When They Were Young: Celestia and Starswirl
Background Information
Starswirl's parents were both powerful unicorns that worked under the wings of King Terra and Queen Aeterna, as a result he spent a lot of time on the castle grounds, and in the castle itself studying from spell books while they worked. At the end of their work day his parents would go through drills and magic practice sessions with him, giving him a chance to put the spells he read about to use. Starswirl showed a lot of promise of being a unicorn just as powerful as his parents in future.
Since he had to spend much of his time on the castle grounds, the King and Queen had granted him limited access to the Royal Library. He was permitted to enter the basic and intermediate spell books wing. Starswirl took full advantage of this honor and would spend most of his day in the library nose deep in several books at once. His mother only had one condition, he had to leave the library and his studies at meal times.
End Background Information
Starswirl lay in the castle gardens during his lunch break from studying. He was grumbling to himself, picking apart his lunch rather than eating it. What was once a lovely lunch of chopped vegetables, bread and water was now a gooey slurry of crushed vegetables, soggy bread, and a green concoction of unknown origin. Starswirl was not sure it was even edible anymore. He thought back to why he was here in the first place, and not furthering his studies.
His mother found him in the library studying during lunch, this was the third day in a row she found him. She had reminded him of their agreement the first time. She had warned him he would be punished for disobeying her the second time. Now standing before him in the library a third time, she was furious. So she took drastic measures. She confiscated his spell books, and banned him from the library until he ate his lunch.
After chasing him from the Library she turned to the guards. She all but ordered them to keep her son out. She even warned that if she had to she would convince the King and Queen ban her son from the library at lunch times. They decided that such an action would be over kill and just agreed to redirect the child to the gardens if he approached. Which lead Starswirl right back to the present moment. He was sitting in the gardens, making mush and sludge of his lunch.
It was in this state that Celestia stumbled upon the regular castle guest. Celestia had finished her own lunch and was walking the gardens for the rest of her own study break. Though she had seen him about the castle many times over the years his parents had worked here, they had never been introduced.
"Hello, My name is Celestia. What's yours?" She asked. Starswirl jumped and spun to face her, he paled when he saw the princess. He dipped his a respectful bow.
"Your highness. I am Starswirl, son of Moondrop and Sunspot*." He said adding a sweet undertone to his voice to avoid coming off as rude.Celestia just smiled and giggled.
"You don't have to bow. I'm only a princess after all, and that's only in title really... What are you doing in the gardens?" She tilted her head, causing her long pink mane to cover her one eye. Starswirl looked at his disaster of a lunch and frowned.
"I'm suppose to be eating lunch... but all I want to do is finish the chapter on combination spells I was reading when Moondrop found me." He said, his voice suddenly sounding sullen.
Celestia looked at him surprised, he wanted to be studying? She considered this for a moment, remembering how serious both his parents had seemed. Maybe he just never got the chance to have fun before, well if that was the case she definitely had to change this.
"Well.... how about we play instead? Since your not hungry right now, and you can't continue your studies. We can play tug o war, only using our magic!" Celestia commented excitedly. Star swirl stared at her confused until she mentioned using magic, then mischief glittered in his eyes.
Starswirl had just gotten a great idea, his mother only banned him from the library and books. He could still do magic exercises! First though, he had to let the princess down gently, he had no time to silly magic games when he could practice real spells.
"Erm... Fun as that sounds your highness. I just remembered a spell my Father wished for me to improve upon. My use of it has been lacking." He bowed, adding a touch of sadness to his voice to make it seem sincere.
Celestia frowned, surely he could play not practice later right? Then again, his dad might have expected him to practice this morning. She knew first hoof that if you didn't practice your spells before you were scheduled to see 'teacher' that you got in a bucket full of trouble.
"Oh... Well... I guess that can't be helped. Maybe tomorrow! Friends?" Celestia held out her hoof smiling wide. Starswirl looked at her, then her hoof. He backed up slightly.
"I don't think that would be appropriate. One day I may work under your parents like my parents before me. You are already by default my superior. If you'll excuse me, I really must go practice now!" Having said that, Starswirl grabbed his lunch in his magic and galloped off to find seclusion to practice in.
Celestia just stare dumbfounded after him, her hoof still hanging in the air. Once she recovered from the sheer shock of it, her expression set in determination. Well then, I'll just have to try harder. One of these days Starswirl, one of these days I will get you to make a friend. She thought to herself as she walked in the opposite direction.
The End
Author's Note
*If anyone has a better idea for his Mother and Father's names, I'm open to suggestions.
If you find any errors or have suggestions on how I could improve it, I'm open.