Friends With The Night

A pony ran through the back allies of Canterlot, looking behind him scared. There was nothing, but he knew he was being perused. Suddenly the colt reached the end of the alleyway and having been looking behind him he didn’t see the guard in his path. With a sudden clash of armor on pavement the two collided and fell down.

“Hey,” the guard said loudly, quickly bringing himself to his hooves the guard looked at the unicorn colt still lying on the ground. “Watch yoursel-“the guard started and stopped as the young unicorn was attempting to pull himself to his hooves and was trembling

“Are you okay?” The guard leaned down and used a hoof to help pull the colt up.

“Y-you have got to help me,” the pony said looking up at the guard noting he was a Pegasus with the pristine white coat the guard was known for.

“Okay, first tell me what your name is. Then tell me what you need help with.”

“My n-name is Starry Skies and-“starry stopped as a shiver went down his spine, whipping around he stared at the dark alley way he had emerged from moments before. The Pegasus watched as starry turned and looked wide eyed at the alley way.

“What is it,” the guard asked

“T-that,” starry blurted out pointing a hoof to a dark figure walking out into the daylight. The guard instinctively stepped in front of the colt, his terrified demeanor making him look smaller than he was.

“Stop,” the guard yelled out to the shadow now taking a good look at it, it looked like an earth pony that wasn’t allowed to reflect light, and had a slight smoke blowing off of him, with glowing red eyes. The shadow kept walking toward the two.

“I-it’s after me,” starry pressed himself low to the ground, looking from behind the guard in front of him. With a look back towards the palace the Pegasus saw the main gate was open.

“Hey, starry, I need you to go to the palace and tell another guard that I need backup, my name is golden light, can you do that for me?” Starry nodded and turned to the palace, breaking into a run as golden light faced the shadow again. “I don’t know what you are, but I order you turn to turn around and leave now. The shadow kept trotting forward slowly, ignoring the guard’s orders. Golden light bristled his wings slightly as he got ready for a fight.

Starry ran over the entrance to the palace and spotted a unicorn next to the door, quickly running up to him. “Stop, state your business,” the unicorn said to starry.

“G-golden light needs backup over there,” starry gestured with a hoof to where he had come from, two figures moving around each other quickly before the darker one suddenly broke off and began running up the path to the palace. Without waiting for further explanation the unicorn waived more guards to him with a hoof and they started running to the shadow.

Starry watched with horror as the shadow deftly threw the approaching guards away and locked eyes with starry from the distance, without a second thought starry turned around and ran into the palace looking for somewhere to hide. Looking around at the beautiful marble structure the unicorn started running down a hallway.

After about twenty minutes of running around the palace the colt started ascending a spiral staircase. At the top of the stairs starry was greeted with the sight of a dead end and a door. The pony braced his hooves against the door and pushed, the door did not relent. Starry focused on the door and looked at it with his mind; he saw magic wrapping around the door and keeping it closed tight.

Looking behind him Starry’s eyes went wide seeing the shadow slowly ascended the staircase behind him. With a sudden pang of fear starry pointed his horn at the door and with a bright blue glow hurled bolts of energy at the door until the spell finally broke under the brute force. Quickly the unicorn rushed into the open door and looked for a place to hide in the darkened room.

Luna expected a lot of things, she expected gravity to hold her to the ground, she expected air to be breathable, she expected her room to be dark, what she did not expect was to be woken up from her nap by the feeling of her lock spell being forcibly broken open. Now the princess of the night expected to see a professional thief, or some sort of assassin, though when she sat up she saw something unexpected again, there was a unicorn colt quickly slipping through the door and into her room, he was trembling and quickly ran over to Luna’s bedside table and pushed himself under it. Now Luna was about to alert the pony to her presence when something else pushed at her door.  Eyeing the door curiously Luna watched as a dark figure stepped in, it was nearly impossible to see amidst the darkness, that didn’t matter though because she could practically feel it.

“Starrrryyyyyyyyy….” the shadow said stopping in front of the door to look around the room, its voice practically dripping with malice. Now however irritated Luna was about her room being broken into and woken up from her nap, she wasn’t about to let, this creature get to one of her little ponies.  Luna was about to slip out of her bed when suddenly a dark aura engulfed the entire frame, picking it up and throwing it into the wall, along with the princess.

