Chapter 9: The Adventure and the Black Butterflies
-This chapter is dedicated to Marbletoast, its inspiration (who is right, why didn't I have Star and the others interacting? :-P); Amber E. Potter (my wonderful ex-beta), Buttercup and Moonlightfairy (the "eccentric" ones, we all love you that way!).-
Something bounced on Star's bed, jarring her from sleep. She cracked one eye open. A bright pink blob filled her vision. She opened both eyes.
"Starshower! Are you awake?" The pink blob asked.
"Moonlightfairy? What are you dooooooing?" Star asked as a yawn slipped out. She blinked, getting rid of the sleep from her eyes. The pink blob turned into a pink pegasus. A very hyper pink pegasus.
"Waking you up silly! And call me Moonie. Bet you can't say 'Sing sweetly silly sunshine' ten times fast!" She bounced on Star's bed.
"Huh?" Starshower asked, not quit fully awake yet.
"It's a tongue twister! Race ya downstairs! Bet ya can't catch me!" Moonie bounced off Star's bed, tore out the door and raced downstairs.
Starshower yawned again.
"I hope she didn't wake you up," a voice said from Star's bedroom door. Buttercup poked her head in.
"No, not really," Starshower replied.
"Good. See you at breakfast." With that Buttercup started on her own way downstairs. Star could hear her saying 'Sing sweetly silly sunshine' just as fast as she could.
'Odd, very odd,' the rainbow unicorn thought. She shook her head and went downstairs for breakfast.
"We're gonna what?" Ember asked, upsetting her fruit bowl at what Wysteria had just said. Grapes rolled off the table onto the floor.
"Ember! Don't upset the dishes like that, now pick up your food," Amber scolded her sister.
"Sorry," Ember moved away from the table and started picking up the grapes.
"Yes Ember, there's a nice lake in the woods, with a pretty beach. I think it would be a wonderful little adventure for the six of you to go down there," Wysteria repeated.
Upon missing a grape from the floor, Ember found it was more fun to chase them around the room. Moonie and Little Flibble joined her.
Moonlightfairy picked one up in her mouth and squirted Ember with it. "Hey!" came the response. She tried to get Moonie back, but missed and got Little Flibble, who giggled and threw one back at her.
"Food fight!" Moonie yelled, running back to the table and grabbing an apple slice that found its way to Amber's head. It hit her squarely between the eyes. A squeal erupted from her. "Moonie!"
Buttercup picked up a peeled banana and threw it at her sister.
Starshower looked from her bowl to the food-fighting ponies. With a laugh she picked up a mouthful of raspberries and flung them at Amber.
"Pick on Amber!" Ember shouted at the same time Moonie yelled, "Bombard 'er!" around a strawberry, throwing it at Amber.
"Eeeep! No fair! Wysteria!" the honey-colored peg squealed again, trying to dodge a barrage of fruit and bread.
Moonie chucked an apple slice at Amber, Ember squirted her with a mouthful of grapes and Little Flibble missed her by a horn's breath with a raspberry. Giggling, Starshower aimed and released a strawberry at the targeted pegasus. Red, cream and purple splotches erupted on Amber's honey-colored coat. "Wysteria, help me!" Amber pleaded.
The Mage chuckled deep in his throat at the young ponies. Using magic, he caused a dozen raspberries to throw themselves at Starshower, Moonie, Buttercup and Ember. One fell on Little Flibble's head, he laughed in delight.
"No fair! Magic's not allowed!" Moonie yelled. Wysteria laughed as she hurled a strawberry at him. Wysteria used magic and sent it back at her. Squelch! Moonie stared at the red splotch on her face, right between her eyes. "Nooo faaaair!" The pink pegasus let out a war whoop as she plowed into Wysteria, sending both of them to the floor.
After a few minutes of Amber staring agastly at Moonie, Wysteria and the pink pegasus roughhousing on the floor and everyone else carrying on with the food fight, Klenly came into the dining room.
"What noise all about?" she shouted over the racket. "Stop! Stop! Ponies get room all dirty!" She waved her yarn-arms about, looking quite comical.
Everyone stopped. Wysteria slowly stood up, nudging Moonie off of him. "I'm sorry Klenly. I suppose I really should have stopped them." He didn't sound like it though.
