Return to Ponyville

It had been months since the incident at the hill. Star had finally recovered, but her wings had lost their feathers, leaving her with the inability to fly, not that it bothered her, she never used her wings much any how. Not being able to fly with them made no difference to her now. But to hide the monstrosity of them, she wrapped them in a soft blue cloth the Doctor gave her. She looked at herself in the mirror as the magic twisted the edges of the cloth into a bow on her back. She brushed through her mane. She had to look nice. Today was the day she was going back to Ponyville to see her friends. The Doctor reassured her that he would take her back to the moment after he had initially taken her with him so it would seem like she had never gone.

"Star are you ready yet?" He mock groaned from the doorway as he watched her. Even with her wings deformed at the moment she's not bad to look at... for a pony. He had to tell himself again. I can hear Jack now. He shuddered a little, but kept his eyes trained on the black mare as she brushed through her blue mane. I have to find some way to repair her wings... maybe there something in Canterlot's library.

She set the brush down and stood up, going to him. "I'm ready. Geez I was only in here for no less then five minutes. How long do you take on that mane of yours each day?" She stuck her tongue out at him. "I think I counted ten maybe twenty minutes, just to get your mane to stick up that way."

He flushed. "Well!"

She outright laughed and she gently pushed her hoof against his face, before reaching and ruffling his mane, mussing it up.

"OI! Now you see here no messing up the coif!" He pushed her hooves away and started trying to fix it, a pout on his face.

She grinned at him and started to trot around him. "Well let's go!"

This was the most enthusiastic he had ever seen her. "Alright, don't get your knickers in a twist."

She stopped and looked at him. "Knickers?"

His face flushed. Damn that's right... they don't wear those... He quickly went off as he realized that essentially they were naked, at least by human standards.

Star watched him go and wondered why he reacted that way. Odd... She shook her head and followed after him.

He ran around the TARDIS as she watched him, pushing buttons and finally the lever. "Hang on!"

She eeped as she rolled backwards from the sudden movement. She latched onto a rail and looked at him, watching as he held onto to the console itself.

He fell over when they landed. "Well another perfect landing!" He got up and went to her, helping her up.

"Yeah... perfect." She rolled her eyes and bounded for the door. She was eager to see Twilight, Pinkie Pie and the others. She stepped out and winced as the sunlight hit her eyes hard. "Ick." The feeling of dread started to well up in her stomach but she chalked it up to nervousness as she looked around. "I'll be at the library!" She yelled into the TARDIS as she bolted down the hill.

"OI!" He cried out after her and sighed. "At least slow down..." Did she want to get away from me that badly? He frowned. Nah she's just excited. I'll head into town. He walked down the hill and into town. As he entered the square, something caught his eye. "Hm?" He turned his attention to it, from the distance he could see a photo of Star on a flier. He went to it and read.

MISSING

STARSTRIKE

LAST SEEN MAY 25TH 2012

IF FOUND PLEASE CONTACT TWILIGHT SPARKLE OR PINKIE PIE

He blanched and went pale. "Oh... oh no." He ran in the direction of the library.

Star rushed into the library and looked around to see Spike fixing up books as usual. "Hello Spike! Is Twilight around?" She asked cheerfully.

Spike turned and dropped the books. "S...Star... is that really you?"

"Ugh... yeah Spike... why wouldn't it be me?"

The Doctor burst in. "Starstrike! It's not the day after you left, it's been nearly two years!"

"..." She froze up. She turned to him with a blank look on her face, before blowing up. "TWO YEARS! TWO YEARS! HOW CAN YOU MESS THAT UP!?"

He coward at her yelling, he had never seen Star this angry in all the time that he had known her. His ears flattened. "I'm sorry! The TARDIS sometimes goes where she wants to..."

She huffed as she tried to calm down.

Spike pointed an accusing claw at the Doctor. "YOU! I shoulda known you were behind this! First Twilight now Starstrike! This is unbelievable!"

"Now now Spike! All can be explained! I promise!"

Spike looked ready to burn him alive. "Wait until Twilight comes back. Oooo are you in for it!"

"Wait... when Twilight comes back, where is she?" Star asked as she returned her attention to Spike.

"Ugh... yeah you missed a lot while you were missing."

