All is Fair in Love and Warby Stardust NightChaptersIn The BeginningThe Unexpected ResultThe TruthLuna's secretIn The Beginning“Stardust! Wake up! Wake up!” “Yeah you’re going to be late” said two small filly voices as he awoke. “Ok ok. I'm up and also I'm not going to be late the train leaves in two hours I have time” “What about Lyra and Bon Bon how are you going to say goodbye to them and make it to the train on time they live on the other side of Ponyville on the outskirts.” “I will be fine they’re meeting me at the train station. Stardust Night is a unicorn with a blue coat and with a blue and black mane that had a little bit of a sparkle to it, and his cutie mark has three stars the one in the center being larger than the other two slightly and under those stars was glimmering starlight. He is highly gifted in using magic but doesn’t enjoy it as much as a mare he knew in Ponyville named Twilight Sparkle, in fact the only spell he uses besides levitation spells is a spell that he mastered as a filly, he called the spell Star’s Lullaby. When he was a filly he hated using magic because even then he was better at magic than most fillies and was bullied and called a freak for it not to mention that he had a slightly larger horn than usual which he still hasn’t grown into. The only two fillies that would even talk to him at school where his best friend Lyra and her friend Bon Bon. After school one day he went to the library to get some books on relaxation spells to use on his younger siblings who are twins one is a mare called Moonlight Path and the other is a stallion called Sky Dancer. Moonlight is a unicorn like Stardust and their mother Fairy Dust, Sky is a Pegasus like their late father Milkyway Star who went M.I.A. during the war that has been going on between the Equestrian Empire and a Rebellion that wants to make Equestria a Republic. After their fathers disappearance their mother Fairy Dust fell into a depression and the twins started having nightmares. Stardust was also very depressed and all he wanted was to see his brother and sister sleep peacefully and to see his mother smile again. One day at school during lunch he was talking to Lyra and she said. “Star how long are you going to act like this I know that you’re worried about your dad but still I worry about you sometimes.” “I will be fine; I just wish things where as optimistic at home as they are when I'm with you and Bon Bon. By the way where is she I haven’t seen her yet today.” “She wasn’t feeling well this morning so her parents are letting her rest; they think it’s that nasty flu that has been going around.” Said Lyra. “Ok, if you see her tell her I hope she gets well soon.” Said Stardust. “Ok will do. OH I almost forgot to tell you that there might be some useful spell books in the library that you could use to cheer up your family and who knows maybe you will get your cutie mark. Personally I think getting your cutie mark is one of the happiest things to happen in a pony’s life and that’s bound to make you feel better.” Said Lyra. “I’ll be sure to look into that and who knows it might happen I am pretty good at magic. Maybe since I'm doing that you could try playing that lyre you have hanging on your wall in your room you sound great when you do and who knows maybe you will get better at it if that’s possible.” Stardust said enthusiastically. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better because I broke a string last time.” Said Lyra getting shy. “Not really you really are great and the string broke because you’ve been using it so much the last couple of weeks.” Said Stardust in an honest tone. “Ok then if you say so. See ya later Star.” Said Lyra staring to get up to go to class.” After school was over Stardust decide to stop at the library on the way home and picked up a few spell books on the way home. When he got home he said “hi Mom, I’m home” to Fairy Dust who asked him how his day was to which he replied “Actually better than I expected” this surprised Fairy Dust who usually heard him say his day was lousy. He went in his room and did his homework and started to read some of the books he rented from the library. He was reading for hours and stayed up a little late into the night. Finally he got to the last book and the cover read Spells of the Great Unicorn Sorcerer Star Swirl the Bearded this book wasn’t one of the books he picked out and must have accidentally grabbed the wrong book and checked it out. Even though he didn’t want the book he read it anyway so it wouldn’t be a waste. He was reading for about an hour and got to a sleeping spell that Star Swirl the Bearded had created but was never able to finish. He started to try and perform the spell knowing that it wouldn’t work but he thought it couldn’t hurt to try and then he heard screams from the twins’ bedroom so he went in there to calm them down. When he got in there he saw both of them crying as usual when they would have nightmares he read them a story but they couldn’t get back to sleep and so he went and got the spell book he was reading and read the spell description: The pony of whom this spell is used on shall become relaxed and fall asleep gently. As far as Stardust knew the spell was at Alicorn level the highest level magic that can only be used by Alicorns like the princess. Even though he knew it was pointless he once again tried to cast the spell and after a couple seconds his horn started to glow scarlet red the same color as his eyes and he could feel as the magic welled up inside his body and then there was a small flash of light and a small orb of light came from his horn and showered his brother and sister in magic and disappeared. Amazed that he actually completed the spell he even saw that Moonlight and Sky had stopped crying and laid down again going right to sleep like new born foals. He was overjoyed at his success and unusually looked at his flank and saw three stars over what looked like shimmering starlight. He was so excited that he wanted to cheer but didn’t want to wake the twins and after he calmed down a little bit decided to finally go to bed and show his mother in the morning. The next morning was a Saturday so Stardust slept in because he was up most of the night. When he finally got up he walked into the living room and said. “Mom where are you you’ve got to see this.” Fairy Dust walked in from the kitchen and noticed his cutie mark and said sounding more excited than she has been since Milkyway went missing. “Oh sweetheart how did you get that!?” Stardust replied “I was up late reading spell books researching sleep spells and I read this book that had this unfinished spell in it that was supposed to only be able to be used by Alicorns. I was able to use the spell on the twins to get them to get back to sleep when they had nightmares last night. Shocked at what he had just said Fairy Dust nervously said. “Has anything else happened since you got your cutie mark?” “No just the cutie mark.” Said Stardust wondering why his mother was being so suspicious. Later that day he ran into Lyra and noticed that she also got her cutie mark and not to his surprise it was a lyre which meant that her special talent was playing her lyre. They congratulated each other and then Lyra Said. “Hey Star there is something I’ve been wanting to tell you...... The Unexpected ResultPresent Day Star walked down the stairs to the living room with his saddlebags and set them by the door, everything was ready for him to go. Stardust has been drafted and must join the royal guard and fight in the same war Milkyway was in when he went missing. The war has been going on for five years with endless ups and downs of which side is going to win. He quickly ate breakfast and said his sad goodbyes, then made his way to the train station. When he arrived at the station he met Lyra and Bon Bon who were there to see him off. “Hey Stardust the train leaves in ten minutes what took you so long.” Said Bon Bon in a worried tone. “Yeah Star we almost thought you weren’t going to make it. If you didn’t you would have been in a hay bale of trouble with the royal guard.” Said Lyra. Don’t worry about me, if I didn’t go your right I would probably be arrested and tried but even if I wasn’t drafted I would go anyway to find answers about what happened to my father. The only thing I'm concerned about right now is if I will be able to make it through basic training camp.” Said Stardust. “I'm sure you’ll do fine, just do your best and all will be good.” Said Bon Bon with an enthusiastic tone. “Thanks guys I’ll be sure to write while I'm at camp.” Said Stardust as he boarded the train. Watching as his home got smaller in the distance Stardust thought about how much he was going to miss the silent peace of a small town. When the train arrived in Canterlot he was amazed at the size of the city hanging on the cliffs and then saw the enormous castle at the high end of the city. He got off the train with his saddlebag and started toward the castle. On the way to the castle he got a room in a hotel that was close to the castle and surprisingly inexpensive. As he walked into the hotel room he noticed why it was so cheap, it was about enough room to be a large storage unit at best and had nowhere for him to put his belongings. He left his saddlebag on the floor and made the room more comfortable for