“We wouldn’t want any distractions would we starry,” the creature asked as it picked up the table and threw it over to the bed, revealing the trembling unicorn.

“Oh there you are.” Starry began slowly backing up until he had to rear back to press his back against the wall opposite of Luna, the shadow still walking closer to him.

“S-stay back!” starry skies said loudly in between ragged breaths.

Luna was angry, very angry, not since discord had anypony got a surprise attack off on her. Luna was about to grab the bed and hurl it to the spirit in the room with her, when something stopper her, she felt a power in the room, carefully she pushed away the bed to see the pony who broke in pushed against the wall his horn was glowing softly and slowly growing brighter. Suddenly there was a flash of deep blue light, starry was now floating in the air surrounded by a blue aura, lightning began to arc off of his horn and scorch the floor around him. The shadow quickly stepped back; wind whipping around the room as various objects were surrounded by his telekinetic glow then changed shape. Starry opened his eyes to show they were white with power; slowly he tilted his head and aimed at the shadow, losing a blinding white beam of energy that struck the spirit dead on. After starry finished his attack there was nothing left of the shadow in the room, however starry didn’t stop, a slight cry escaped his lips as more objects were lifted into the air then turned into other things, lightning trailed over his coat and jumped to the floor, scorching it with black ruts. Luna stared in slight shock as the colt let out a magical storm; even her shields were having moderate difficulty preventing the unicorn from affecting her.

Suddenly a guard pushed into the room with them, Luna turned her head to him, he was a Pegasus and the wing on his left side was very obviously broken, along with his armor being dented and coat covered in dirt. “Starry,” he yelled in shock seeing the colt floating in the air and sparking with electricity.  Starry looked over and noticed it was the guard from earlier, the first pony to be nice to him in a long time and then his aura began to fade, his eyes fading from the dazzling white they were to his normal deep blue, slowly sinking to the floor and slumping down to cover his face with his hooves.

Luna decided it was time to make her presence known, she pushed her bed away and began walking to the two ponies, the golden light was in front of starry attempting to get him to say something when he heard the clopping of hooves behind him, quickly he whipped around in a defensive stance to protect starry when he saw Luna. “Princess,” he said quickly bowing before her, Luna didn’t really like how that was everypony's reaction to seeing her, but she didn’t press it any merely telling the guard to stand up as she approached the colt on the floor.

“hello?” Luna asked starry who looked up, eyes widening as soon as he saw the princess, she was taller in person than in pictures, and her hair was falling flat, looking like a shiny blue, rather than the star filled mane she usually had. Oh dear sweet Celestia! Starry thought as he looked around the room for the first time, actually realizing where he was. Oh no! I broke into the princess’s room! Oh she is going to banish me, or throw me into a dungeon, or both! Starry had started to tremble more when the princess of the night’s voice broke the relative silence.

“Are you okay,” She asked, when starry looked up again he came face to face with worried eyes, and his fears of being banished were somewhat quelled.

“Y-yes I'm okay,” starry said pulling himself to his legs shakily, Luna noted he was still trembling and motioned for golden light to open her curtains.

“What’s your name,” Luna asked to the unicorn.

“Oh, my n-name is Starry Skies,” he responded. Luna nodded and winced slightly as the curtains were pulled open, now she could get a good look at starry to make sure he was alright; again she got something she wasn’t expecting. Starry was obviously short for his age, by at least four inches, being a little younger than Celestia’s protégé, and the area around his horn was charred black from magical backlash, something unicorns were supposed to learn to control in magic kindergarten, his coat was a deep blue, his mane and tail were a lighter shade, with a silver streak, his cutie mark was what looked like a hole to the night sky with four five pointed stars surrounded by a golden aura, he was wearing a tattered and old saddlebag that looked like it didn’t even fit well, but what made Luna worry the most was how easily she could see his ribs, he looked down right near death and she began to wonder if he was trembling from fear or from the strain of holding himself up.

