I did too,” Twilight replied, “if you don't count what just happened.” She let out a small laugh.

“Then what do we do then?” Star queried.

"Yes, what else could we do?" Twilight pondered. "We could style our manes and... or maybe leave that one out. I don't think she can exactly be so gentle with my mane... Or maybe... yes!" Twilight smiled. “We could roast some marshmallows!”

Star just stared at Twilight confusingly. "Why would she want to “roast” them?" Star thought, confused. "Why would she want to ruin already good tasteful sweet?" Twilight's glee quickly changed when she noticed Star’s baffled and not so excited look.

“You don't like the idea?” she asked, a bit concerned.

“Well, it just doesn't sound that... delicious of an idea for me,” Star replied. “And doesn't it just take away the taste when you burn it?”

Twilight once again had to remind herself that Star has never had anything related to slumber party, which was still rather unbelievable, but it still surprised her how little did Star know anything about slumber parties. "Almost as if she has grown in different century." she thought.

“Oh no, no, no. It's nothing like that,” Twilight corrected Star. “We only roast them only a little bit which doesn’t affect their taste or anything,” she explained and then quickly added; “Well maybe just a little bit...”

Star at first thought against the idea, but soon decided to try it out. "It probably can't be that bad."

“Alright then,” she said to Twilight. “Do we need something, or do we just use our horns for that?”

“No, actually we just need something to put them on and to warm them up in the fireplace,” Twilight happily explained. Star pondered again for a little bit, the idea still didn't sound that good to her. However she decided to go with it and nodded.

Twilight left for the kitchen to get some marshmallows, Star wanted to follow her, but she decided to wait for her near the fireplace. As she walked in the living room, she noticed that the fire was almost dying out so she added some firewood and cast a fire spell into it. “That should be better,” she said out loud. Twilight returned and seated herself next to Star with small bag of marshmallows wrapped in her magic.

“You know, what you said about using our horns to warm up the marshmallows,” Twilight suddenly started while opening the bag, “I've never really gave a thought about it.”

“Really?” Star asked, not exactly sure what to say about that.

“Yes, it might be rather interesting testing  if unicorn magic might have somewhat different effects on a sweet unlike the fire...” Twilight said, or rather explained. Star could see that if she didn't stop Twilight now, she might be listening to her crazytalk for the rest of the night.

“Twilight, I think you can theorise this on your own maybe?” Star cut in before Twilight went too far with her ideas and thoughts.

“Oh, o-o-ooh! Oh yes! Sorry about that...” Twilight smiled embarrassingly.

Twilight took out couple marshmallows and stuck them on the sticks she had brought and offered one to Star. “And remember, don't let it warm up too much or you’ll ruin it,” Twilight quickly instructed and Star nodded.

"I still don't understand the meaning of this." Star started to wonder. "Just warming up some sweets and eating them. What is so special about it?" she silently asked, looking at the fireplace. "Unless..." her eyes then slightly turned towards Twilight. "It's just another way of spending your time and having a good time with somepony you can call a, friend."

A small glimmer of warmth washed over Star, and it wasn't the fire from the fireplace. It quickly washed her puzzling frown away and had turned into a warm appreciating smile.

“Uuuh... Star?” Twilight's voice then interrupted her thoughts.

“Huh, what?” she asked, sounding a bit absent.

“Your marshmallow is burning.” Twilight pointed at Star’s stick.

And she was right. Where there had been a simple round white sweet, there was now something similiar to a lump of coal. “Guess, I've been a naughty unicorn this year,” Star joked, even if it had been too early for such joke. Or late.

“Well, I hope you will improve yourself this year,” Twilight joked back, earning a small chuckle from the other unicorn. “Well, you can have mine.” Twilight offered her marshmallow that had slightly changed to brownish color.

“There is no need for that Twilight,” Star replied. While she didn't show it, she really appreciated Twilight's act. “I just got lost in my thoughts and, well, now you see the results.” She brought her stick up. “And I think I can just get a new one.”

“Oh nonsense!” Before Star could protest more, Twilight shoved her marshmallow into Star’s mouth, who let out a small cry of surprise. Her very first reaction was to spit it out, but quickly thought against it since it would be rather rude of her.

She slowly began to chew on the marshmallow. “This is really sticky,” she said as she tried to remove chunks of the treat from her teeth which was rather annoying, but she found the taste delightful.

“It usually is,” Twilight replied with a giggle. “But you get used to it,”

“So, what other activities are there?” Star tried her best to speak clearly.

“There is also making s'mores and like I said there is also telling ghost stories...” Twilight went on as she stuck a new marshmallow onto her stick.

Thankfully, Twilight's exposition didn't become long as usual, and the two unicorns enjoyed each other’s company while roasting some marshmallows. But that soon ended as both of them felt that they had enough marshmallows for tonight.

Star had good idea what to do next. “Do you think we can have some ghost stories?” she asked.

“Oh, you’re into some ghost stories?” Twilight asked, surprised.

Star grinned in response. “I've had some good experiences with my older sister.” Her smile was later replaced with a small frown. “But it took a while before I could counter her ghost tales...”