himself before he left. After that he left to go to the royal guard recruitment office on the castle grounds. He left the hotel and started toward the castle in the huge capitol and after a while got lost. By what it looked like around him he was in a bad neighborhood and noticed that he could still see the castle and started in that direction when he was cut in-front of by an earth pony who looked at him and asked if he could spare some bits. Star learned from twilight that sometimes ponies will ask you for money and not spend it on what they tell you they need it for. “I'm sorry but I don’t have many bits left and I need it for later.” Said Stardust. Suddenly before he knew it he was on the ground with the strange pony on top of him trying to choke him. Stardust pushed him off and started to run through an alley when two more thugs blocked him at the other end and kept him from escaping. The two ponies that blocked him where unicorns and they used their magic to hold him against the side of the building next to them. Stardust was able to use his own magic to block theirs and broke free after the shock of their magic conflicting knocked them out. The earth pony came galloping at him and was about to tackle him to the ground when the next thing he knew he was in the air about three yards and was falling to the ground. When he hit the ground he felt a small twinge on his lower shoulder for some odd reason but soon got up. The thug was right in-front of him and had a broken bottle in his hoof and came at Stardust with a thrust. Star dodged the thrust and ran to the other end of the alley with the thug right behind him. He was tackled by the thug and as he broke a piece of glass off of the bottle and held it to his cheek threatening him. Stardust was now in a sort of panic and started thinking of spells that could help him. His mind was racing and right as the thug slid the broken shard down his cheek and on to his throat he used a teleportation spell he had learned from twilight recently and teleported behind the thug and as he turned around bucked him in the side hearing some of the thug's ribs break. When the thug got to his hooves again he came at Stardust and Stardust teleported again while the thug ran into the brick wall behind him. Still standing the thug then noticed that the shard of glass that he used to threaten Star was in the top of his thigh as he started to wince in pain. Stardust walked up to the incapacitated thug and said. “Are you done?” “That depends, are you gonna hock up the bits” Said the thug angrily. Stardust noticed blood running from his upper cheek close to his eye to his lower jaw, this happened when the glass shard was drug down his face. Dripping blood Star said. “If you could still fight I would be on the ground already.” The thug tried to get to his hooves but screamed in agony as Stardust ran toward the end of the alley and shot a signal into the air with his horn to call police to the location. Two constables arrived within about two minutes and hoof-cuffed the thugs and brought them in along with Stardust to get medical treatment and for Star to be questioned. When Stardust finally got out of the hospital later that evening he noticed that it was getting dark and made his way back to the hotel where he was staying. He wondered to himself how he would stand up to the carnage of war when he could barely handle himself with a few muggers. He only got out of the ordeal alive because he got lucky that the shard stabbed the thug. He arrived at the hotel and made his way up to his room and when he got there he went into the bathroom and looked at the scabbed up gash on his face, he knew that there would be a scar there for the rest of his life but on the bright side mares might think his scar made him look tough. Laughing a little at this thought he felt the same twinge in his lower shoulder that he felt when he fell out of the air, come to think of it Star didn’t know how he got in the air in the first place because he didn’t use magic when he rose up into the air and fell. Stardust figured he must have used magic without knowing it and decided to go to bed and while in bed he slept on his left side because it was a little bit uncomfortable to lay on his right side because of his shoulder. He woke up the next day and decided to go back to the hospital to see if he broke his shoulder but the results show that there was nothing wrong so the doctor suggested it was a contusion which is a bruise that goes down to the bone. He left the hospital with no pain medication and made his way to the castle grounds. Once on the grounds he went straight to the recruitment office, when he entered he saw a large white stallion with a dark and light blue colored mane and his cutie mark was three stars over a shield. “Welcome my name is Cpt. Shining Armor I am the captain of the royal guard. You must be one of the draftees, come with me and I will show you to the registration area.” Said Shining Armor leading Stardust down a hallway to a room packed with other stallions that have been drafted or some mares that have enlisted. He was handed a large packet of paper and told to fill it out and bring put it in a drop box when he is finished. He filled out the packet and put it in the drop box as he was told and waited for what seemed like days and finally his name was called in a group with three other ponies. When he got up he was told to follow one of the royal guards that were there to go do an entrance exam to make sure he was in adequate shape to serve. As he walked into the exam room he saw a number of different machines and a large obstacle course. He started out with the obstacle course and got the best time out of the other three ponies and then he did a speed test on a treadmill to see how fast he could gallop and if it affected him too much galloping on steep hills. The last test was either a flight test, a strength test, or a magic power test depending on what kind of pony you are. Star of course had to do the magic power test because he was a unicorn. All he had to do was put his horn into a small slot in what looked like some sort of helmet and the rest was done by the machine. During the test he couldn’t hear anything through the thick helmet but saw that everypony had a strange look of awe on their face looking at the power level display. After he got the helmet off he was told to sit aside from the other three and wait for Shining Armor. Shining Armor showed up shortly and brought him into the next room. “Captain what did you bring me in here to talk about. Did I do something wrong during the test?” Said Stardust getting nervous. “No I wanted to ask you about your position in the royal guard if you are seen as adequate to serve which there is no doubt that you are and you will most likely be accepted into the royal guard. If you are accepted you will be sent to basic training camp and once trained sent to one of the warzones to fight but after hearing what I did about your magic power being almost as powerful as Princess Luna I got a little worried. I am going to bring you to the castle and we’re going to meet with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to see if we could possibly have you privately trained the same way you would be in basic training and also to be how to use powerful magic.” Replied Shining Armor. Stardust was in awe and confused when he heard this information and replied. “What? I'm going to meet with the Princesses? Why go so far as to meet with them, I mean that’s a lot to handle and quite unexpected…”he was stopped by Shining Armor. “Calm down and don’t be so worried about it instead be honored that you get an audience with the Princesses, so let’s be on our way to the castle. The TruthThey arrived in front of the castle and Stardust noticed that there was some kind of barrier around the entrance. “What is this barrier for? He asked Shining Armor. “This barrier detects any deadly weapons that somepony might be sneaking in, it’s a precautionary measure that is supposed to keep the Princesses safe from assassins.” They walked slowly through the barrier and Stardust felt the same twinge in his shoulder as before but this time was a little worse than last time. Shining Armor noticed him wince as they walked toward the throne room where they were going to meet with the Princesses. When the got to the entrance to the throne room there was another barrier in the doorway. “I thought we already went through one of these. Why is there a barrier here?” Asked Stardust. “This one isn’t the same as the one by the entrance; it deactivates any enchantments on held objects and even entering ponies. This is placed to ensure that our enemy hasn’t disguised themselves to attack the princess and also to make sure that nopony has enchanted a concealed weapon to be undetected by the first barrier.” Said Shining Armor. Shining Armor walked through the barrier first and then Star dust walked through. As he walked through the barrier the pain in his shoulder got extremely worse and he felt the same pain in the other shoulder too. After he made it through the barrier, the pain kept intensifying and got so bad that he couldn’t take it any longer. He stopped walking wincing in pain, it felt like someone was stabbing a dull sword into his back and slowly cutting down his back. Shining Armor went