Starbound

"Why do you have to fight back, then? Isn't teleporting around and just stabbing him and then teleporting back unfair? He's jumped into lava, Steel. Sure, you tried to kill yourself, but that's nothing compared to what he went through. I know Embers started it, but honourable ponies shouldn't have struck back, or at least tell their daughters not too. Instead, you told her too." Willow scoffed back.

(Then Willow is quite a bit older than Astrid is.) "I don't want to hurt her, and I never will. And Mom loves us more than anything else in Equestria. You don't understand that. Besides, do you see me hurting anypony? You were the ones who always want to fight. Who don't see anything without throwing knives into the mix. And then you'll remark that I can't keep my annoying little mouth shut. If you want somepony who does that, ask Melody."

"Pfft! You should hear him! 'My life is my word and my word is my life,' or something like that. You don't have any reason to ask him to do something about us, but if you did ask, he couldn't possibly betray Princess Luna! But why, you ask, would Princess Luna ask him to protect us? Because like you, Melody and I were adopted. By the Princesses themselves. Mom would go berserk if Steel did anything to us. So, ha!" (How old is Astrid?)

"I'm not scared of you or Steel, nor will I ever be. You just keep your hooves off Embers. And I mean it. Oh yes, and what happened to 'daddy be nice?' I certainly didn't hear that when your 'daddy' said for me to 'shut my annoying little mouth.'" The edges of Willow's mouth went up in a slight smile. "Oh well, your dad here was ordered to protect me and Melody, so you can't ask him to do anything."

"So shut your annoying little mouth!" Willow mimicked Steel. "Fine! I won't yell anymore, but I was only yelling because your little filly was attacking Embers. And that won't help anything. She looked back at Astrid. "And I don't care if you're mad. Because I can stop you. And I'm not afraid to do so." Willow turned around with a "Hmph!" and stopped, she was waiting for Astrid to angrily retort or lash out or something.

"ENOUGH!" Willow leapt out of the bushes and confronted Astrid and Steel. "Stop! You call that honor!? Letting somepony get the best of you and make you mad!? What happened to staying calm!? Can't you see that Embers was pretending all along!? He is not insane! He was just acting like that because we wouldn't leave him alone! Namely, me, and somepony who's name starts with S and ends in teel!" Then she looked at Astrid. "You can stop your tricks, because I have magic, too." Her wings snapped open and flared up. "Hello!? trying to save Equestria here! If you think this will help, go take your anger out and try to cut a rock open! This filly of yours was probably going to rob us dry! It leaked out into her aura like crazy, and you could tell by the way she was acting! A filly this calm and with this fancy dagger wouldn't cry for her 'daddy'!"

(Did Torrent allow you to add a new character?) Willow saw the new filly and jumped in surprise. "A new pony! Where did she come from? She feels odd, though. Something about her... I don't know." Willow slowly flew over, hiding in the bushes. Sapphire was glaring at the new filly... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- @@Torrent505 《Is everypony else okay? If you are, then they must be too, right?》

"Um, I don't drink that. Sorry." The attendant shrugged.and handed Thunder and Lightwing their drinks. "Lightwing? I need to talk to you." Looking at Thunder, she added "Alone. It won't be long, I promise. And I think I'm going to invite Scribblegroove here, if you haven't already. Alright, Lightwing. I need to say something." "There are a number of resteraunts here on the first floor, and if you don't prefer any of them, you could go to Manehattan via coach, which takes about 30 minutes or so. If you want to go with Galena, we will surely tell her that you are going to eat breakfast. Don't worry, Persephone always keeps her promises!"

"Galena? Oh, yes, she has earned a well-deserved break. We will call her to let her know!" Persephone told her friend to call Galena. "Is there anything else you would like?" @@Torrent505 "Hello? Galena? A stallion called us asking if you could give him a tour. Technically, you can have a break for a day if you want to. I'm sure Butterscotch would love to take your place." "And by the way, I think he likes you! *hee hee*" [@@Scribblegroove (Both of you should try to get into the next day as fast as possible, as everyone else is already.) @ Felicity rushed to the pools, hoping nopony else was there yet. "I'm a little late..." Then she saw Thunder Farts walking away, looking bored. "Wait! Am I late? Is anypony here yet?"

The clerk at the front desk picked the phone up. She had been relaxing, because the hotel hadn't gotten any new check-ins for the past few hours. "Hello? This is Persephone, at the front desk." (Yep, that random clerk that nopony cares about has a name. I'm tired of saying "the clerk at the front desk" so now, she has a name.)