Klenly shook her finger at him and went back into the kitchen.
Moonie pulled at Wysteria's mane. "Moonie, we're going to have to stop, I'm much too old for this anymore," he told her.
"Aw! Party pooper." Moonie said, releasing his hair.
Wysteria stuck his tongue out at her. "Sorry kiddo."
Moonie and Ember both gasped.
"What? What's wrong?" Amber asked.
"He's - he's too old!" Moonie and Ember replied at the same time.
"Too old? Too old?" Wysteria repeated, laughing. "Too old for what? To stick out my tongue? Ha!" He stuck the subject of the topic back out again. "You're never too old to have fun! No, my body's just too old to be roughhousing with a young thing like you Moonlightfairy. My bones are creaky and my body tires too quickly." He grabbed a chunckful of her mane and tossed it over her eyes. "Now, take this outside before Klenly comes back and gets even more angry. Curious and some of the others will be out in a little bit to take you to the lake." Moonie pouted. "Go on now, before you get me into more trouble." He gave her a nudge toward the door.
"Come on Moonie, I think you've done enough destruction for one day. Let's go outside and find some butterflies! Bet I can catch more than you!" Buttercup said, taunting her sister.
"Not if I get outside first!" Moonie took the bait and ran outside.
Wysteria chuckled. "Kids."
Starshower, Ember, Amber and Little Flibble followed Buttercup and Moonie outside. Buttercup had found a big puddle of mud from last night's rain and had turned the food fight into a mud fight.
Ember picked up a bit on her hoof, eyeing her sister and wondering if she could hit her from there.
Amber saw her. "Oh no you don't! I'm done! I quit! I want to stay clean!" She trotted off and laid down under a tree, content to watch.
Ember switched targets.
Splat! Something cold slid down Starshower's right leg.
"Hm... need to work on my aim," Ember noted.
Starshower barreled into Ember, knocking her over into the mud puddle. Both went down and came up laughing.
Little Flibble sat in his own mud puddle, watching the mud splash up and splatter back down to earth each time he stuck his little baby hooves in it.
Moonie and Buttercup joined Star and Ember rolling in the mud puddle.
Curious came out from the Temple with three other Bushwillies. One of them, a dark blue one, was clucking his tongue. "Silly ponies get all dirty playing in mud like that!"
"Evening, that the point!" Curious shouted as he joined the ponies in the mud.
Evening shook his head. "Ponies and Curious need bath. Swimming sound fun?"
The Bushwillie was met with a chorus of "yes!". "Ok then! On we go!"
"Wait for meeeeee!" a young male voice said, coming from the Temple door way. An orange earther with yellow hair came running out. Star spotted red apples on his hips. Blazer and two more adult ponies came out behind him.
Starshower let out a gasp, and was not the only one.
The two ponies that followed the sky-blue pegasus were both unicorns. What startled everyone was the healing gashes along their flanks and eyes, around and on their horns. One was pale green with light red hair and red wings on his hips, the other was light purple with orange and yellow hair, daisies on her flanks and feathery hooves.
A fifth Bushwillie, aqua blue, followed this new group of survivors out. She called, "Starshower, Flibbles, Appletart, Amber and Ember, please come here."
Still ogling the newcomers, the seven ponies went over to the Bushwillie. "Stop looking at them!" She chided quietly. "You must not stare! That rude. Wysteria says he tell you more later, but now you must not stare! Understand?"
Managing to pull their eyes away from the wounds, the seven young ponies nodded to the water-colored ball of yarn. That done, she went back into the Temple.
Appletart looked from Amber to Little Flibble. "Who are all of you? I'm Appletart." The six other young ponies introduced themselves to him, then started the trek to the lake.
As the group of ponies followed Blazer, carrying the four Bushwillies who gave directions, Starshower made a mental note to talk to Wysteria about the aqua Bushwillie, who's speech had been much better than Curious' or any of the other's. She also reminded herself not to stare as her eyes wandered to the back of the group where the two unicorns walked.
"Blackberries!" Moonie yelled, spotting bushes of said berry a few moments later. She dove in, Little Flibble hot on her tail. Ember joined her after she escaped from her sister - "You'll get all dirty again!"
"'M alreay diry silly!" Ember replied, eating a mouthful of blackberries.