over to him prepared to either fight or give medical attention. The two guards outside the door were now standing over Stardust with their lances drawn. The pain was finally starting to go away and at this Stardust said. “Don’t worry I'm not going to harm the Princesses I just got into a fight a couple days ago and injured my shoulder and I think the magic in that barrier must have affected it somehow.” “Do you remember when I said that the barrier detects all enchantments, well it also deactivates them. There is an alarm that that sounds when an enchantment is detected and it was going nuts after you walked through but I can see why now that I get a good look at you.” “What do you mean a good look at me? I look the same as I’ve always looked.” Said Stardust. “Are you sure about that, to me it looks like you’ve been hiding wings.” Said Shining Armor with almost shouting. Stardust said. “What wings?” as he turned to look at his back. When he looked he saw two large wings open on his back he also noticed that the guards where holding down his hooves with their unicorn magic. “Are you a rebel spy?” shouted Shining Armor. “NO! I swear.” Said Stardust defensively. “Well just to make sure….he cast truth spell on Stardust….I repeat; are you a rebel spy? Asked Shining Armor again. Stardust without hesitation replied “No I’m not a spy; I have never had wings in my life.” “That barrier will de-spell any enchantment and wouldn’t do anything else but that.” Said Celestia. “Then what is going on here?” Asked Stardust. “From what I can tell you where born an Alicorn and someone put an enchantment on your wings to hide that you’re an Alicorn from someone. Is there anypony else in your family that’s a unicorn? Said Celestia. Stardust couldn’t help but answer the question “My mother is a unicorn, her name is Fairy Dust.” “Your mother is a unicorn? So she must have been the one to put the enchantment on your wings if not then somepony else could have but this must be investigated further to be sure.” Said Celestia. “You’re not going to do anything to her are you?” Asked Stardust. “Since it is a crime to hide things like this from the empire she may be taken into custody for questioning.” Replied Celestia. “No you can’t! I’ll do anything! She isn’t a criminal! She was probably just protecting me!” Shouted Stardust. “From What?” Asked Celestia. “I don’t know but she probably had her reasons.” Answered Stardust. “Alright fine, she will be left alone but I do plan to further this investigation in the future, but do to the recent happenings we now know why your magic power level is so high.” Said Celestia. “Thank you princess you have no idea how much it means to me.” Said Stardust with sudden joy. “You’re welcome, but like I said I plan to investigate this further in the future.” Said Celestia. “I understand.” Said Stardust. “So what shall we do with this discovery Princess?” Asked Shining Armor. “Since he is an Alicorn he will be made a prince and given certain duties that are yet to be decided. Also if he still wants to be part of the royal guard he may do so and receive the best training our royal guard has to offer.” Said Celestia. “This is very unexpected Princess. Do you really think I have to be a prince, it seems like a little too much for me to handle.” Said Stardust taken by surprise by her statement. “I think you will learn to handle everything in time, the responsibilities won’t be immediate either because we still need to figure out what your duties will be. Luna said while getting up to stand next to Celestia. Still in shock of what just happened Stardust replied “I still don’t know about that but maybe you’re right, after a while I probably will get used to it. What I want to know is what if I don’t want to be a prince or whatever you think I should be? Said Stardust. “Unfortunately for you, you won’t have a choice about if you are to be royalty or not, that is decided by my sister and I along with what you shall do in your position.” Said Luna. “She’s right you don’t have a say in the part in becoming royalty but you must understand that it’s just the way things work in the empire, all Alicorns are considered royalty by default unless they have evil intentions that could put the people at risk.” Said Celestia. “Since the matter was put aside due to the recent events, Stardust Night do you still want to enlist in the royal guard and get the special training offered?” Asked Luna. “Yes I do still want to enlist in the royal guard.” Replied Stardust. “I see. I will have to consult with the Commander, if all goes well expect to start training in about one week no later.” Said Luna getting a little firm as she spoke. “Please don’t be so nervous about becoming a prince it’s really not as hard as it sounds but it can be stressful at times. Just remember you have Luna and me to consult with before you make any tough decisions if you need help making a choice.” Said Celestia. “Thank you for that Princess, I do feel a bit better now that I know I have someone to go to for help instead of being on my own with the whole thing.” Said Stardust with a bit of relief. “Shining Armor, could you have someone set up a room for Stardust to stay in and before I forget make sure all of his belongings are transferred from where he is currently staying in the city.” Said Celestia. “Yes Princess.” Replied Shining Armor escorting Stardust out. “So after all this time he didn’t know.” Said Celestia. “Apparently not. Are you sure he should be let into the royal guard, he still seems suspicious to me?” Said Luna. “I’m sure he isn’t a spy or anything, plus you and I of anypony should know that everypony has their secrets.” Said Celestia. “That reminds me sister, I thought we agreed not to use that truth spell anymore because it’s like torture.” Said Luna becoming slightly angry. “It had to be done.” Said Celestia firmly. “Why? It isn’t right. How do you think the people would react if they found out we were doing something like this?” Said Luna. “Like I said, it had to be done.” Said Celestia. “Fine don’t explain yourself. I will see you in a couple of days when I return with Commander Knightwalker.” Said Luna storming out of the room. Luna's secretAs Stardust walked down the hallway with shining armor to his room he noticed his demeanor changed from when they walked into the castle to now, he seemed more nervous and tense for some reason. “Is something wrong Captain?” Asked Stardust. “What… no nothing’s wrong. Why do you ask?” Said Shining Armor Nervously. “You seem tense that’s all. Ever since we left the princesses you have been acting this way, so I’ll ask again. Is there something wrong?” Said Stardust. “I guess I’m just a little worried about what might happen to me after how bad I treated you back there when we found out that you where an Alicorn and I had to force you to answer all those questions about you being a rebel spy. To me it doesn’t feel right to do that to anypony no matter what they are accused of. You see the spell that was used is not only a simple truth spell but you can basically look through the memories of the pony to which the spell is cast, by force. It’s like watching a crystal ball in your living room, it’s terrible and a huge invasion of privacy. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both agreed that the spell would no longer be used out of respect for their loyal subjects and because of how wrong it is to do to somepony. That is what is bothering me plus I treated you like you were just a grunt straight from hoofcamp and please let me apologize for that.” Said Shining Armor. “What do you mean by grunt? You treated me like I was just a normal pony but I think I can understand why you would feel bad about that part because all of the princesses subjects usually treat royalty with high respect and admiration not like they would treat any other pony. Also about what happened back there with that spell does still make my blood boil but I know that the princess was trying to protect the safety of her subjects. So what had to be done was done and every minute I am getting more ok with it and less angry.” Said Stardust. They walked up to a tall door at the end of a large hallway with beautiful carvings on it of the nation’s symbol of the two regal sisters. The door was opened by two guards with their unicorn magic and when he walked in he was in awe at the size of the room and couldn’t believe it was a bedroom. “WOW! It’s so big.” Said Stardust in amazement. “Yeah the Princess really went all out when she had this castle built for her.” Said Shining Armor. “What do you mean for her?” Asked Stardust. “Princess Celestia had this castle built after she banished Princess Luna to the moon so it was only her who was ruling at the time.” Replied Shining Armor. “That’s very interesting; I thought they lived in this castle when the whole Mare in the Moon thing happened. Anyway, I'm going to get settled in a little bit and wait for my things to arrive from my hotel room and maybe get a little sleep.” Said Stardust. “Alright then I will see you later then let your room guard know if you need anything.” Said Shining Armor starting to walk away. Stardust walked over to the bed and plopped down and fell right to sleep. Princess Luna was riding in her carriage to the Equestrian border royal defense headquarters where she would meet with