All is Fair in Love and War

As 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.