Chapter 1- In Which We Are Introduced to Moonless Night and Reintroduced to Princess Twilight Sparkle
Chapter 1- In Which We Are Introduced to Moonless Night and Reintroduced to Princess Twilight Sparkle
Chapter 1
10 years or the pony equivalent later
Her royal highness Princess Twilight Sparkle was doing her best to maintain her princessly dignity in spite of the fact that she had a teenaged dragon currently hanging out of the side of the chariot she now road in like a dog.
“Spike,” she muttered in irritation for the umpteenth time in the last two hours, her teeth gritted in irritation. “Get. Back. In. The. Chariot.”
“Come o-o-o-on, Twilight, don’t be such a killjoy. What’s the worse that could happen?” Spike drolled, looking like he might tumble out any minute.
Twilight gave an impatient snort, rubbing her forehead. “Besides the fact that this is a royal chariot and we have an image to maintain, need I remind you that we are currently 7,000 feet in the air?”
“Oh, you’ll catch me,” he said with a wave of his claw, leaning out of the chariot further. He glanced back at her, giving her a mischievous pout, “Unless of course you don’t want me around now. You know, since I’m not so cute and cuddly anymore.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. She would never make the claim that Spike had become anything like the dragons they had met years ago following the dragon migration. Even though he was older now and a little bigger he was still the same sweet, helpful, dependable friend she knew and loved, but he had certainly developed a mischievous, bordering on rebellious, streak that occasionally reared its head. Especially when he was bored… such as during four hour long chariot rides to Vanhoover for royal duties.
“Just get back in the chariot, Spike,” Twilight said, trying her best not to look too annoyed and thus egg him on.
Spike raised a claw. “Ooh, I feel myself slipping…”
She didn’t look up at him. “Spike, that’s not funny. Cut it out.”
“Here I go. Farewell cruel world!” She looked up to tell him to knock it off again just in time to see his legs disappear over the side. With a startled yelp she threw herself against the side of the chariot, ready to leap over after him. She stopped though, letting out an exasperated groan mingled with relief. Spike was clinging to the bottom of the chariot, laughing hysterically.
“Aw, Twilight, I never knew you cared,” he said with a wink.
Without another word she used her magic to teleport him back onto the chariot. He was still laughing until she gave him a sharp look.
“That was not funny,” she said. “You could have died.”
He gave a shrug, grinning. “But I didn’t.”
She rolled her eyes, turning to face away. Typical teenaged notions of feeling invincible, she tried to remind herself, nothing serious. Still, she quivered, her nerves shattered by the image of Spike falling to his death. After a moment though Spike straightened up and said more frankly. “Sorry, Twilight.”
She sighed. “It’s ok, Spike. I just don’t want to lose you.”
Spike gave a slight smile, trying to brush off his real emotions in jest. “Hey, you’ll have to try a lot harder to get rid of me. I mean, I could be your son, you know, if you could have- Oh.” He stopped himself, as if realizing what awful thing was about to come out of his mouth. “I- I mean, I-”
Twilight shook her head, trying to give a smile of reassurance. “It’s ok, Spike. I know what you meant.” An awkward silence edged its way into the chariot. Spike bit his tongue, clearly trying desperately to make up for bringing up such a sensitive topic. Twilight didn’t like to bring up the fact that she had been told that she couldn’t have children. Even though it didn’t come up often and she tried to bury herself in work and royal duties, it was clear that a child was something she wanted. It didn’t matter how much power she obtained or prestige. At the end of the day she was just a normal pony who wanted normal things, and she knew her husband did too.
“Hey, it looks like we’re almost there,” Spike said at last in reference to the approaching skyline, jumping on the opportunity to change the subject. “Where is it we’ve got to go first?”
Twilight perked up at the thought of tasks and duties within her control and said, “Oh, we are. Excellent. Spike, hand me the list.”
“Uh… I thought you had it.” Twilight gave him another sharp look, but he laughed, producing the list from behind his back. “Come on, Twilight. I’ve been making lists since I was born. Like I’d ever forget one.”
She gave him a playful scowl then took the list from him. She read off what they needed to do.
“First there’s the meeting with the mayor, then we get to attend a town hall meeting, there’s the opening of the new library- my favorite part!- and then the orphanage visit.”
“Orphanage, huh?” Spike said, considering. “With cobwebs and cockroaches and stuff?”
“Spike, not all orphanages are run down old buildings. In fact, this one is supposed to be one of the nicest in Equestria. Ponies go through huge difficulties just to get foals into the place.”