Commander Knight Trotter the commanding officer of the royal forces in the warzones on the East and South side of Equestria. As the carriage landed in front of defense HQ Luna already saw Commander Knight Trotter awaiting her arrival. She exited the carriage and approached Knight Trotter. “Greetings Commander we are surprised to see that you were expecting us.” Said Luna. “Yes Princess I knew you would be surprised but I received a note via magic message from your sister informing me of your arrival. Now please; let us talk in private.” Said Commander Knight Trotter. They walked into the overly large building and mad their way down a hallway to Knight Trotter’s office. Knight Trotter sat down at his desk in front of Luna. “So who is this new prince Celestia was talking about in her note?” Asked Knight Trotter. “His name was Stardust Night somepony who was going to enlist in the royal guard and passed all of the enlistment tests with flying colors before he got to the magic power test. When his magic power was measured, his power level was almost as high as mine so Cpt. Shining Armor set up a meeting with Celestia and we decided to attend the meeting too because we were curious. He made it through the entrance barrier with no problem but when he walked into the throne room he started to look uncomfortable. As he got closer to us he got more and more uncomfortable and finally dropped to the floor and started screaming like somepony was skinning him alive. Still in agony he lied on the floor as the skin on each side of his lower shoulders and back tore open like an old burlap sack. On each side what looked like small wing bones started coming out of the openings and started to grow larger. After the bones reached full size muscle and skin started to slowly grow over it and finally it was over and the area looked as if the wings had been there all his life with no scars or anything.” Said Luna. “What did Celestia do after that?” Asked Knight Trotter. “She made Cpt. Shining Armor use that interrogation spell on him to make sure he wasn’t a rebel spy or the leader of the rebellion in disguise. We thought what our sister did was awful and wished we could put a stop to it.” Luna said painfully. “How did he react to that? I'm sure it wasn’t good.” Asked Knight Trotter. “No he reacted as anypony would react especially when Celestia threatened to take his mother into custody for keeping secretes from the empire. She agreed to leave her alone but after the whole ordeal she eventually came to the conclusion that he wasn’t a spy. Celestia told him that since he was an Alicorn that she must make him a prince which we thought was ridiculous because we already have enough princes and princesses in the empire as it is. He told her he would rather be a soldier than a prince and got very overwhelmed which I can understand because one minute he was being accused of treason and then the next made a prince. She told him that he had no choice in the matter of being made royalty but he could still enlist in the royal guard but be put into a higher position which he accepted and after he calmed down about what happened Shining Armor took him to the room in the castle where he would stay.” Said Luna. “So why tell me about all this?” Asked Knight Trotter. “Well I did need an excuse to come and meet with you so we could talk about our next strategy but also we need somepony to train Stardust privately.” Said Luna. “Oh is that all? Well I guess I could send Lieutenant Spitfire or Sergeant Soarin to train him.” Said Knight Trotter. “Send them both it would make things easier.” Said Luna. “How well can he use magic?” Asked Knight Trotter. “We looked at his high school records from Ponyville and he was one of the best in his class. But I’m going to have Twilight Sparkle Celestia’s student teach him more about magic than any high school or college could.” Said Luna. “Excellent, but why Celestia’s student?” Said Knight Trotter. “Trust me she is the right pony for the job, plus we trust her completely when it comes to magic because she helped me find out the truth about why I became Nightmare Moon.” Said Luna getting a serious but sad look on her face. “What do you mean truth?” Asked Knight Trotter. “After our transformation we had Twilight look up spells and potions to look into the past so we could see what happened that night we were banished to the moon. She gave us a book on what we were asking for and we made a potion that when mixed must be turned white with Alicorn magic and then drank to see the part of the past that the user wants to see. We made the potion and Twilight told us to drink it and see what happens, it ended up working and what we saw put a dagger through our heart.” Said Luna. “What you saw?” Said Knight Trotter. “Celestia, my own sister made a deal with the Nightmare Forces to transform us into Nightmare Moon in exchange for territorial control of the Everfree forest. The reason she did it was so she could banish us to the moon after our transformation and rule Equestria on her own because we had our subjects vote to decide which one of us would become the new Queen of Equestria. When we….. When I got the popular vote and it looked like I was going to win she made the deal with the Nightmare Forces so she would become the main ruler of Equestria and we would not be there to get in her way when she makes a decision I wouldn’t agree to.” Said Luna. “If you know about this all this why haven’t you done anything about it? I mean she made you evil and trapped you in the moon for her own personal gain.” Said Knight Trotter. “We understand why you would ask that. You see if we accused her of such things without any evidence of it. If we did that then we would look like we were trying to forcefully take over the Empire by deceiving them. We have known our sister since the day we were born and know she wouldn’t have done something like that, so there must be something else going on that must be investigated further.” Said Luna. “I know it seems like she couldn’t do something like that but no matter how long you know somepony there is always something about them you don’t know. Besides that was a thousand years ago and I know for a fact that she regretted it the whole time you were banished to the moon she has said so over the years many times.” Said Knight Trotter. “We…I mean I don’t know what to think anymore. If I really want to know I would have to speak to somepony I swore I would never involve myself with again, the one who convinced me that nobody liked my beautiful night, Jealousy. That can wait until another time though we must make battle plans before the royal guard can and keep the rebellion’s head above water. If I'm going to help change Equestria and end its imperialist government and make it something better.” Said Luna. “I think we should take a more subtle approach instead of just starting a big bloody battle and losing more soldiers. I think we should convince that new prince to help us by getting information about battle plans or something.” Suggested Knight Trotter. “It’s a good idea but what if he doesn’t want to help us? He could tell Celestia about what we’re doing and reveal who we really are like how nopony knows that we… I mean I'm on the side of the rebellion and that you wear that disguise and use that fake name to serve as one of the military leaders of the Royal Guard. I mean if anyone found out all of the fighting would have been for nothing and all of the ponies who lost their lives would have died in vain.” Said Luna. “You right we must test his loyalty to the Empire.” Said Knight Trotter. “Yes we must. Speak with Lieutenant Spitfire and see if she can use her silver tongue to get some assurance on his loyalty.” Said Luna. Stardust awoke to a knock on his door and it was his things from his room at the hotel. He started to unpack his stuff when he heard another knock at the door. He answered the door to a bluish gray blonde Pegasus with crossed eyes and she had an envelope in her mouth. “Hello (the envelope drops to the floor). Oops. Sorry about that here is your mail from Ponyville, have a nice day.” Said the strange blonde pony. “Wait. Who sent this there is no return address?” Said Stardust. “Oh umm I don’t talk to strange ponies.” Said the blonde pony. “Ok then what is your name mine is Stardust Night.” Said Stardust sounding a little confused. “I'm Derpy Hooves, my friend Lyra gave me this letter to give to you since I'm a Ponyville mailpony.” Said Derpy. “Oh Lyra? How did she know I was at the castle and not at the hotel?” Asked Stardust. “Actually I went to the hotel first and thought I made a mistake which happens a lot because you weren’t there but then when I talked to the receptionist she said that some guards where getting your stuff out of your room so I asked one of them where I could find you.” Derpy replied. “Oh ok. If you want to come in and rest you can it’s a long flight from Ponyville to Canterlot.” Said Stardust. “Thank you so much but you don’t have to, you don’t even know me.” Said Derpy. “If you’re a friend of Lyra you’re a friend of mine so it’s fine.” Said Stardust. “Ok I guess I could rest for a bit.” Said Derpy as she walked in and immediately tripped over her own hoof and fell face first on the floor. “Oh my gosh are you okay.” Asked Stardust. “Yeah I'm fine that happens a lot I’m used to it. I'm kind of a klutz.” Derpy said giggling.