Luna looked down to starry. “Can you tell me what was chased you into my room, and for that matter, how you opened my door?” starry dropped his ears and looked down at the floor.

“It all started when I found a book on the ground behind a library in a town not far from here…”

Starry Skies trotted happily as he trotted down the dirt road with a smile, nothing could get him down today. He found enough bits to buy an order of hay fries, and on top of that someone had thrown out an old magic book and he had found it! Celestia’s sun was about halfway through its path for the day and starry had just wondered into an open field and pulled his book out of his saddle bag. Sitting on his haunches the unicorn smiled and flipped through the pages happily, looking for a spell that seemed useful. After flipping through several pages of spells he settled on tow to try for today: gossamer wings, and teleport.

“Okay,” starry said and sat the book behind him, closing his eyes and focusing on his horn, a soft blue glow enveloping his horn.

“think wings,” he said to himself and little blue ribbons of light started to spin around and wrap his horn, wincing as stray arcs of magic burned his head around his horn. After he felt he had gathered up enough energy he released it into the air, the blue ribbons shooting out, then turning back and spinning around his body, slowly the power lifted him up and he felt a tingling on his back. After a few seconds there was a bright flash and he was deposited on the ground. Starry turned around and smiled happily, seeing two big translucent wings attached to his back.

“A little girly, but they could be cool!” starry said aloud, he had grown accustom to speaking to himself since he was alone so often.

“Guess I should see what these can do!” starry smiled happily and flapped his wings, with a sound of delight he found his hooves lifting off the ground.

“Awesome,” the colt yelled and began flying through the sky, only slightly disappointed when he found he still couldn’t touch clouds. After around an hour of flying starry landed back next to his book and picked it up, flipping through the pages down to the teleport spell.

“okay seems simple enough, I make a sphere around myself, then find the point I want to go to, then find myself and bridge the gap, seems simple enough!” starry smiled and slipped the book in his saddlebag, fluttering over to a tree and breaking two branches off, laying them in an “X” on the ground, then fluttering over to another hill about fifty hooves away.  Starry began collecting energy in his horn, the soft blue aura collecting around it, followed by blue ribbons of light , then wincing once again at the power sparking from his horn. After a few minutes of collecting power starry located the spot in his mind, then started searching for his own location, finding it significantly harder than what he would have thought. The pain on Starry’s horn intensified as the teleport spell continued collecting energy, increasing its potential range. After a while starry finally located what felt like his location and released the spell.

Starry waited to feel the world move around him and after a few seconds opened his eyes, knowing the spell should have been near instant. What starry saw in front of him was that at his destination was a large blue sphere with lightning arcing off its surface, floating a few inches above his “X” after a few more seconds the sphere popped like a bubble and what was left standing there was a pony seemingly made of thick black smoke.

“Starry…” it said and began to approach the colt. Starry took a step back and looked wide eyed at the creature.  After a second starry turned to fly away and once he was a few inches off the ground his wings were surrounded by a black aura and broke in half, dissolving into bubbles and morning dew, gasping starry fell to the ground and began running to a city on a mountain in the distance.

“And it chased me all the way to your room, the door was locked, and it was behind me so I attacked the spell…”

Luna looked at starry as he finished his story.

“Starry, can I see that book you used?” starry nodded and levitated the book out of his saddlebag. Luna grabbed the book, the cover was worn and pages looked like they had gotten wet, a normal pony would have thrown this away for sure. Luna flipped through the pages and eyed the teleportation spell, it seemed normal, then curiously she flipped to the next page and everything made sense. Starry must have accidentally mixed these two spells up.

“Here starry look,” Luna said as she showed starry the page after the teleport spell.

“It looks like you mixed this teleport spell with this plains walking spell, so instead of taking you somewhere else, you pulled something to you.”

“Oh...” was all starry said. Luna looked at the unicorn for a second before turning her attention back to the book. He shouldn’t have enough power to pull an entire creature from another world… and that display earlier was impressive, he is strong if not very uncontrolled… Luna looked starry over again feeling a pang of something in her chest, she really wanted to help this colt, clearly he had the potential to be talented and his parents weren’t taking very good care of him, Luna stopped at that last point and looked at starry, he wasn’t too much younger than twilight, he wondered if he still lived with his parents.