“If the place is always getting new foals then how come they don’t get overcrowded?”
“The line to adopt ponies out is just as long as the line to get ponies in. They say that they’ve never had a foal that’s been there longer than a month or two.”
Spike suddenly snapped his fingers, an idea alight in his eyes. “Hey, why don’t you go that fancy-shmantsy orphanage place and adopt a foal? I’m sure Big Mac would love that.”
Twilight gave a chuckle, shaking her head. “I’m not here to adopt a foal, Spike. I’m here to take a tour, shake hooves, you know, that kind of thing. Besides, it’s not as though I can just go off for a week and come back saying, ‘Honey, I’m home! Guess what I got!’”
“He’d be fine with it,” Spike muttered. “He’d be fine with anything you do.”
In spite of all the time that had passed since marrying him a small blush hinted at her cheeks at this, but she shook her head. “Even so, I couldn’t do that without talking to him first. Besides, there’s all sort of preparation work that I would need to do. Figuring out sleeping arrangements and furniture and schooling and paperwork, not to mention all the books I’d need to read about parenting and-”
“Twilight,” Spike said, taking his turn to roll his eyes, “Relax. You aren’t even adopting a foal and you’re stressing out over adopting a foal. Besides, sometimes in life you just have to be…. spontaneous!” He spread out his arms and made like he was going to fall backwards out of the chariot again, but Twilight immediately grabbed him by the arm, pulling him back in with a stern look at his laughter.
“Spontaneous is for ponies without a long list of royal duties to do in Vanhoover. Now stand up straight and put your best ‘official assistant to the Princess of Friendship’ face. We’re getting ready to land.”
Spike straightened up, making a show out of making himself “presentable” for the mares (much to Twilight’s amusement). Just then the chariot descended through a cloud bank and the beautiful, forest-surrounded city came more clearly into view, its citizens who filled the streets expectantly as well. The moment they saw her, a great cheer rang up through the crowds that practically rattled the windows of the skyscrapers. She gazed over the crowd, awed inspite of herself.
“I don’t care how many times I have a city cheering for me, I’ll never get used to it,” she breathed.
Spike nudged her, giving an encouraging grin. “Come on, put on your best ‘Princess of Friendship’ face. We’re getting ready to land.”
Twilight gave a smile as well and turned to the crowd, giving a wide wave to her citizens below.
Vanhoover had been bursting at the seams nonstop for the past two weeks over the impending arrival of Princess Twilight Sparkle. At Falabella Orphanage the seams had been burst for an entire month. Moonless Night knew, he had been counting. It would be exactly thirty one days since Ms. Bluebelle had made the announcement that the Princess would be coming to the orphanage and the universe of every young wayward soul had exploded. It would also be exactly thirty days since Moonless had decided he was going to run away during her tour.
It was a brilliant plan, really. As organized as they were at Falabella there was no way they could keep track of everypony at all times when their focus was on pleasing the princess. Besides, he had a feeling that at least one of the teachers who wasn’t as nice as Ms. Bluebelle would probably tell him he ought to stay out of sight all day less he scare her highness. He doubted that they would say that last bit to his face, but no matter how much they smiled when they said it, he knew that was what they meant.
As long as he could remember, Moonless Night had been scaring everypony he came into contact with. He was never really sure why. When he looked in the mirror there wasn’t much about him that he found intimidating. He was actually pretty small for his age. His mane was black and sort of all over the place (He guessed that could be considered feral?) and his coat was the darkest of greys (Ponies couldn’t be that afraid of the dark could they?) with splotches of white on his four hooves, across his back, and on his forehead. His eyes were also a deep purple (Purple like…. grapes? Grape flavored soda? Ok, there couldn’t possibly be anything scary about the color purple). Even so, the students, the staff, even most of the teachers made a wide berth around him. Certainly potential adopters did, making him the foal who had gone the longest time within Falbella’s hallowed walls without being adopted. (A total ten years. The board of directors was humiliated). Even though most did their best to avoid him, he still got his share of flack from the “gutsier” foals who passed through the orphanage. He got all the classics. “freak”, “weird-o”, and then there was his favorite: accusations that his parents must have been criminals since the only description anyone had of those who left him there was of a group of ponies running away. “Obviously they must have been on the run from the law,” he’d hear the whispers, “And you know what they say. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.