"And don't eat with your mouth full!"
Buttercup laughed. "Come on Amber! They're good!" She and Appletart joined her siblings in the berry-filled bushes.
Not being full from breakfast because of the food fight, Star ate her fill of blackberries. She noticed the two unicorns and Blazer eating from a bush a little bit away.
After everyone, including the Bushwillies, had eaten their fill, they continued on their way to the lake.
Ember, Moonie and Starshower followed closely by Appletart were the first into the cool water when they finally spotted sand through the trees about half an hour later. Screaming and rolling in the water, they started their third fight that day - a water fight.
Buttercup stayed with Little Flibble closer to shore where it was shallow enough for him to stand comfortably on the sandy lake bottom. He splashed away in it while his sister laughed.
Amber went in, got wet and got back out, sitting down under a tree just off the beach. The three adults went further into the lake, being taller; and a small distance away from the younger ponies.
"Amber! Come on!" Ember hollered.
"I'm clean already. Plus I'm comfortable here. I think I'm going to take a nap." Amber closed her eyes.
'Wrong move,' Ember and Moonie thought at the same time. They looked at each other, reading the other's mind, then nodded. Starshower saw their mischievous gleam and
wondered if she should warn Amber. She decided against it. Both pegs went under water, making sure they were saturated with liquid.
Getting out and sneaking silently up to the napping Amber, they reared up and shook themselves above her.
Screaming, Amber jumped up and nearly knocked both over. She chased the squealing ponies back to the water. "I'm going to get you!"
Moonie and Ember dove back in. Amber grumbled at the water's edge, unable to reach the pests without getting even more wet.
Starshower saw Buttercup whisper something in Little Flibble's ear, then carefully get out and come up behind Amber. Ember and Moonie tried to stifle their laughter.
"What are you laughing- AAAAH!" Amber got cut off as Buttercup pushed her into the water. Amber came up sputtering to laughing ponies. "Oh, fine." Buttercup went back to playing with Little Flibble as Amber swam out to her sister and tried unsuccessfully to dunk her. The favor was returned to her three times, twice by Ember and once by Moonie. Starshower was content to be splashed and to splash back.
Appletart insisted on splashing and dunking everyone except Little Flibble, whom Buttercup had defiantly protected from the other boy. Appletart had given up on Little Flibble right away, but had made sure to give Buttercup an extra big splash.
After a good hour of water play, all the young ponies except Moonie and Appletart sluggishly climbed out of the water and under the shade of the trees, all dripping wet. They joined Little Flibble, who had been sleeping for several minutes already, allowing his oldest sister join the water fight.
Amber yawned. "I think I could sleep for a year." She glanced at Moonie, still splashing Appletart. "Don't you ever run out of energy?"
"Doubt it," Buttercup answered before she too yawned.
"At least some sense runs in your family," Amber kidded around another yawn.
Buttercup was almost asleep already and made no reply.
Everyone gave a couple of yawns each, then drifted off to sleep.
"Youch!"
Starshower became wide awake quite quickly when Appletart kicked her in the hip.
"Ouch, that hurt! Why'd you do that?" she asked, rubbing the sore spot with her muzzle.
"That butterfly bit me!" he replied nodding to a black butterfly that had fluttered up to the tree they were sleeping under.
"Don't be silly," Amber said. Apparently he had woken up everyone else. "Butterflies don't bite anyone. They don't have mouths."
"Well, this one does! And it bit me!" Appletart retorted.
"Didn't you just-" Amber started.
"Stop, stop," Buttercup interjected. "Appletart, maybe it stung you, don't butterflies have some sort of tongue?" Her statement stopped the argument before it even started.
"Well... maybe. Whatever it did, it hurt!" The young male started rubbing his muzzle with is foreleg. "Sorry about kicking you Starshower."
"It's ok, it was an accident," Star replied. "I wonder why it hurt though. I mean, Wysteria has been teaching me a lot of things, but I don't think poisonous butterflies was one of them."
Appletart looked scared. "It was-"
"No, I'm sure it wasn't. You're fine Appletart," Buttercup said soothingly.
"We'll have to ask Wysteria about it when we get back. Speaking of which-" Amber was interrupted by her stomach. She blushed. "I think we should start back now."