“Starry, where are your parents?” Luna asked, and Starry’s demeanor suddenly sunk further down. “I-if it’s okay with you p-princess… I’d rather not talk about it…” starry said and Luna noted he was staring at his cutie mark. Clearly his talent is magic. Luna thought, looking at the mark and feeling that pang again and suddenly it dawned on her.

“Starry, do you live anywhere.” The unicorn was back on the ground and shook his head.

Luna frowned and thought, she really needed to help this unicorn, then it occurred to her, her sister had a student, why not her? In fact, it would be downright irresponsible to let a pony with this much power continue to practice magic without a teacher not to mention a waste.

Luna walked over so she was next to the unicorn then dropped so she had her legs folded under her, then softly draped her wing over starry, causing him to look up at her.

“starry, from what I have seen of you today I have ascertained that you have a lot of potential and would like to propose something to you, would you like to be my personal student?” starry stared at the princess for a long while as what she was saying sunk in.

“R-really,” starry asked, his eyes lightning up. “Yes I would love to!” starry smiled and Luna stood up.

“Okay starry I have got to take care of some things, golden light?” Luna looked to the guard who stood at attention once the princess addressed him. “Show starry to one of the guest rooms in the night wing could you?”

“Yes ma’am!” golden light said and walked over to starry, leading him out of the princess’s bedchambers, Luna turned to look at her room. Her bed was fairly destroyed and smashed into the wall, one of her bookcases was full of cakes that had been books at one point, the floor was scorched and busted, and many of the objects in her room had been warped into other objects. Luna sighed.

The cleaning staff is going to have to take care of this; I need to talk to my sister. Luna thought to herself and walked over to her thankfully still standing mirror and applied the glamour to her mane that made it waive and sparkle like it was full of stars, then the princess of the night walked out of her room.

Celestia was in the middle of a lot of paper work, much of it having to deal with guards medical bills over a confrontation at the north gate earlier that day when a knock came at her door, Celestia sat her Quill down.

“Come in” Celestia said and smiled as her sister walked in. “Luna! What brings you here?” Celestia walked up and nuzzled her younger sister affectionately. Luna smiled back happily.

“Today I met a colt, a unicorn specifically” Celestia’s smile grew wider.

“Oh! Did you make a friend?” Celestia asked with a bright smile, since her return Luna has been somewhat asocial, not really leaving her room for much else than work.

“What no! I- I mean... maybe, that’s not what I was coming to tell you. Starry skies, the colt, he is a little younger than your student twilight, and severely malnourished, I found out that he is currently homeless, and after a particularly devastating show of power in my room I made him my personal student.” Luna said rushing through what she wanted to tell Celestia.  Celestia stared at Luna for a while, taking in what she had just said.

“Tell me what you mean by a devastating show of power,” Celestia said and listened as Luna retold everything that had happened since she woke up, including starry summoning the dark creature. “well that explains the injured guards, and you are right, it would be irresponsible to let him leave without learning to control his power, and not to mention irresponsible to send him out since he is clearly having trouble out there.” Celestia said and walked up to Luna. “so first I want you to take him to a doctor to make sure his malnourishment isn’t the only thing wrong with him, then I want you to find out the last thing he learned formally in the educational system, I am going to send a letter to twilight so she can come and help you get started and write a lesson plan.” Luna nodded and smiled then Celestia spoke up again, “I hope you understand what you have gotten yourself into here dear sister.” Luna shook her head.

“I don’t think I do, but I feel as if I am doing the right thing.” Celestia smiled at this.

“Then I know you are doing it for the right reasons.” Celestia smiled at Luna again.

“Your speech lessons are coming along great,” she said to Luna.

“Thank you sister, I am going to go take starry to a doctor before he gets too settled in”

Celestia nodded and grabbed a Quill and parchment to start taking a letter.