Moonless tried to ignore them like Ms. Bluebelle said. She continually told him that no matter what they said, she knew he wasn’t bad. Ponies just needed to make the effort to see that. He knew she was right too. She had to be. He just needed to prove that to the others. Afterall, Ms. Bluebelle wasn’t afraid of him. She said it herself. And when he asked her why, she said that sometimes if you make the conscious effort not to be afraid of something and see it for what it is you find that its a lot easier not to be afraid of it.
He wasn’t entirely sure what she had intended for him to get out of that, but what he got was that a) ponies had to try harder to like him than other ponies for some reason b) nopony was ever going to attempt to like him other than Ms. Bluebelle and therefore c) he needed to help that process along. So he formed his plan. “Operation: Get Out of Orphanage Where Everypony Hates Me and Become Vigilante Superhero Performing Great Heroic Deeds to Prove to Equestria that I Am Not a Feral Pony of Shadows with Grape Soda Eyes of Evil.”
It was perfect. Afterall, he had all the makings of a superhero. He was an orphan without knowledge of his parents, he had an adult mentor figure, now all he needed was a change to the status quo and hero status would be his. Ponies wouldn’t look at him as if he was planning to do them in anymore. He could hardly wait!
At four thirty in the afternoon Ms. Bluebell began to call the foals out into the front yard to prepare to greet the princess. As he had expected, a different teacher, Mr. Gooseneck, came to him around the same time to inform him that he would be sitting in Ms. Bluebelle’s office for the entirety of the visit. Moonless gave what he hoped was a convincing sigh of disappointment and followed him to the familiar office where he had spent so often talking with Ms. Bluebelle. The moment the door was closed he ran and opened the window, leaning a head out to see if he could hear the approach of the princess. After a few minutes a trumpeting issued from the direction of the front gate accompanied by the distant murmuring of a little under a hundred orphan foals. Better now than never.
He went to Ms. Bluebelle’s desk and scrawled out a quick letter informing her about his choice to run away, his super heroic intentions, etc then slipped out of the window. He had practiced the movements of this part of the plan like a dance. First he would go to the top of the slide from which he could easily reach the high branches of the tall oak tree that was rooted beside it. He would then climb across the tree, position himself over the wall that had been built around the property when he was six, and then teleport to the ground. Easy. Well, so long as he could get the teleportation spell right. He found it in a book in Ms. Bluebelle’s office once and had practiced it for some time. He didn’t always get exactly to the spot he was trying to teleport to. Well, actually he’d gotten to the exact spot he was trying to teleport to maybe twice, but he figured if he was up in the tree and therefore as close to the spot on the other side of the wall as possible then he should be able to get pretty close, right?
Moonless dashed across the toy-cluttered yard, hoisted himself to the top of the slide, then leapt nimbly into the tree. The branch quivered under his weight. He yelped, squeezing his eyes shut, expecting to plummet to the ground. The branch’s quivering slowed. He did not fall. He breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for once he was so puny, then made his way across the tree to the otherside. From here he was at least fifteen feet from the ground outside of the wall. It was so close, but if he fell from here he would find himself with a broken leg. He needed to teleport.
He took a deep breath, concentrating all of his energy into his horn. He felt the power rush like warm bubbling water from somewhere within him to the point in the center of his forehead. The ground… concentrate on the ground… The midnight purple magical energy rushed around him. He could feel it. Any moment he would be there on the ground.
At that moment a bird in a nest above his head had decided to wake up from a relaxing birdie nap and, at seeing the glowing ball of purple magic energy and foal below her, did what any bird might do: she squawked.
The loud noise startled Moonless making him lose both balance and concentration as he plummeted toward the ground. Just before hitting it, he teleported.
Twilight was having a remarkably smooth visit to Vanhoover. Really, it was quite uncanny. Everything was not only on time, but ten minutes ahead. All the officials she met with were courteous and without much complaint. Even the foals at the orphanage were rather well behaved. Usually something went awry by now. She wasn’t complaining though as she stopped to smile for another “selfie” with a group of young mares. It was nice to not have any hitches in one’s plan every now and then.
As the little fillies ran away giggling Spike gave a grin. “Wow, Twilight. I didn’t realize you were so good with the foals.”
Twilight laughed. “Well, I did teach Applebloom, Sweetie belle, and Scootaloo when they were little. I had forgotten how much fun they could be.”
Spike looked fondly over the kids who ran about jabbering in excitement. “So you see anyone you like yet?”
She rolled her eyes. “This is isn’t a dog pound, Spike. And I already told you I’m not adopting a foal.”
“You sure?” he teased.