In The Beginning“Stardust! Wake up! Wake up!” “Yeah you’re going to be late” said two small filly voices as he awoke. “Ok ok. I'm up and also I'm not going to be late the train leaves in two hours I have time” “What about Lyra and Bon Bon how are you going to say goodbye to them and make it to the train on time they live on the other side of Ponyville on the outskirts.” “I will be fine they’re meeting me at the train station. Stardust Night is a unicorn with a blue coat and with a blue and black mane that had a little bit of a sparkle to it, and his cutie mark has three stars the one in the center being larger than the other two slightly and under those stars was glimmering starlight. He is highly gifted in using magic but doesn’t enjoy it as much as a mare he knew in Ponyville named Twilight Sparkle, in fact the only spell he uses besides levitation spells is a spell that he mastered as a filly, he called the spell Star’s Lullaby. When he was a filly he hated using magic because even then he was better at magic than most fillies and was bullied and called a freak for it not to mention that he had a slightly larger horn than usual which he still hasn’t grown into. The only two fillies that would even talk to him at school where his best friend Lyra and her friend Bon Bon. After school one day he went to the library to get some books on relaxation spells to use on his younger siblings who are twins one is a mare called Moonlight Path and the other is a stallion called Sky Dancer. Moonlight is a unicorn like Stardust and their mother Fairy Dust, Sky is a Pegasus like their late father Milkyway Star who went M.I.A. during the war that has been going on between the Equestrian Empire and a Rebellion that wants to make Equestria a Republic. After their fathers disappearance their mother Fairy Dust fell into a depression and the twins started having nightmares. Stardust was also very depressed and all he wanted was to see his brother and sister sleep peacefully and to see his mother smile again. One day at school during lunch he was talking to Lyra and she said. “Star how long are you going to act like this I know that you’re worried about your dad but still I worry about you sometimes.” “I will be fine; I just wish things where as optimistic at home as they are when I'm with you and Bon Bon. By the way where is she I haven’t seen her yet today.” “She wasn’t feeling well this morning so her parents are letting her rest; they think it’s that nasty flu that has been going around.” Said Lyra. “Ok, if you see her tell her I hope she gets well soon.” Said Stardust. “Ok will do. OH I almost forgot to tell you that there might be some useful spell books in the library that you could use to cheer up your family and who knows maybe you will get your cutie mark. Personally I think getting your cutie mark is one of the happiest things to happen in a pony’s life and that’s bound to make you feel better.” Said Lyra. “I’ll be sure to look into that and who knows it might happen I am pretty good at magic. Maybe since I'm doing that you could try playing that lyre you have hanging on your wall in your room you sound great when you do and who knows maybe you will get better at it if that’s possible.” Stardust said enthusiastically. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better because I broke a string last time.” Said Lyra getting shy. “Not really you really are great and the string broke because you’ve been using it so much the last couple of weeks.” Said Stardust in an honest tone. “Ok then if you say so. See ya later Star.” Said Lyra staring to get up to go to class.” After school was over Stardust decide to stop at the library on the way home and picked up a few spell books on the way home. When he got home he said “hi Mom, I’m home” to Fairy Dust who asked him how his day was to which he replied “Actually better than I expected” this surprised Fairy Dust who usually heard him say his day was lousy. He went in his room and did his homework and started to read some of the books he rented from the library. He was reading for hours and stayed up a little late into the night. Finally he got to the last book and the cover read Spells of the Great Unicorn Sorcerer Star Swirl the Bearded this book wasn’t one of the books he picked out and must have accidentally grabbed the wrong book and checked it out. Even though he didn’t want the book he read it anyway so it wouldn’t be a waste. He was reading for about an hour and got to a sleeping spell that Star Swirl the Bearded had created but was never able to finish. He started to try and perform the spell knowing that it wouldn’t work but he thought it couldn’t hurt to try and then he heard screams from the twins’ bedroom so he went in there to calm them down. When he got in there he saw both of them crying as usual when they would have nightmares he read them a story but they couldn’t get back to sleep and so he went and got the spell book he was reading and read the spell description: The pony of whom this spell is used on shall become relaxed and fall asleep gently. As far as Stardust knew the spell was at Alicorn level the highest level magic that can only be used by Alicorns like the princess. Even though he knew it was pointless he once again tried to cast the spell and after a couple seconds his horn started to glow scarlet red the same color as his eyes and he could feel as the magic welled up inside his body and then there was a small flash of light and a small orb of light came from his horn and showered his brother and sister in magic and disappeared. Amazed that he actually completed the spell he even saw that Moonlight and Sky had stopped crying and laid down again going right to sleep like new born foals. He was overjoyed at his success and unusually looked at his flank and saw three stars over what looked like shimmering starlight. He was so excited that he wanted to cheer but didn’t want to wake the twins and after he calmed down a little bit decided to finally go to bed and show his mother in the morning. The next morning was a Saturday so Stardust slept in because he was up most of the night. When he finally got up he walked into the living room and said. “Mom where are you you’ve got to see this.” Fairy Dust walked in from the kitchen and noticed his cutie mark and said sounding more excited than she has been since Milkyway went missing. “Oh sweetheart how did you get that!?” Stardust replied “I was up late reading spell books researching sleep spells and I read this book that had this unfinished spell in it that was supposed to only be able to be used by Alicorns. I was able to use the spell on the twins to get them to get back to sleep when they had nightmares last night. Shocked at what he had just said Fairy Dust nervously said. “Has anything else happened since you got your cutie mark?” “No just the cutie mark.” Said Stardust wondering why his mother was being so suspicious. Later that day he ran into Lyra and noticed that she also got her cutie mark and not to his surprise it was a lyre which meant that her special talent was playing her lyre. They congratulated each other and then Lyra Said. “Hey Star there is something I’ve been wanting to tell you......
The Unexpected ResultPresent Day Star walked down the stairs to the living room with his saddlebags and set them by the door, everything was ready for him to go. Stardust has been drafted and must join the royal guard and fight in the same war Milkyway was in when he went missing. The war has been going on for five years with endless ups and downs of which side is going to win. He quickly ate breakfast and said his sad goodbyes, then made his way to the train station. When he arrived at the station he met Lyra and Bon Bon who were there to see him off. “Hey Stardust the train leaves in ten minutes what took you so long.” Said Bon Bon in a worried tone. “Yeah Star we almost thought you weren’t going to make it. If you didn’t you would have been in a hay bale of trouble with the royal guard.” Said Lyra. Don’t worry about me, if I didn’t go your right I would probably be arrested and tried but even if I wasn’t drafted I would go anyway to find answers about what happened to my father. The only thing I'm concerned about right now is if I will be able to make it through basic training camp.” Said Stardust. “I'm sure you’ll do fine, just do your best and all will be good.” Said Bon Bon with an enthusiastic tone. “Thanks guys I’ll be sure to write while I'm at camp.” Said Stardust as he boarded the train. Watching as his home got smaller in the distance Stardust thought about how much he was going to miss the silent peace of a small town. When the train arrived in Canterlot he was amazed at the size of the city hanging on the cliffs and then saw the enormous castle at the high end of the city. He got off the train with his saddlebag and started toward the castle. On the way to the castle he got a room in a hotel that was close to the castle and surprisingly inexpensive. As he walked into the hotel room he noticed why it was so cheap, it was about enough room to be a large storage unit at best and had nowhere for him to put his belongings. He left his saddlebag on the floor and made the room more comfortable for himself before he left. After that he left to go to the