Twilight was busy re-shelving every book in the library for what must have been the fifth time that day, Rarity was in Manehattan with applejack attempting to sell dresses and apples, pinkie pie was helping the cakes cater a wedding in Phillydelphia, Fluttershy was in Coltsberg tending to a sick family of bunnies, nobody was going to be back for the week and twilight was bored out of her mind, waiting for a new order of books.  As twilight finished the last book she was about to pull them all off again when she heard a belch from upstairs, looking up twilight called out.

“Spike what was that?”

“A letter from the princess!” came the response as the baby dragon rushed down the stairs in front of twilight and unfurled the scroll.

“Ehm...  my dearest student twilight sparkle. First off I would like to say that I wish your studies on friendship are going well. And I would also like to ask you a favor. My sister Luna has met a unicorn with a highly above average amount of power, with a severe lack of control, he cannot even suppress his magical backlash when charging for spells. Luna has decided to take him in as her personal student, I am asking for two favors from you, the first being that you help make a lesson plan for him and Luna and get them both started. The second thing is that I feel that this unicorn has had a hard life and was abandoned by his parents, if you could teach him and Luna for that matter, the magic of friendship.  Please send a response to this letter detailing when and if you can come.”

Spike finished reading the letter and twilight stood there staring relatively blankly forward.

“Luna has a student!” twilight shouted suddenly and smiled. “And Celestia wants me to help teach him!” spike practically fell down.

“I take it you are going to go?” spike asked while picking himself off the floor.

“Well of course I’m going to go!” twilight said. “There isn’t even anything to do around here, and I get to help teach this new pony and Luna about friendship! Spike take a letter”

Luna went to Starry’s new room and knocked on the door. After a few moments of waiting without a sound Luna knocked on the door again, still again to no answer Luna started to feel a little worried.

“Starry? Are you okay?” Luna asked and waited for a few moments before pushing the door open. Luna stepped into Starry’s room and looked around, finding him passed out on the large bed in the guest room.  Walking over to the bed softly Luna placed a hoof on the young unicorn’s shoulder, giving him a soft shake.

“Hey starry?” Luna asked as he started to open his eyes.

“Mmhrrrmmmfff, yes prinfess?” starry asked, still clearly not awake.

“How long has it been since you have seen a doctor?” starry laid there for a bit, looking like he might have fallen asleep again.

“Hrmm...  I dunno... ten years give or take.” Starry dropped his head back on the soft bed as Luna stared at him. Luna placed her hoof on Starry’s shoulder again.

“Hey come on, wake up we need to go.” As starry opened his eyes Luna levitated him onto the ground where he stood with shaky legs for a bit.

“Where are we going princess?” starry asked, shaking his head to wake up further.

“Well, before I can start teaching you magic we need to make sure you are healthy, and to be honest starry, you don’t look healthy.” Starry nodded, looking down to his sides and noting his visible ribs.

“Yeah okay.” Starry said and walked up next to the princess.

“So, what are we going to learn first?” starry asked with a smile

“Hmm I’m not sure; first I need to know the last thing you learned in school.” Luna said as they walked out of the room and down the clean marble tile of the palace hallways.

“The last thing I learned in school…” starry said, his eyes glazing over slightly as he was lost in thought. “It was probably telekinesis,” he said looking back up to Luna, who stopped and was now looking at him.

“Correct me if I am wrong, as I have been absent for a thousand years, but isn’t telekinesis one of the first things taught in magic kindergarten?”  Starry looked down.

“Starry how long have you been on your own?”

“I’d really rather not talk about it princess.” Starry said rather bluntly, his face losing all expression.

“Oh, okay.” Luna said not wanting to irritate starry.

“Okay, well, can you tell me anything you like to do?”  As Luna finished Starry’s mood brightened.

“Oh well I love to read! And study, and I love when I find new spells,  and uhh  I don’t get to play them often, but I’ve been able to play demo videogames at game stores. Luna’s eyes brightened considerably, ever since she got back from the moon videogames had been something she had developed quite an interest in.

“I have a lot of videogames back in the royal game room, would you like to play for a while after we finish at the doctors?” Luna asked hopefully.

“Yes!” starry said loudly, then looked down and looked back up. “I-I mean yes I would very much like that.”  Starry said happily as they reached the palace’s medical wing, which was more or less full of guards injured by the events earlier that day.