"What exactly did I miss Spike?"

"Um well just... Twilight... becoming a princess."

"What!" Star fell back onto her flank in surprise.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, got a nice ring to it I suppose." The Doctor was speaking more to himself then to the two in the room, but the look he got from them both told him he should keep quiet.

Spike sent him a non-too-friendly glance, before going to Star. "Twilight and every pony else have been looking for you, even Princess Luna's been lending a hand."

"Oh... oh no, I'm sorry I worried all of you, honestly." She looked sad. Two years gone on accident because the dunderhead behind her didn't calculate the timing right. The sudden urge to hit him came over her, but she restrained herself for now.

The Doctor felt as though he would get attacked by either her or Spike at any moment, and the thought of the others bounding on him for the mistake did not sit well with him. He contemplated making his escape. He started to back out the door.

"Don't you dare leave, you're not off the hook."

He heard Star say and his face colored. He stopped in his tracks. "I... I wasn't going anywhere."

"You're a runner, Doctor." She said with a voice full of disappointment as she turned towards him.

The look said she was angry, but she was restraining herself from lashing out at him. He clenched his jaw as his ears flattened. He looked like a kicked puppy.

After some time of talking to Spike and the two sending glares his way, Twilight entered the library. "Spike I'm back! Anything happen while I was away?" She asked as she shrugged off the bag, careful of her wings.

"Um yes, quite a bit actually..."

"Oh? You didn't burn anything again did you?"

"What no!"

"Then what are you talking about?" She asked as she placed the bag onto the hook. She looked up and saw a sheepish looking Starstrike. Her eyes widened at the sight of her. "Star!?" She bounded to her and tackled the other mare down to the ground in her excitement. "Is it really you?"

"Y...yes..." Star was blushing at the other mare laying on top of her.

She got up and stared at her for a good long time. "What happened to you! We were all worried sick!"

"I...I'm sorry..." She didn't know how to explain.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Yes well... that would be my fault... a bit of a mis...calculation on a time spell."

Twilight turned towards him and cocked her head to the side. "You're... Time Turner was it?"

"Y...Yes..."

Time Turner? I never heard him go by that before...

"What's this about a time spell? You're an earth pony, you shouldn't be able to do magic."

"Yes well it was rather an experiment, science... gone wrong. Miss Star and I landed some place else for a time and when we tried the experiment again we... I... rather... miscalculated the time frame..."

"Science..." Twilight seemed to wonder how much of the story was true.

"Yes... I dabble in the science of time...I see time as a... non-linear... ball of... time-y wime-y …. stuff." He rubbed a hoof through his mane. It wasn't a complete lie.

"I...see... you live in that … strange box don't you?"

He coughed. "The TARDIS..." he corrected, before sinking back against the gaze Twilight was giving him. Boy did he wish she remembered him, this would have been so much easier.

"I hope you realize how much trouble you're going to be in when Princess Luna finds out."

He paled. "No! No need to involve her now is there?"

"She will be wanting to know why Starstrike's wings are injured."

"What no, she's... she's fine... she's alright..."

Star watched him squirm, a part of her enjoyed it. It was what he got for being a big doofus and not checking the coordinates before they departed. But she knew that she couldn't let him get into too much trouble. "Twi... it's not all his fault. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time when this happened to me. He's been tending to me the whole time, really."

"Spike, go tell Pinkie Pie."

He nodded and ran off.

Before Twilight could say any more to The Doctor, Starstrike bumped against her. "So you're a princess now?"

"Oh... yeah..." She laughed a little.

"And... an alicorn..." Star wasn't sure how she should react to this bit of news, Spike hasn't prepared her for it.

" Yeah... Celestia granted me the title of princess... and with it came being an alicorn. I'm still getting used to it though. Wings and Magic... it's just so odd for me."

"Yeah... well I'm sure you'll master it, you're really good at picking things up."

The Doctor noted her change in mood and tone. He observed them. I always thought you had to be born an alicorn to be one. This magic business gets stranger and stranger the more I observe it. Star must be feeling uneasy... She lived so long not wanting to be an alicorn, and here one of the few friends she has, has become one.

"Maybe there's something I can do for your wings? What happened to them? You actually look a bit different from when I last saw you..."