royal guard recruitment office on the castle grounds. He left the hotel and started toward the castle in the huge capitol and after a while got lost. By what it looked like around him he was in a bad neighborhood and noticed that he could still see the castle and started in that direction when he was cut in-front of by an earth pony who looked at him and asked if he could spare some bits. Star learned from twilight that sometimes ponies will ask you for money and not spend it on what they tell you they need it for. “I'm sorry but I don’t have many bits left and I need it for later.” Said Stardust. Suddenly before he knew it he was on the ground with the strange pony on top of him trying to choke him. Stardust pushed him off and started to run through an alley when two more thugs blocked him at the other end and kept him from escaping. The two ponies that blocked him where unicorns and they used their magic to hold him against the side of the building next to them. Stardust was able to use his own magic to block theirs and broke free after the shock of their magic conflicting knocked them out. The earth pony came galloping at him and was about to tackle him to the ground when the next thing he knew he was in the air about three yards and was falling to the ground. When he hit the ground he felt a small twinge on his lower shoulder for some odd reason but soon got up. The thug was right in-front of him and had a broken bottle in his hoof and came at Stardust with a thrust. Star dodged the thrust and ran to the other end of the alley with the thug right behind him. He was tackled by the thug and as he broke a piece of glass off of the bottle and held it to his cheek threatening him. Stardust was now in a sort of panic and started thinking of spells that could help him. His mind was racing and right as the thug slid the broken shard down his cheek and on to his throat he used a teleportation spell he had learned from twilight recently and teleported behind the thug and as he turned around bucked him in the side hearing some of the thug's ribs break. When the thug got to his hooves again he came at Stardust and Stardust teleported again while the thug ran into the brick wall behind him. Still standing the thug then noticed that the shard of glass that he used to threaten Star was in the top of his thigh as he started to wince in pain. Stardust walked up to the incapacitated thug and said. “Are you done?” “That depends, are you gonna hock up the bits” Said the thug angrily. Stardust noticed blood running from his upper cheek close to his eye to his lower jaw, this happened when the glass shard was drug down his face. Dripping blood Star said. “If you could still fight I would be on the ground already.” The thug tried to get to his hooves but screamed in agony as Stardust ran toward the end of the alley and shot a signal into the air with his horn to call police to the location. Two constables arrived within about two minutes and hoof-cuffed the thugs and brought them in along with Stardust to get medical treatment and for Star to be questioned. When Stardust finally got out of the hospital later that evening he noticed that it was getting dark and made his way back to the hotel where he was staying. He wondered to himself how he would stand up to the carnage of war when he could barely handle himself with a few muggers. He only got out of the ordeal alive because he got lucky that the shard stabbed the thug. He arrived at the hotel and made his way up to his room and when he got there he went into the bathroom and looked at the scabbed up gash on his face, he knew that there would be a scar there for the rest of his life but on the bright side mares might think his scar made him look tough. Laughing a little at this thought he felt the same twinge in his lower shoulder that he felt when he fell out of the air, come to think of it Star didn’t know how he got in the air in the first place because he didn’t use magic when he rose up into the air and fell. Stardust figured he must have used magic without knowing it and decided to go to bed and while in bed he slept on his left side because it was a little bit uncomfortable to lay on his right side because of his shoulder. He woke up the next day and decided to go back to the hospital to see if he broke his shoulder but the results show that there was nothing wrong so the doctor suggested it was a contusion which is a bruise that goes down to the bone. He left the hospital with no pain medication and made his way to the castle grounds. Once on the grounds he went straight to the recruitment office, when he entered he saw a large white stallion with a dark and light blue colored mane and his cutie mark was three stars over a shield. “Welcome my name is Cpt. Shining Armor I am the captain of the royal guard. You must be one of the draftees, come with me and I will show you to the registration area.” Said Shining Armor leading Stardust down a hallway to a room packed with other stallions that have been drafted or some mares that have enlisted. He was handed a large packet of paper and told to fill it out and bring put it in a drop box when he is finished. He filled out the packet and put it in the drop box as he was told and waited for what seemed like days and finally his name was called in a group with three other ponies. When he got up he was told to follow one of the royal guards that were there to go do an entrance exam to make sure he was in adequate shape to serve. As he walked into the exam room he saw a number of different machines and a large obstacle course. He started out with the obstacle course and got the best time out of the other three ponies and then he did a speed test on a treadmill to see how fast he could gallop and if it affected him too much galloping on steep hills. The last test was either a flight test, a strength test, or a magic power test depending on what kind of pony you are. Star of course had to do the magic power test because he was a unicorn. All he had to do was put his horn into a small slot in what looked like some sort of helmet and the rest was done by the machine. During the test he couldn’t hear anything through the thick helmet but saw that everypony had a strange look of awe on their face looking at the power level display. After he got the helmet off he was told to sit aside from the other three and wait for Shining Armor. Shining Armor showed up shortly and brought him into the next room. “Captain what did you bring me in here to talk about. Did I do something wrong during the test?” Said Stardust getting nervous. “No I wanted to ask you about your position in the royal guard if you are seen as adequate to serve which there is no doubt that you are and you will most likely be accepted into the royal guard. If you are accepted you will be sent to basic training camp and once trained sent to one of the warzones to fight but after hearing what I did about your magic power being almost as powerful as Princess Luna I got a little worried. I am going to bring you to the castle and we’re going to meet with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to see if we could possibly have you privately trained the same way you would be in basic training and also to be how to use powerful magic.” Replied Shining Armor. Stardust was in awe and confused when he heard this information and replied. “What? I'm going to meet with the Princesses? Why go so far as to meet with them, I mean that’s a lot to handle and quite unexpected…”he was stopped by Shining Armor. “Calm down and don’t be so worried about it instead be honored that you get an audience with the Princesses, so let’s be on our way to the castle.
The TruthThey arrived in front of the castle and Stardust noticed that there was some kind of barrier around the entrance. “What is this barrier for? He asked Shining Armor. “This barrier detects any deadly weapons that somepony might be sneaking in, it’s a precautionary measure that is supposed to keep the Princesses safe from assassins.” They walked slowly through the barrier and Stardust felt the same twinge in his shoulder as before but this time was a little worse than last time. Shining Armor noticed him wince as they walked toward the throne room where they were going to meet with the Princesses. When the got to the entrance to the throne room there was another barrier in the doorway. “I thought we already went through one of these. Why is there a barrier here?” Asked Stardust. “This one isn’t the same as the one by the entrance; it deactivates any enchantments on held objects and even entering ponies. This is placed to ensure that our enemy hasn’t disguised themselves to attack the princess and also to make sure that nopony has enchanted a concealed weapon to be undetected by the first barrier.” Said Shining Armor. Shining Armor walked through the barrier first and then Star dust walked through. As he walked through the barrier the pain in his shoulder got extremely worse and he felt the same pain in the other shoulder too. After he made it through the barrier, the pain kept intensifying and got so bad that he couldn’t take it any longer. He stopped walking wincing in pain, it felt like someone was stabbing a dull sword into his back and slowly cutting down his back. Shining Armor went over to him prepared to either fight or give medical