"Yeah, I'm hungry!" Moonie agreed.
"Finally, you two agree on something," Buttercup mumbled.
"Heard that!" Moonie jumped up on her sister. Little Flibble thought it was some sort of game and joined her. Laughing, Buttercup tumbled to the ground, her siblings following suit. "Stop, stop!" she gasped. They got off, Moonie snickering. Buttercup got back on her feet, looking around. "Where did Blazer and the others go?"
"I don't know, but should we go looking for them?" Amber asked.
Just then Curious came out from the bushes, followed by the other three Bushwillies and the three adult ponies. "Ah! You awake now! Hungry?"
"Yes!"
"We go back now!"
"A black butterfly stung you?" Wysteria asked.
"Yes," Appletart replied.
It was an hour and a half later, everyone had gone back to the Temple and had lunch. Appletart, the Flibbles, Starshower, Amber, Ember and Wysteria were all in the library.
"Well, that is odd. Though Buttercup and Amber are right, butterflies don't have mouths. They have a sort of long tongue that they use to drink nectar from flowers. Its called a proboscis. But I digress. Black you say... interesting..." The dark blue unicorn got up from his sitting couch and went over to one of the bookshelves. Scanning the titles, he found one high up and brought it down with magic. He set it on a table and started flipping through it. He stopped on one page and read it for a moment. "Mm-hm, thought so." He motioned for the others to come look.
They gathered around the table. The book was an older volume, large and dusty. The page that Wysteria had open showed a black butterfly on a green leaf.
"Ebious insectus," Wysteria said.
"What?" everyone else replied.
"A very old magic lies deep within the Valley of the Temple of Light and the Mountain Guard around it, protecting it. This magic turns any enemy into black butterflies. Apparently they still hold some darkness in them and sting you if they touch you," Wysteria explained.
"'Apparently'?" Amber asked.
"Apparently," Wysteria repeated. "I didn't know that before and the book doesn't say anything about what would happen to anyone that came into contact with Ebious insectus. Oh, and I must tell you about Redwing and Garden Glade."
"Are those the two beat-up unicorns?" Appletart asked.
"Yes, though I must ask you not to say that, please," Wysteria chided him lightly.
"Sorry."
"The intruders that ruined your homes did that to them. Oceana already told you not to stare. You must also leave them alone until later, and not say anything," Wysteria told them.
"We won't," chorused back.
Wysteria nodded, "Good." He put the book back on the shelf.
Everyone dispersed after a moment. Starshower caught up to Wysteria. "Wysteria, why does Oceana speak differently than the other Bushwillies? I mean, she talks better. Why?"
Wysteria gave a small laugh. "She enjoys reading with me."
"She can read too? I didn't think they had the attention span to do anything like that!" Starshower giggled. "I know Curious doesn't, he just wants to have fun."
"Most of them don't," Wysteria joined Star's laughter. "There are some though that are special, Majek, Klenly and Oceana being some of them. Once in a while there are a few rare ones that are more on our own intelligence level."
"Thanks for telling me."
"You're welcome. Now get on down to dinner and make sure you're in bed on time, you were out playing a lot today," Wysteria said in a fatherly voice.
"I will," Star assured him.
Odd, I don't consider myself a writer of humor, yet I loved this and even made myself laugh!
Author's Note: Do I still have any readers...? I will try to update this summer! Promise! -Crosses fingers- -Misses the shift+numbers options- Stupid !
Note:
- Gender: Females in my pony-verse are a bit slimmer, more graceful-looking and slightly smaller than males, who are a bit bigger and... um... stockier, for lack of a better word.
- Hairy-footedness: Unlike Hasbro, feathery hooves do not denote masculinity (yes, that is a real word, shocked me too). On Aniel, feathery hooves denote a Mountain pony, a pony who lives in the mountains. Or in later cases; very, very cold places.
- Appletart is G1 Applejack, whom I do see as a boy.
- Amber, I'm sorry I made you the targeted, over-sisterly one. But I did need some one to be level-headed. It just sort of happened. Blames Princess
- For those of you that care, the first wounded unicorn is G2 Golden Glow and a sort of tribute to MF, because she had to get in there somewhere, what with all three of her kids in already! The second wounded unicorn is G3 Garden Glade, with hairy feet.