"It's fine Twilight, they'll heal on their own. Don't waste your power on me." She gave her a smile, but she couldn't help the bitter feeling that was settling in her.

It was no sooner she had said that, that a flash a pink passed The Doctor at the speed of light and crashed right into Starstrike, sending them both rolling. "Oh Starstrike! I missed you so much! I missed having you around roomie!" She squealed as she pulled away.

Star laughed a little. "Energetic as ever Pinkie." She was glad to see that Pinkie hadn't changed much since they last saw each other.

"Where have you been? Wait! Let me guess! You went up to the hill, got hit by a falling star that was brought there by Time Turner, you were badly injured, he had to nurse you back to health somewhere out in space, you spent months out there with him, you found out he was the pony of your dreams, you spent more time out in space, healed up almost completely and came back here, only to find out that he blotched up the time frame, so instead of bringing you back to when you left, he brought you back two years late!" Pinkie took in deep breaths.

Star was floored and red faced. The Doctor didn't need to hear that tidbit about the pony of her dreams. How the hell does she do that?! "H...How..."

"Just a guess!" She said cheerfully.

Twilight turned a sharp eye towards The Doctor. "Hit with a shooting star huh?"

He was dead. So. So. Dead.

Twilight dragged Star upstairs and forced her to take the wrappings off, to which of course she continuously protested, until Twilight had magicked them off. When Twilight saw the featherless wings her gaze grew cold and hardened. Star's wings were practically bone. "Star!" She was ready to murder the stallion downstairs.

"No Twilight, it wasn't his fault, really! He didn't know I was there... and what he did was to save Ponyville from a really bad disaster. If he didn't contain it away from the main town a lot of other ponies would have come out a lot worse then I did... maybe may have not come out of it at all."

"If he would have brought you for some proper medical attention instead of doing it on his own, your wings might not be in this shape!"

"Yeah, what was he going to do Twilight? He had a hard enough time getting me from the hole! What was he going to say to the doctors? 'Oh hey, here's this mare, she's burned nearly alive because a star, which by the way is radioactive, hit her into the ground. But she's still breathing some how and there's a chance she'll live, so that's good right?' No Twilight, be serious." She huffed at her as she worked to retie the sash around her waist and wings. "I would have been more of a danger to them that way. He didn't know how much of the radioactivity I had absorbed into my body and it would have been really dangerous for any other pony to have been near me."

"And it wasn't for him?"

"Well he's not like other ponies Twi... he's special. Far more special than you or me."

Twilight stared at her hard.

"He still doesn't know how I survived it. And besides, Twilight, what would you have done... if you did something like that to somepony else? Would you leave them there, knowing that you could help them? Would you throw them into a hospital where others could get sick? What choice did he really have?"

Twilight bowed her head as she thought on it. "You're... right." She sighed. "I would have done the same, especially if I knew they had a better chance with me then in a hospital."

"So please... I know he did some stupid things... like really stupid things but cut him a break... ok?"

She stared at her for a bit. "You... really like this stallion don't you Star?"

Star's face colored. "It's not … it's not that at all... he's just... he's just been looking out for me for awhile now, and he's already feeling really guilty. Let's not make him feel worse."

Twilight was not convinced, especially with how fidgety she had gotten just at the mention of liking him. She sighed. "Alright... for you I'll give him a break. In the mean time... your wings... I can try to fix them."

"No." She said flatly. "There's no point... if they want to heal, they'll heal on their own. I just don't want to use magic that might actually make it worse..."

"Do they... hurt?"

"They did at first... but I hardly feel them now. They've taken so much damage in the past that they've probably given up on healing." She said softly, her gaze on the floor.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Everything Star, just everything. And everything that's going to happen..."

"Huh? What do you mean everything that's going to happen?"

"While you were missing... some ponies came from the northern village. They were looking for you."

Star was silent.

"They were looking for justice."

"Justice?" She looked confused.

"A few months after you left, they discovered the rotting corpses of your parents, still in bed..."

Star's heart raced.

"They're pinning the blame on you because you were their caretaker. Star, you're wanted for murder." Twilight said softly.

Whatever happiness Star had felt had washed away. They would forever haunt her, no matter where she went.