attention. The two guards outside the door were now standing over Stardust with their lances drawn. The pain was finally starting to go away and at this Stardust said. “Don’t worry I'm not going to harm the Princesses I just got into a fight a couple days ago and injured my shoulder and I think the magic in that barrier must have affected it somehow.” “Do you remember when I said that the barrier detects all enchantments, well it also deactivates them. There is an alarm that that sounds when an enchantment is detected and it was going nuts after you walked through but I can see why now that I get a good look at you.” “What do you mean a good look at me? I look the same as I’ve always looked.” Said Stardust. “Are you sure about that, to me it looks like you’ve been hiding wings.” Said Shining Armor with almost shouting. Stardust said. “What wings?” as he turned to look at his back. When he looked he saw two large wings open on his back he also noticed that the guards where holding down his hooves with their unicorn magic. “Are you a rebel spy?” shouted Shining Armor. “NO! I swear.” Said Stardust defensively. “Well just to make sure….he cast truth spell on Stardust….I repeat; are you a rebel spy? Asked Shining Armor again. Stardust without hesitation replied “No I’m not a spy; I have never had wings in my life.” “That barrier will de-spell any enchantment and wouldn’t do anything else but that.” Said Celestia. “Then what is going on here?” Asked Stardust. “From what I can tell you where born an Alicorn and someone put an enchantment on your wings to hide that you’re an Alicorn from someone. Is there anypony else in your family that’s a unicorn? Said Celestia. Stardust couldn’t help but answer the question “My mother is a unicorn, her name is Fairy Dust.” “Your mother is a unicorn? So she must have been the one to put the enchantment on your wings if not then somepony else could have but this must be investigated further to be sure.” Said Celestia. “You’re not going to do anything to her are you?” Asked Stardust. “Since it is a crime to hide things like this from the empire she may be taken into custody for questioning.” Replied Celestia. “No you can’t! I’ll do anything! She isn’t a criminal! She was probably just protecting me!” Shouted Stardust. “From What?” Asked Celestia. “I don’t know but she probably had her reasons.” Answered Stardust. “Alright fine, she will be left alone but I do plan to further this investigation in the future, but do to the recent happenings we now know why your magic power level is so high.” Said Celestia. “Thank you princess you have no idea how much it means to me.” Said Stardust with sudden joy. “You’re welcome, but like I said I plan to investigate this further in the future.” Said Celestia. “I understand.” Said Stardust. “So what shall we do with this discovery Princess?” Asked Shining Armor. “Since he is an Alicorn he will be made a prince and given certain duties that are yet to be decided. Also if he still wants to be part of the royal guard he may do so and receive the best training our royal guard has to offer.” Said Celestia. “This is very unexpected Princess. Do you really think I have to be a prince, it seems like a little too much for me to handle.” Said Stardust taken by surprise by her statement. “I think you will learn to handle everything in time, the responsibilities won’t be immediate either because we still need to figure out what your duties will be. Luna said while getting up to stand next to Celestia. Still in shock of what just happened Stardust replied “I still don’t know about that but maybe you’re right, after a while I probably will get used to it. What I want to know is what if I don’t want to be a prince or whatever you think I should be? Said Stardust. “Unfortunately for you, you won’t have a choice about if you are to be royalty or not, that is decided by my sister and I along with what you shall do in your position.” Said Luna. “She’s right you don’t have a say in the part in becoming royalty but you must understand that it’s just the way things work in the empire, all Alicorns are considered royalty by default unless they have evil intentions that could put the people at risk.” Said Celestia. “Since the matter was put aside due to the recent events, Stardust Night do you still want to enlist in the royal guard and get the special training offered?” Asked Luna. “Yes I do still want to enlist in the royal guard.” Replied Stardust. “I see. I will have to consult with the Commander, if all goes well expect to start training in about one week no later.” Said Luna getting a little firm as she spoke. “Please don’t be so nervous about becoming a prince it’s really not as hard as it sounds but it can be stressful at times. Just remember you have Luna and me to consult with before you make any tough decisions if you need help making a choice.” Said Celestia. “Thank you for that Princess, I do feel a bit better now that I know I have someone to go to for help instead of being on my own with the whole thing.” Said Stardust with a bit of relief. “Shining Armor, could you have someone set up a room for Stardust to stay in and before I forget make sure all of his belongings are transferred from where he is currently staying in the city.” Said Celestia. “Yes Princess.” Replied Shining Armor escorting Stardust out. “So after all this time he didn’t know.” Said Celestia. “Apparently not. Are you sure he should be let into the royal guard, he still seems suspicious to me?” Said Luna. “I’m sure he isn’t a spy or anything, plus you and I of anypony should know that everypony has their secrets.” Said Celestia. “That reminds me sister, I thought we agreed not to use that truth spell anymore because it’s like torture.” Said Luna becoming slightly angry. “It had to be done.” Said Celestia firmly. “Why? It isn’t right. How do you think the people would react if they found out we were doing something like this?” Said Luna. “Like I said, it had to be done.” Said Celestia. “Fine don’t explain yourself. I will see you in a couple of days when I return with Commander Knightwalker.” Said Luna storming out of the room.
Luna's secretAs Stardust walked down the hallway with shining armor to his room he noticed his demeanor changed from when they walked into the castle to now, he seemed more nervous and tense for some reason. “Is something wrong Captain?” Asked Stardust. “What… no nothing’s wrong. Why do you ask?” Said Shining Armor Nervously. “You seem tense that’s all. Ever since we left the princesses you have been acting this way, so I’ll ask again. Is there something wrong?” Said Stardust. “I guess I’m just a little worried about what might happen to me after how bad I treated you back there when we found out that you where an Alicorn and I had to force you to answer all those questions about you being a rebel spy. To me it doesn’t feel right to do that to anypony no matter what they are accused of. You see the spell that was used is not only a simple truth spell but you can basically look through the memories of the pony to which the spell is cast, by force. It’s like watching a crystal ball in your living room, it’s terrible and a huge invasion of privacy. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both agreed that the spell would no longer be used out of respect for their loyal subjects and because of how wrong it is to do to somepony. That is what is bothering me plus I treated you like you were just a grunt straight from hoofcamp and please let me apologize for that.” Said Shining Armor. “What do you mean by grunt? You treated me like I was just a normal pony but I think I can understand why you would feel bad about that part because all of the princesses subjects usually treat royalty with high respect and admiration not like they would treat any other pony. Also about what happened back there with that spell does still make my blood boil but I know that the princess was trying to protect the safety of her subjects. So what had to be done was done and every minute I am getting more ok with it and less angry.” Said Stardust. They walked up to a tall door at the end of a large hallway with beautiful carvings on it of the nation’s symbol of the two regal sisters. The door was opened by two guards with their unicorn magic and when he walked in he was in awe at the size of the room and couldn’t believe it was a bedroom. “WOW! It’s so big.” Said Stardust in amazement. “Yeah the Princess really went all out when she had this castle built for her.” Said Shining Armor. “What do you mean for her?” Asked Stardust. “Princess Celestia had this castle built after she banished Princess Luna to the moon so it was only her who was ruling at the time.” Replied Shining Armor. “That’s very interesting; I thought they lived in this castle when the whole Mare in the Moon thing happened. Anyway, I'm going to get settled in a little bit and wait for my things to arrive from my hotel room and maybe get a little sleep.” Said Stardust. “Alright then I will see you later then let your room guard know if you need anything.” Said Shining Armor starting to walk away. Stardust walked over to the bed and plopped down and fell right to sleep. Princess Luna was riding in her carriage to the Equestrian border royal defense headquarters where she would meet with Commander Knight Trotter the commanding officer of the