She was preparing to make some sort of witty come back when suddenly a chill went up her spine and goosebumps traveled down her skin like wind over a grassy plain. Her ears perked. She knew this sensation. It was the sensation that always accompanied a strong, close magical presence. Before she could say that anything in reference to it though there was a flash of purple light and a loud crack above her head. Before she knew it, a weight crashed into her from above, sending her sprawling to the ground.
All around her there were cries of alarm from the teachers and the royal guardsmen who had accompanied her there along with hysterical screams from the foals and a few startled inquiries from Spike. Twilight raised her head. She expected a few things. An anvil dropped by a clumsy moving pegasus, an angry protester, certainly she expected a unicorn, but what she did not expect was a young foal, rubbing his head, groaning.
Moonless had expected a few things. He had expected to open his eyes to the ground outside of the wall, to be back in Ms. Bluebelle’s office, even to be on the roof of the orphanage (It had happened before in the midst of practicing this spell), but what he had not expected was to open his eyes after crashing to see a lovely mare with gentle intelligent eyes and a startled expression. He also did not expect to find that mare to have a horn, wings, and a crown or to find that he had inadvertently used her as a landing pad.
For all the embarrassment that surged up within him like its own brand of magic, he couldn’t bring himself to move a muscle or summon up a single word. He just stared at her, mouth slightly agape and thoughts paralyzed. (Well, what would you do if your attempts to run away had been foiled by you somehow attacking a pony of royal personage?) Finally the paralysis was alleviated when a member of the royal guard hoisted him off of her, barking things about “assaulting the princess”. Ms. Bluebelle ran over trying to explain that this was a mistake, merely a mistake. The words shouted around him blurred together as he looked up at the princess. She was standing, helped up by the dragon beside her. The princess herself was staring at him as if he was something positively strange, something that should be treated with the proper amount of wariness.
Great, he thought as Mr. Gooseneck appeared and dragged him back off to Ms. Bluebelle’s office. Now a princess of Equestria thought he was a feral pony of shadows with grape soda eyes of evil.
Twilight got to her feet with Spike’s help as he asked if she was all right. Twilight wasn’t quite able to reply as he watched the young foal, a unicorn by the looks of things, as he was dragged back to the building.
“Wow, what a creepy kid,” Spike said, quiet enough that only Twilight heard, but she wasn’t listening to him. She was watching after him, but there wasn’t a fear in her look. More a fascination and reserve that comes from observing something truly fascinating that she was not sure about yet.
At that moment the head of the orphanage and only magic teacher on staff, a unicorn by the name of Ms. Bluebelle, approached her, all apologies.
“I’m sorry your highness. I don’t know what happened. He is a good colt, only troubled. I’m certain that what happened was an accident, really,” she said, her brow puckered in worry that somehow Twilight would decide that the orphanage was no longer fit to continue operation and she would have her license revoked. Twilight immediately put on a reassuring smile to put her fears to rest.
“I’m sure it was. Don’t worry, mistakes happen. I’m more impressed than I am angry. How long have you been teaching him a teleportation spell?”
Ms. Bluebelle looked at her without understanding. “I never taught him a teleportation spell. We only teach basic practical magic here. Teleportation spells are too advanced for our curriculum.”
Now Twilight was the one to look confused. “Then how did he learn it?” She resisted the urge to add It took me until I was an adult to get it right and I was being taught by literally the most powerful being in Equestria.
Ms. Bluebelle gave a perplexed shrug. “I don’t know. He must have picked it up on his own.” Ms. Bluebelle seemed she was about to change the subject to the tour at hand, but Twilight wasn’t quite ready to let the subject drop yet.
“Maybe he learned it from someone else before coming here?”
“Well, I don’t see how that would be possible, seeing as he was left here as a baby. He’s been here ever since.” She paused, as if remembering that this was not something to bring up to a visiting dignitary, and quickly turned her toward the building and her tour. But Twilight’s thoughts were turning….
After ripping up the letter to Ms. Bluebelle, Moonless Night sat on the floor beneath the window in her office, his thoughts in melancholy shambles. Part of him had the greatest urge to hoist himself out of the window and try to escape again. In the midst of all the sadness there was a small thrill that he had managed to teleport from outside the wall in the backyard to the frontyard. He had never been able to teleport that far before. He thought wildly for moment that maybe he could try to teleport from this room to outside of the wall, but the idea fell apart again at the memory of crashing into the princess and that look in her eyes.