“Because she was older than you?” Twilight asked, sounding a little bit amused. She liked that she had been able to learn already so much about Star, even if it was mostly about her fillyhood. But that was better than nothing. "I hope she opens up more about her life." she thought to herself.

“Yeah, and because I was still so naive and young that I took those stories literally,” Star said, sounding now more embarrassed and annoyed. “But that soon changed when-” Star suddenly cut herself off, as if she was about to reveal something she didn't want to reveal. “Uuuh...” Star struggled with her words.

“Yes?” Twilight asked, suspicious feelings entering her mind.

"It is alright to mention that part," Star calmed herself. "She doesn't fully know..."

“I-I guess when I, uuh, finally learned magic,” Star finally said, her composure a bit shaky.

“I, I see...” was all Twilight could say. She was not really sure what to say to that, but she did not want to pry too much about Star’s behavior.

“So,” she started casually. “What kind of ghost story did you have in mind?” she asked, now feeling rather better for defusing the awkward situation. Star’s smirk returned to her face.

“Oh, just a small unicorn filly’s tale...” she said smugly, which made Twilight's ear twitch a bit from confusion.

“A tale that made all the little fillies shake from their coats.” Star's smirk grew larger, while Twilight's eyes grew from realization.

“You don't mean...?”

“Oh yes!” Star declared as if she was revealing some sort of world shaking information. “I'm talking about the horror of all unicorn fillies!”

A “dramatic” pause.

"The Mountain Trolls!"

Twilight was a little bit spooked at how Star was able to raise her voice like that and make it so low. If it wasn't the middle of winter, she was sure that there would have been some lighting adding to the effect. But besides this, she wasn't that impressed.

"The Mountain Trolls?" she asked, just to be sure that Star was talking about that story.

“Oh yes!” Star still seemed to be in her act, which now started to remind Twilight about a certain show pony.

“You do know that it's not that scary.” Star’s whole figure seemed to have been in shock from what Twilight had just said. “At least nowadays, many unicorn fillies and colts enjoy that tale,” Twilight explained.

“...” Star just stared blankly at Twilight.

“And even I found it fascinating myself.”

“...!” shock began to creep into Star’s face.

“I mean, the trolls themselves sounded rather intriguing and I just wanted to learn more about them,” Twilight continued her explanation. “Because I just couldn't believe that they would do anything like that. It just seemed too ridiculous, especially when my parents and brother ‘threatened’,” Twilight quoted, “me with them. And it got really old, really fast.”

“So after I was over them, I started to do some studying and-” Twilight stopped herself when all the light suddenly went out.

“Uuuh, Star?” she called to other unicorn. “Why did all the lights went out.” She quickly realized that it had gotten colder too. She turned to look at the fireplace, noticing that it had died out. “Okay this is getting little bit creepy Star...” she called out, her voice now shaking.

“Do you know the story of The Mountain Trolls?” Star's voice suddenly echoed in the room, her tone similar to your typical ghost story teller. “Of course you have, everypony must have heard about them.” A small cackle followed that caused shivers to run down Twilight's spine. It didn't help that it seemed that Star's voice was all around her.

“A mysterious race that lives in Equestria's mountains.“ Twilight felt another shiver run through her as her body started to slowly shake from fear. She was sure that she saw a couple of shadows moving. “It is said that the trolls don't leave their beloved mountain caverns that offer them protection.”

Twilight's body started shaking even more as many memories that she thought she had forgotten a long time ago came flooding back. The kind of thoughts she had as a filly when she let her imagination run too wild after the story.

“However, from time to time, the trolls would come out of their home and would travel to different pony villages to find and take their unicorns.” Now Twilight wanted just to sink into the floor and curl into a ball. She would have asked Star to stop, but she was already too afraid as more shadows moved around her.

She didn't even dare to use her horn to light the room as she knew what was coming next. “And then take them back to their caves.” her breathing became faster at this moment. “Where they would cut their horns and then grind them to dust!”

And then, four creatures with the nastiest grins on their faces seemed to have jumped from the shadows. With horribly big red noses and simple bleak eyes and big hairy hands aimed at Twilight, she let out terrified shriek and curled into a ball.

Right immediately the dark room lightened up and the flames returned back to the fireplace, as if they never left. Star was now kneeling over terrified and shaking Twilight with a worried frown on her face. “I'm sorry Twilight!” she apologized. “I-I didn't mean for this to happen...” she now stuttered while placing her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

Star tried to offer comfort for the scared and shaking unicorn. “When you said that you weren't scared of that story, I-I-I thought I should give you a d-different experience!” Star was now feeling her own eyes to water. "Why did I had to go so overboard?"

“It-it's alright Star,” Twilight said quietly, still shaking. “I guess I still haven't gotten over those fears…,” she mumbled embarrassingly. “I must admit that your illusion spell was amazingly crafted.” Slowly, Twilight got up as her shaking began to die down.

“I don't remember seeing anypony doing that kind of magic in a while.” She gave Star a smile that told her she was fine.