royal forces in the warzones on the East and South side of Equestria. As the carriage landed in front of defense HQ Luna already saw Commander Knight Trotter awaiting her arrival. She exited the carriage and approached Knight Trotter. “Greetings Commander we are surprised to see that you were expecting us.” Said Luna. “Yes Princess I knew you would be surprised but I received a note via magic message from your sister informing me of your arrival. Now please; let us talk in private.” Said Commander Knight Trotter. They walked into the overly large building and mad their way down a hallway to Knight Trotter’s office. Knight Trotter sat down at his desk in front of Luna. “So who is this new prince Celestia was talking about in her note?” Asked Knight Trotter. “His name was Stardust Night somepony who was going to enlist in the royal guard and passed all of the enlistment tests with flying colors before he got to the magic power test. When his magic power was measured, his power level was almost as high as mine so Cpt. Shining Armor set up a meeting with Celestia and we decided to attend the meeting too because we were curious. He made it through the entrance barrier with no problem but when he walked into the throne room he started to look uncomfortable. As he got closer to us he got more and more uncomfortable and finally dropped to the floor and started screaming like somepony was skinning him alive. Still in agony he lied on the floor as the skin on each side of his lower shoulders and back tore open like an old burlap sack. On each side what looked like small wing bones started coming out of the openings and started to grow larger. After the bones reached full size muscle and skin started to slowly grow over it and finally it was over and the area looked as if the wings had been there all his life with no scars or anything.” Said Luna. “What did Celestia do after that?” Asked Knight Trotter. “She made Cpt. Shining Armor use that interrogation spell on him to make sure he wasn’t a rebel spy or the leader of the rebellion in disguise. We thought what our sister did was awful and wished we could put a stop to it.” Luna said painfully. “How did he react to that? I'm sure it wasn’t good.” Asked Knight Trotter. “No he reacted as anypony would react especially when Celestia threatened to take his mother into custody for keeping secretes from the empire. She agreed to leave her alone but after the whole ordeal she eventually came to the conclusion that he wasn’t a spy. Celestia told him that since he was an Alicorn that she must make him a prince which we thought was ridiculous because we already have enough princes and princesses in the empire as it is. He told her he would rather be a soldier than a prince and got very overwhelmed which I can understand because one minute he was being accused of treason and then the next made a prince. She told him that he had no choice in the matter of being made royalty but he could still enlist in the royal guard but be put into a higher position which he accepted and after he calmed down about what happened Shining Armor took him to the room in the castle where he would stay.” Said Luna. “So why tell me about all this?” Asked Knight Trotter. “Well I did need an excuse to come and meet with you so we could talk about our next strategy but also we need somepony to train Stardust privately.” Said Luna. “Oh is that all? Well I guess I could send Lieutenant Spitfire or Sergeant Soarin to train him.” Said Knight Trotter. “Send them both it would make things easier.” Said Luna. “How well can he use magic?” Asked Knight Trotter. “We looked at his high school records from Ponyville and he was one of the best in his class. But I’m going to have Twilight Sparkle Celestia’s student teach him more about magic than any high school or college could.” Said Luna. “Excellent, but why Celestia’s student?” Said Knight Trotter. “Trust me she is the right pony for the job, plus we trust her completely when it comes to magic because she helped me find out the truth about why I became Nightmare Moon.” Said Luna getting a serious but sad look on her face. “What do you mean truth?” Asked Knight Trotter. “After our transformation we had Twilight look up spells and potions to look into the past so we could see what happened that night we were banished to the moon. She gave us a book on what we were asking for and we made a potion that when mixed must be turned white with Alicorn magic and then drank to see the part of the past that the user wants to see. We made the potion and Twilight told us to drink it and see what happens, it ended up working and what we saw put a dagger through our heart.” Said Luna. “What you saw?” Said Knight Trotter. “Celestia, my own sister made a deal with the Nightmare Forces to transform us into Nightmare Moon in exchange for territorial control of the Everfree forest. The reason she did it was so she could banish us to the moon after our transformation and rule Equestria on her own because we had our subjects vote to decide which one of us would become the new Queen of Equestria. When we….. When I got the popular vote and it looked like I was going to win she made the deal with the Nightmare Forces so she would become the main ruler of Equestria and we would not be there to get in her way when she makes a decision I wouldn’t agree to.” Said Luna. “If you know about this all this why haven’t you done anything about it? I mean she made you evil and trapped you in the moon for her own personal gain.” Said Knight Trotter. “We understand why you would ask that. You see if we accused her of such things without any evidence of it. If we did that then we would look like we were trying to forcefully take over the Empire by deceiving them. We have known our sister since the day we were born and know she wouldn’t have done something like that, so there must be something else going on that must be investigated further.” Said Luna. “I know it seems like she couldn’t do something like that but no matter how long you know somepony there is always something about them you don’t know. Besides that was a thousand years ago and I know for a fact that she regretted it the whole time you were banished to the moon she has said so over the years many times.” Said Knight Trotter. “We…I mean I don’t know what to think anymore. If I really want to know I would have to speak to somepony I swore I would never involve myself with again, the one who convinced me that nobody liked my beautiful night, Jealousy. That can wait until another time though we must make battle plans before the royal guard can and keep the rebellion’s head above water. If I'm going to help change Equestria and end its imperialist government and make it something better.” Said Luna. “I think we should take a more subtle approach instead of just starting a big bloody battle and losing more soldiers. I think we should convince that new prince to help us by getting information about battle plans or something.” Suggested Knight Trotter. “It’s a good idea but what if he doesn’t want to help us? He could tell Celestia about what we’re doing and reveal who we really are like how nopony knows that we… I mean I'm on the side of the rebellion and that you wear that disguise and use that fake name to serve as one of the military leaders of the Royal Guard. I mean if anyone found out all of the fighting would have been for nothing and all of the ponies who lost their lives would have died in vain.” Said Luna. “You right we must test his loyalty to the Empire.” Said Knight Trotter. “Yes we must. Speak with Lieutenant Spitfire and see if she can use her silver tongue to get some assurance on his loyalty.” Said Luna. Stardust awoke to a knock on his door and it was his things from his room at the hotel. He started to unpack his stuff when he heard another knock at the door. He answered the door to a bluish gray blonde Pegasus with crossed eyes and she had an envelope in her mouth. “Hello (the envelope drops to the floor). Oops. Sorry about that here is your mail from Ponyville, have a nice day.” Said the strange blonde pony. “Wait. Who sent this there is no return address?” Said Stardust. “Oh umm I don’t talk to strange ponies.” Said the blonde pony. “Ok then what is your name mine is Stardust Night.” Said Stardust sounding a little confused. “I'm Derpy Hooves, my friend Lyra gave me this letter to give to you since I'm a Ponyville mailpony.” Said Derpy. “Oh Lyra? How did she know I was at the castle and not at the hotel?” Asked Stardust. “Actually I went to the hotel first and thought I made a mistake which happens a lot because you weren’t there but then when I talked to the receptionist she said that some guards where getting your stuff out of your room so I asked one of them where I could find you.” Derpy replied. “Oh ok. If you want to come in and rest you can it’s a long flight from Ponyville to Canterlot.” Said Stardust. “Thank you so much but you don’t have to, you don’t even know me.” Said Derpy. “If you’re a friend of Lyra you’re a friend of mine so it’s fine.” Said Stardust. “Ok I guess I could rest for a bit.” Said Derpy as she walked in and immediately tripped over her own hoof and fell face first on the floor. “Oh my gosh are you okay.” Asked Stardust. “Yeah I'm fine that happens a lot I’m used to it. I'm kind of a klutz.” Derpy said giggling.