This was all just confirmation of what everypony had ever told him all his life. He didn’t know much about princesses (he had never been the biggest fan of Mrs. Peonie’s history classes...) but he knew that they were the embodiment of all that was good and harmonious in the world. If a princess was afraid of him then how could anyone else think he was good? He buried his head in his arms. If a princess was afraid of him, how could he even think he was good?
Just then there was a knock on the door. Moonless raised his head infinitesimally, caling half-heartedly, “Ms. Bluebelle’s not here.”
“This isn’t Ms. Bluebelle. May I come in?” Moonless’ heart lurched to his throat. That voice didn’t belong to any teacher at this orphanage or any foal either. He had one guess who it did belong to.
Twilight had loitered in front of the doorway to Ms. Bluebelle’s office for an inordinate amount of time considering the task she was intending on performing. It was fairly simple. After the tour Ms. Bluebelle had asked her if she wanted to interview any of the foals, and Twilight had answered that she wanted to speak to the young unicorn who had performed the teleportation spell. There was not a small amount of uproar among the teachers at this request, and more than a few had insisted that he was not a good reflection of the majority of foals here. She insisted though and was brought to the door by Ms. Bluebelle herself. When asked if she wanted her to stay, Twilight told her no and she left. Now Twilight wished that she had had her stay as she stood facing the door, her hoof posed to knock.
“It’s all right Twilight,” Spike tried to say helpfully. “I mean he may be a freaky, way-too magical-for-his-age foal but I’m sure that you can take whatever he throws at you.”
“He’s not ‘freaky’, Spike. He’s just a foal,” Twilight said, her eyes still trained on the door, willing it to knock on itself.
“Are we talking about the same foal? Cos the foal I saw gave me the heeby jeebies just looking at him.”
“He’s just a foal,” she insisted. “And he’s a foal who has a lot of raw magical potential that I want to understand.”
“And how do you plan on doing that? I mean, what are you even going to say to him?”
“Don’t worry, Spike. I came prepared.” She produced from her saddlebag a set of notecards with question prompts on them. (At which Spike rolled his eyes. Leave it to Twilight to bring flashcards on a diplomatic visit). She turned again to knock, but before her hoof made contact with the wood he said quickly,
“So you’re not afraid of him? At all?”
Twilight glanced up at him, “Why do you keep saying that?”
Spike shrugged, but there was still a nervousness about him. It was a nervousness that she had seen reflected in the students as the young unicorn had been dragged through the crowd toward the building. Her nervousness was due to thoughts that the foal might be similar to her, not different. Similar to how she was when she was that age, possessing a magical talent and reading books to acquire as much knowledge as she could. She had learned though that there were some things though that could only be learned through others. Others like Princess Celestia. The thought that she may be stepping into a role similar to that, at least for the time frame of a single interview, was what currently kept her bound the door, certainly not any fear of the foal himself. According to Ms. Bluebelle he was a generally good kid, and she seemed like an honest mare, so she saw no reason to be afraid as they were.
She shook her head in dismissal of Spike’s fear and said, “No, Spike, I am not.” and knocked on the door.
“Ms. Bluebelle’s not here,” a small voice from within called.
“This isn’t Ms. Bluebelle. May I come in?” she replied gently, a little of her former nervousness returning.
There was a pause. Twilight thought that he heard a small thump, like someone getting up too quickly and then falling in the effort of doing so. After a time though there came a nervous, “Y-yes!.”
Twilight magicked the door open and stepped in. Spike hesitantly followed. The foal was standing at attention, his hooves shuffling and his eyes downcast as if he wasn’t sure what he should do in her presence. She also noticed him cast a few apprehensive glances at Spike.His nervousness made her feel a little less so. She smiled.
“Hello,” she said.
He glanced over his shoulder, as if he thought maybe she was talking to someone else. When he remembered that he was the only other one in the room he turned back and said uncertainly, “Hello…. ma’am.”
Ma’am, your highness, same difference, Twilight thought magicking over a chair for herself to sit in. “I wanted to talk to you for a little while if that’s ok.”
“This isn’t about teleporting over your head and smooshing you, is it? Because I’m really sorry about that, I didn’t mean it, I had never teleported that far before-”
“No, no, nothing like that.” She paused then amended, “Well, I would like to ask you a few questions about-”
The foal was off again. “Please don’t arrest me, ma’am. I’m not an evil criminal, honest. Mrs. Peonie might have said I am, but she’s just saying that cos I feel asleep in class and got into a fight, but I didn’t mean to get into a fight, honest, they just kept throwing stuff at me and I got mad and they got mad and-”
“I’m not mad,” Twilight interrupted. “I just wanted to talk to you about it. Here, why don’t you have a seat?”