“B-b-but it was still my fault what happened to you.” Star blushed from both embarrassment for what she had done to Twilight, and how Twilight had, instead of being angry with her, complimented her magical show. “And I should have warned you when I was going to do that.” She closed her eyes.

Twilight stared at Star, not really sure what to say to her. Yes, she should have probably warned her about her little “horror show”, but then again she didn't have any idea that Twilight would react like that. "And I can't believe I reacted like that," Twilight thought to herself. "I guess somethings still stay with you after your foalhood."

“I think I can overlook that,” Twilight said comfortably, tapping Stars shoulder kindly. “But next time when you plan on making something like that, maybe you should give a little heads up,” she said, adding humor to her tone.

That seemed to get Star into a better mood as she quickly rubbed the wetness from her eyes. “Don't worry.” Star smiled back.

“So, was that how you got back at your sister for her scaring you with her stories?” Twilight asked, remembering what Star had told her before the “show”.

“Oh yes!” Star now had her grin back while chuckling. “After that it was quite obvious which one of us was the better ghost story tellers!” Twilight giggled at the act Star was giving. It was almost like Rainbow Dash when she was thinking she's the coolest mare in Equestria. "Oh right!" Twilight suddenly remembered. "We still have slumber party to have."

With that, the two unicorns continued their slumber party and the next plan Twilight had was some makeovers, to which Star seemed to be against, but still went with it mostly for Twilight. Later they made some s'mores and soon found themselves sitting next to the fireplace while Twilight told Star more of her adventures with her friends.

But soon the two of them found themselves tired and ready to go to bed. But as Star was close to falling herself to sleep, she heard Twilight whispering to her. “Pssst! Star.”

“Yes?” Star replied, tired.

“I know this might sound strange and all, and I'm sorry if I'm making you all uncomfortable with this-”

“Twilight, just tell me what is it.” Star said, annoyed. She just wanted to get some rest for tomorrow. "Or is it today?"

“Couldyousleepnexttome?” Twilight asked quickly, a nervous and embarrassed look in her eyes. Star raised herself from the guest bed and stared Twilight, surprised.

“Why?”

Twilight began making small circles on her covers with her hoof. “Well, you see, I still might have some fears for the trolls and, well...” Twilight's ears lowered themselves from the embarrassment she was feeling. If it wasn't so dark, Star could have seen the pink around Twilight's cheeks.

But she did feel quite bad that she had taken Twilight's good night sleep, but she also felt rather awkward that Twilight was asking her to share her own bed.

“It's Okay. You don't have to if you don't feel like it...”

Star gave a quick frustrated sigh. “It's no bother,” she said, “It was my fault that I didn't warn you about it, so...” Now Star could feel her own cheeks getting warmer. “I guess this is me kind of replaying you,” she finished awkwardly while getting up from her bed.

Twilight made room for Star who then slowly got onto the bed. “Good night Star,” Twilight said, giving her new friend a smile before turning her back to Star.

“Good night Twilight,” Star said back, looking at the ceiling before closing her eyes. Feeling a faint smile forming to her lips. "This has been a great week!" she thought before falling to sleep.


The next day went smoothly once again. If no one was counting the awkward awakening when both of them woke up more closely to each other than when they had fallen asleep. After breakfast, Twilight and Star quickly cleaned up the small mess they had left after their make over night.

Star had then showed Twilight more of her illusion magic that she had shown last night. But this time she had decided to bring something else “to life” that wasn't so scary. Soon Star was giving Twilight (and in a way to herself) a small scene of one chapter from Daring Do, where the adventurer had discovered the Soul Star and ventured through dangerous temple to get it.

Soon morning had turned to day, when Twilight realized it was time to get Spike from Rarity. After one baby dragon fetching, the two went on doing whatever Twilight had originally planned.

After a while the evening began looming over the small village. At the door Star Dust stood, saying her goodbyes to Twilight.

“I've never had this much fun in my entire life!” she exclaimed. “Thank you so much Twilight.”she went on and gave Twilight a bear hug, which surprised both of them, but Star kept it a secret better.

“It’s good to know that you've enjoyed yourself.” Twilight smiled awkwardly, still in Star’s hug. “Next time we are going to have much more fun with all of my friends,” Twilight said as Star finally let her go.

“Can't wait for it.” Star smirked.

“Now, are you sure you don't need me to come with you?” Twilight asked.

“I think I can get to the train with no problem.” Star waved a dismissive hoof.

“Alright, if you’re sure,” Twilight replied, sounding a bit disappointed. “So our next meetup is in three weeks?” she asked hopefully.

“Yes.” Star smiled. “Until then Twilight.”

“Bye.” Twilight waved slightly as Star walked towards the train station. She quickly closed the door so all the warmth wouldn't escape completely.

Outside, Star walked towards the train station, but she then suddenly took a different turn and was now walking towards the edge of Everfree Forest while glancing behind her a couple times, almost as if making sure nopony was really looking at her direction; especially Twilight.

After making a good distance to Ponyville, Star gave out a relieved sigh before her horn started glowing. In a blink of an eye, Star Dust disappeared in bright, but brief flash and sparkling dust.