“Wait here starry I’m going to go see if I can get a free doctor or nurse.” Starry nodded as Luna walked to the reception desk.  “Hello?” Luna said to the nurse who was at the desk.

“Hello princess! Do you need anything? Were you hurt in the attack today,” she asked and began looking the alicorn over searching for anything that would signify she was hurt.

“oh no, no its nothing like that, but that unicorn over there,” Luna gestured a hoof to starry skies, who appeared to be admiring the soft couch he was sitting on by pressing his fore hooves into the cushion and watching it poof back up. For a moment Luna wondered if he was a tad bit delirious from not eating.” Hasn’t been to a doctor in ten or so years, and for that time doesn’t look like he has been taking very good care of himself.” The nurse nodded and looked at starry from across the room.

“Yes it looks like he probably needs vitamin supplements; I’ll be right back with a doctor.” The nurse walked off and came back moments later with a white unicorn wearing a lab coat, who ushered starry and Luna into one of the back rooms.

When Luna and starry finally emerged from the medical area Starry’s saddlebag was filled with various bottles of vitamins and other bottles of medicine. They had learned starry was way under the normal weight limit for a pony his age, his growth was stunted by his bad diet and he probably wouldn’t be as tall as other ponies his age. The good news was that there were no other lasting effects and aside from being horribly underweight he was very healthy.  Luna took starry to the royal kitchens where they had a light lunch, starry in particular had a very light lunch on account that the doctor said he wasn’t supposed to eat too much too quickly. Afterwards Luna led starry to the royal gaming room where the two sat down to play.

Celestia was in her room and had finally finished her paperwork, when suddenly a wisp of smoke flew in through her balcony and materialized in front of her as a scroll bound by a little red ribbon; with a smile the sun goddess unfurled the scroll and read it. Celestia sat the scroll down and smiled walking out of her room and looking down to one of her door guards.

“Hello, do you happen to know where my sister and her student are?” Celestia asked the guard with a warm smile.

“Princess Luna and starry skies were last seen entering the royal gaming room your highness.”

“Thank you” Celestia replied and walked off in the direction of the royal gaming room, as she neared it, she became aware of light shouting, this wasn’t anything new as Luna got pretty heated when she was playing games, but Celestia still didn’t like hearing it. As she reached the door Celestia was about to open it when she heard another shout, Celestia decided it would be best to listen a bit before just walking in.

“THOW HATH CHEATED!” Luna yelled, followed by another yell, slightly less aided by magic.

“I didn’t cheat! I’m just better than you!”

“WE CANNOT BELIEVE YOU COULD BE BETTER THAN US!”

“Well you had better believe it because it just happened.”

“THOW HATH JUST ASSURED THINE OWN DESTRUCTION!” Luna yelled, followed by a loud ‘pomf’ followed by a wave of laughter and more ‘pomfs’.

Celestia pushed the door open and saw Luna and starry both staring at each other, their horns were glowing, Luna’s was going a soft blue, while Starry’s was glowing a slightly lighter blue with shining blue ribbons leaping from his horn and creating slight burn marks on his head, above them floated one pillow each.

“THINE SKILLS ARE NO MATCH FOR OUR PILLOW WAR PROWESS!” Luna shouted as she hurled a pillow towards the small unicorn, only for it to be blocked by Starry’s pillow and grabbed in his kinetic glow.

“Well it seems like you two are having fun” Celestia said with a smile at the two, who immediately faced her, starry quickly falling on his front hooves and bowing.

“AH YES SISTER WE-“Luna stopped and coughed slightly. “I mean, I would like to introduce you to starry skies, my new student.” Luna said gesturing to starry who was standing back up

“Nice to meet you princess,” he said with a smile, which Celestia returned.

“The pleasure is all mine starry,” she said as she lifted the pillows off the floor and placed them back on the royal gaming couch. “Anyway I have received a response from twilight and she tells me she will be arriving tomorrow morning by train, so you both should probably get your sleep.” Starry and Luna nodded.  Before Luna trotted to the royal gaming cabinet and turned off the royal gaming system. Celestia turned to walk out of the room as Luna and starry followed behind, each going to their respective rooms.