She magicked the other chair beside him. He nodded hesitantly, as if he didn’t quite believe her, and sat down. Twilight smiled a little nervously, trying to regather her thoughts. As much as she had grown in her diplomatic and social abilities, first conversations were still not her strong point. But it was ok, she had her trusted friends the flashcards to save the day. She magicked the first one into view and cleared her throat.
“What’s your name?”
“Moonless Night, ma’am.”
“And how long have you been at the orphanage?” She said, swapping cards to the next question.
“‘Bout ten years, ma’am. Since I was a baby.”
“And they don’t have any idea who your parents were?”
He flushed at this, lowering his head. “No, ma’am. No one does. I was left on the porch steps, Ms. Bluebelle found me.”
Spike immediately raised his head at this. She guessed because the story had such striking similarities to his own story. Twilight did her best not to have any outward reaction though, immediately regretful of mentioning his parents (The word “regretful” might be replaced with the phrase “horribly humiliated” in this case. He was an orphan! How could she possibly think that was a good question?). She flipped through the cards, trying to find one that might lighten the situation.
“Um… uh… What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?”
Moonless now looked a little bewildered but answered, “Uh… Rocky Road I guess….?”
“Hey, me too! Oh-” The flashcards crashed into each other and scattered across the room like 32 card pick up. Twilight stared at the cards in mild horror, back at Moonless Night, then back at the cards again. Some princess she turned out to be. She was still an awkward mess. Celestia would never have done something like this.
Suddenly a snort of amusement escaped Moonless, but his hoof immediately flew to his mouth, trying to stifle the laughter.
“Sorry,” he said.
But Twilight had to laugh as well, and gathered the cards up with magic and made them disappear in a light purple blast of magic.
“Its ok. I’m not very good at this interview thing, am I?”
Moonless shrugged, but the smile was still on his face and that encouraged her to keep going. Spike’s words from earlier came to mind. Sometimes in life you just have to be... spontaneous!
“How about we forget those questions for now,” she said, feeling as strange saying it as an explorer stepping off the road for the first time into undiscovered regions. “How about you talk for a while. Do you have any questions for me? All questions are welcome. Do you want to know about Canterlot or Alicorn magic or...?”
“Well…” he started, but trailed off.
Twilight nodded, urging with her eyes to go on. “Yes?”
He hesitated then asked in a nervous whisper, glancing from her to Spike, “Do all princesses have dragons for body guards?”
Spike let out a loud, hearty laugh at this. The booming sound made him jump a little in surprise, but Spike gave an easy grin.
“They wish they had dragons as cool as me.”
Twilight laughed, shaking her head. “No, Spike’s not my bodyguard. He’s just my assistant. We’ve been close friends since he was a hatchling. And don’t worry, he’s not going to eat you.”
“Unless of course you happen to be made of fire rubies,” he finished with a wink which actually managed to bring a smile to the foal’s face. (Twilight watched in approval. It seemed Spike was getting over his initial fear of him).
“Do you have any other questions?” Twilight asked.
Little by little, this seemed to pick at the walls of courtesy that held back his words before. The questions sprung one by one like grass shoots. “Can princesses breath in space? If Princess Celestia raises the sun and Nightmare Moon- sorry- Princess Luna raises the moon then do you raise the stars? What was it like a thousand years ago? I mean Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, and Discord? Were ponies just extra mean then or what?”
Twilight answered as best as she could, and it was strangely enjoyable. It all felt different from a lesson she might have had with Princess Celestia, and not just because this time she was playing the role of the teacher instead of the student. This foal, in spite of his apparent disregard for class work, seemed to have a genuine curiosity about him for things that not every pony would have thought to ask to ask. Twilight didn’t expect it, but she had fun answering the young colt’s questions.
Moonless had not expected it, but he had fun in the office listening to Princess Twilight answer his questions. Really, it was shock enough that she had entered the room with- could it be possible?- very little apparent fear in her expression, and for her to not be mad about the whole crushing her thing, but for him to be this interested in what she had to say? In learning at all? He must have hit his head when he teleported or else he had finally lost it. Moonless was never one to talk. When there’s no one to listen, you stop asking questions. Yet this mare, this princess, waltzed in there and he is suddenly found himself asking questions he had never even realized he was curious about until now. There was just something about her that put him at ease, like the opposite of what effect he had on other ponies. Sure, she was a little dorky and sort of awkward (he wasn’t expecting that either from one of the “embodiments of all that was good and harmonious in the world” either), but she was kind, receptive, and genuine. Like Ms. Bluebelle but more so because there was no requirement. She didn’t have to do this, listen to him and answer his questions. Yet she did. She really was good. Truly good. The thought made him stop, looking down at his hooves.