《Um, something hurt Mom and then Princess Celestia came and then she healed her but then her wings went away and she said she couldn't be a princess anymore. But then, who will be the new princesses?》《Sometimes they scare me too, especially Steel, the black and gray one. Embers, the orange one, is really nice, except he gets crazy sometimes. And Wanderlust, the dark green one, is really, really nice. And Grell, the white one, is nice, and he can help hurt ponies too, but he has scary powers.》

(Sorry for the wait. According to everypony else, it is tommorow. I'll speed things up a bit.) ~The Night Before~ Felicity yawned. "It is really late. After all, during summer, the sun sets late. I'm sorry, but maybe we could meet tommorow? I'm in Suite 386, in case you want to come later." Felicity put her flute back in its case and invited Scribblegroove to walk back with her. And they did. That night, Felicity went to sleep knowing she had found that one stallion her mother always talked about. (ATTENTION EVERYONE. IT IS NOW TOMMOROW. IF YOU ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING, JUST CONTINUE.) <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> ~The Day After~ Felicity was silently talking to her flower when she noticed the letter. She had eaten breakfast in her suite. "Party? Pool? Oh no, I'm horrible at parties! Sure, I like making people happy, but not in that way! And I can't swim, either!" "Don't worry. Felicity. Lightwing will be there. Don't you want to tell her about you and Scribblegroove? She turned back to her lily. "You are right. The party is soon, anyways. I better leave."

《What happened? Where were you all this time? Why are you wearing this cape? I was stuck under some heavy rocks and my leg hurt; it still does- but couldn't stop worrying about Mom and big sister and you and everypony else... that hurt me the most.》 "No, wait, Steel! I didn't mean for you to go! I'm just telling you to lighten up! If you're serious all the time, then how can you be happy? I don't think I've ever seen you smile once! Why do you have to have all your knives out and why do you have to be mad all the time? I don't get it!

(Oops, didn't see that.) 《FLUTTERSHY!? FLUTTERSHYYYYYYYY! OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH! YOU'RE OKAAAAAAY!》 Melody jumped off of Wanderlust's back and into Fluttershy's hooves. 《I was so worried about you and the others and your animals and I missed you and the others and the animals!》Melody burst into tears yet again.

Willow opened her eyes wide. "Word, word, word. Wait, So now I'm a liar? Whatever I say is meaningless?" Melody stopped searching for Fluttershy, then frowned. 《That was mean.》 And after that, she continued her search. "And really, you can't really stand by your word, because words can't stand up!"

"I'm not a little foal anymore! But really! Do you see him trying to hurt somepony? No! He's just... eating... dirt... well, I say we let him keep all his things and maybe keep him from eating... more... dirt."《Fluttershy!? Its me, Melody! Don't you remember?》"And I've made plenty of hard decisions! How do you think I felt when I had to leave Princess Celestia? But the thing is, I don't kill myself if I fail!"

《Fluttershy!? Its Melody! Remember? Please?》"Stop! Runedawn- whatever that was controlling him- tried to hurt Mom! Embers is just a little... crazy. Its not like he tried to hurt Mom! He would never do that! Never ever! Its not honor! Hurting somepony for no reason isn't honor! Wanderlust tried to protect us over and over again... that's honor!"

《Fluttershy!? Fluttershy!? Are you okay!?》 Melody searched the forest for Fluttershy, oblivious towards everything else that was going on. "Steel! What are you doing!? Stop this right now! Stop it! Embers isn't bad! Put down your knife and stop stabbing stuff for one second!

Melody, Wanderlust and Willow dodged trees and jumped over underbrush. 《Its getting closer... I can feel it!》"And the sun shard can't be far away now! You can feel the heat!" But Melody was being bombarded with a familiar feeling, unmistakable. She had felt it so many times before... 《Faster! Faster! We might have found her! Faster!》

Felicity closed her eyes and smiled. She never really played with another musician, and Scribblegroove's special talent made her feel like she was playing for him, rather than with him. She wished she could make music with magic, too, but she wasn't a unicorn anyways and she felt that Scribblegroove was special, and that's why he could do it.

"I- I love you too, Scribblegroove. With all my heart." Yes! Yes! Yes! "Now, I- I have music for you..." She sat, and wiping tears from her eyes, took her flute from its case. She recalled the perfect song for this kind of situation, and started playing. (Now, I have no idea what song this could be... just try to visualize something happy and romantic at the same time.)

Melody and Willow raced down the mountain as fast as they could. The Everfree Forest sprawled before them, and was getting closer with every step. 《Come on, Wanderlust! The feeling... its stronger!》"And the two Sun Shards are close, really, really close!" When Steel took flight and left them behind, Melody cried out. 《No! Wait!》

"No... it wasn't too quick, it... it... Oh, Scribblegroove!" She continued to cry, but these weren't tears of sadness at all. Oh no, these were of joy. Her flute, in its case, waiting to be played by her. Every love song she had ever heard raced in her mind; she wanted to pick up her flute and play one. She wanted to run back to her suite and tell her mother. She wanted to do all this, but couldn't bring herself to do anything. So she continued crying, but it felt nice to cry. Very nice.

"We're kissing! Ah! Ahhh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Ahhhh!" She opened her eyes wide. She waited for a few seconds, and then pulled away in shock. Her voice was octaves higher, and she was sweating. "Scribblegroove! You... me... that... that!" She wrapped her hooves around him and broke into tears. "We just... kissed!" Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! We... we just kissed! Oh my gosh! What am I going to tell Mom!? "I can't believe this..."

Stars blinked on above their heads and the ocean continued its rythmic pounding. "What should I say now? Felicity decided to keep silent. As the last of the sunlight disappeared, she wondered if Lightwing knew she was out here. "I- Uhmm..." Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Felicity leaned a little closer to Scribblegroove as well.