The princess tilted her head questioningly, watching him. “Is there something the matter?”
“Nothing, ma’am,” he mumbled with a shake off his head. He wasn’t that willing to say everything that was on his mind.
She was quiet for a time, those wise eyes not leaving him to the point he was beginning to feel vulnerable. Finally she said, “I think we have time for one more question. And I get the feeling that maybe you have one more that you really want to ask.”
Moonless was tempted to blurt “Ok, do princesses read minds too?” but he didn’t want to waste his one question on being cheeky. Still, he didn’t know how to even begin to ask the question he did want to ask. How do you condense a lifetime’s worth of fears and hopes and dreams, even a short lifetime’s worth, into a single question?
“How do you… know that you’re a good pony?” he finally asked, feeling remarkably foolish now that he heard the words out loud. The princess looked at him strangely at this, and Moonless immediately wished that he had just stuck to asking if she could read minds. He had every desire to speak up and say “never mind” but something tied his tongue. Whether it was his own embarrassment or the fierce desire to know how she would reply he couldn’t tell. After an agonizingly long moment Twilight spoke,
“I suppose you just be a good pony. Then you’ll know for sure that you are one.”
“Yeah, but what if you’re not sure if you can be good? What if no one’s sure that you can be good? What then?” he babbled.
“I think every pony has the potential to be good, and every pony has the potential to be evil. You can try your best to be good and make mistakes or you can try your best to be evil and then accidentally do a little bit of good. It’s just as much about what you’re trying to do.”
“Sometimes I think everything I do is a mistake.”
“Sometimes I think that too.” She smiled. “But then I have friends who remind me that that’s not true.”
“I don’t really have friends,”
“Well, I’m your friend.” Moonless stared at her, his eyes round. Friend? Did she- did a Princess of Equestria- just call him a friend? Moonless’ mouth opened and shut, trying to find words to speak. Before anything could come out though there was a knock on the door. A royal guard stepped in.
“Your highness, I hate to interrupt, but we are already behind schedule to return to Canterlot.”
The Princess sprung up like he had just told her that the chair she was sitting on was infected by flesh eating termites. “What? But we were ahead- oh, that took longer than I thought- oh no!” She seemed like she was about to burst out of the door but stopped, as if remembering that Moonless Night was there. She walked to him and put a hoof on his shoulder.
“It was nice to meet you, Moonless Night. If… if you ever want, you can always send me a letter at the Palace of Friendship in Ponyville, ok?”
Moonless still had whatever he was going to say before stuck on his tongue, but his mouth shut at this. He tried not to look too disappointed, but he was sure the disappointment was literally seeping out of his skin. He gave a small nod, unable to say anything more. For all of her get-up-and-go earlier, she actually seemed hesitant to leave now, but the presence of the guard seemed to pull her to the door. Impulsively, he burst before she had departed, his voice cracking along the edges,
“Thanks for being my friend.”
She looked back at the door, almost taken aback. But she smiled, nodded, and stepped out, her dragon assistant following behind. Moonless stood there staring at the door for some time, willing her to come back and talk some more.
The teachers, faculty, and foals (minus one) gave her a well rehearsed farewell at the gate as she and Spike walked to the chariot. She gave them her well rehearsed speech of thanks and goodbye and soon the chariot was rising into the sky.
“It’s too bad,” Spike said, settling into his seat in preparation for the long chariot ride ahead. “Weird as it sounds, I was actually starting to like that foal. And you never did get around to asking him about his magic.”
“I guess we found more important things to talk about,” Twilight said distractedly, still watching the orphanage as it grew smaller behind her. Moonless Night’s expression as she was leaving and his statement, “I don’t really have friends” were running through her head.Then there washis voice when he had thanked her for being his friend. It was so sad.
“You ok, Twilight?” Spike asked, pulling Twilight out of her reverie.
Twilight threw on a smile and turned away from the orphanage. “Yeah, Spike, I’m fine.”
They were silent. Every moment Twilight could feel how they drew further away, and in spite of herself she kept glancing back. “I don’t really have friends” kept up its echo through her memory along with the memory of another little unicorn who could boast the same thing.
Finally Twilight did something that she had probably never done in her life: she did something without thinking. And that something was to vault over the side of the chariot and take to wing, flying as fast as her not precisely athletic wings would take her in the direction they had come from. The stallions pulling the chariot gave a start of alarm and Spike shouted after her,
“Twilight! What are you doing?”
He just barely heard her reply as she grew almost too far away to be heard. “I’m being spontaneous!”
Spike looked after her, and couldn’t help smiling a little as the chariot turned to follow.
Moonless had finally managed to pull his eyes away from the door and was about to return to his former spot on the floor when the door suddenly burst open with a loud slam. A shout of surprise burst from his lips. Ms. Bluebelle, the causer of aforementioned noise, did not stop to apologize as she ran into the room. She looked nearly giddy.
“Moonless, go get your suitcase and everything you want to take with you. You’re being adopted!”
Moonless stared at her in incomprehension. “Wait, what?”
Ms. Bluebelle giggled and took his hoof, pulling him toward the dormitories so he could pack. Breathless, Moonless was just barely able to get out,
“B-but I don’t understand! Dont you have to have an interview with ponies before they adopt you? I haven’t interviewed with anyone!”
“Yes you did!”
“But I haven’t interviewed with any parents since I was six!”
At that moment they reached the colt’s dormitory and she gave him a gentle push inside. She told him to meet her in the foyer before rushing off with a gleeful “whoop!” Moonless stood in the middle of the dormitory dumbfounded for a long minute before he went to his bed. He pulled the suitcase that he had been given from its permanent resting place underneath it and began to place his few things inside. It was surreal, and so sudden he hardly had time to be joyful or nervous or scared or anything. By the time the last of his things were packed his emotions slowly started to overcome his bewilderment,
He stood, looking around the dormitory for a long while. His entire life that he could remember had passed behind these walls. He had long since given up hope that he would ever leave them. He didn’t know how or why but he was finally going to leave them. A new life. Then all the emotions came rushing in at once. Oh man, what if he got adopted by somepony positively abysmal? What if they realized after taking him home they’d made a mistake and took him back? But what if this was the beginning of a whole new destiny? What if this was his superhero beginning? He didn’t know which, but what mattered was that it was a something.
He sprinted down the stairs to the foyer where Ms. Bluebelle was waiting. She was beaming ear to ear as she enveloped him in a hug. “Oh, I’m so proud of you Moonless Night. It’s been a long road, but you did it.”
“Thank you Ms. Bluebelle,” he said, not wanting to cry. “For everything.”
She held him away for a moment, her eyes twinkling. “You are always welcome to write or come back for a visit. We will want to know all about the great things you do when you get out there.” She dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief, as she always did whenever a foal, no matter how long or short she had known them, left her care. But now she beamed again. “Now are you ready to go home?” Moonless’ breath hitched and he nodded. Ms. Bluebelle opened the door and walked outside beside him.
Before Moonless even hit the steps of the porch he stopped cold in his tracks, staring at the figure in the grass. She watched him with an almost nervous eagerness, her dragon at her side. As he had done before, he glanced over his shoulder, wondering if she was here for someone else, but there was no one else. He glanced up at Ms. Bluebelle who gave him an encouraging nod. Bewildered, he walked down the steps and came to stand before Princess Twilight Sparkle.
She smiled, nervousness still clinging to her. “Hello, Moonless Night.”
“Um…. hello again ma’am.”
She shuffled her hooves in an awkward, not very princess-like way. “So,um. Well, here we are again. I guess I ought to explain myself.”
“I mean, I sort of get it. You’re… adopting me?”
“Well, yeah that’s right I mean, well there’s more to it than…”
“So you’re not adopting me?”
“No, that’s not it! I am adopting you. I uh…”
“What she means,” Spike said, mercifully cutting in. “Is that she wants to adopt you and to make you her student in magic.”
Moonless blinked in confusion. “Magic?”
“Well, yeah. Did you see that teleportation spell you did? That’s like, super advanced magic!”
“But I didn’t get anywhere near where I was trying to get to. And I nearly crushed somepony!”
“But you performed it,” she said, at last finding some words, “You’ve displayed an aptitude for magic that with a little training can help you do a lot of good in the world.” She gave a knowing smile and Moonless’ eyes widened. He had never given a thought to his magical ability as being anything important. It could do something good?
“Do you mean it?”
“I really do.”
Excitement, hope, and joy all swelled within him and impulsively he sprang forward and hugged her. He quickly realized what he was doing though and backed away again, flushing in embarrassment.
“Er- uh- sorry, ma’am.”
But she smiled, leading him toward the chariot and to his new home. “You can just call me mom.”
