There Will Always Be Light

Part II

"A Swirling Torrent Of Emotions."

"Starry!" I called as I trotted into my room one night. I looked around cautiously, checking to make sure he was still where I had left him. Oddly the colt was was nowhere to be found. "Starry I don't have time for this!" I sighed and hung my head in sadness.

I made my way to my mighty glass windows and pulled back their great blue curtains. I peered up at the night sky longing for the stars to send me a sign, but the sky was empty save for the moon hanging all alone on the horizon.

I shook my head and turned back into my room; returning, once again, to my normal nightly routine. I did all the stupid boring things that any normal pony would do, but for some reason I was still unhappy. I don't know exactly what caused it, but I was tired of life. I just didn't want to go through the trouble of waking up just to make other ponies happy.

I flopped down to the floor and did nothing. I looked up at my large wooden grandfather clock and watched the time tick away. It felt like everything I ever wanted to do would always slip away from me. Suddenly, right when my mind started to wander into darker places, I heard a loud crashing noise, and the doors to my closet flew open. Just then a big blue ball of flying fur and flailing limbs came tumbling out of the doors and rolling towards me. "Woah, Starry! Slow down; you're going to hurt yourself!" The tumbling pony then made his way over to me, skating wildly across the wood floor, finally tripping and falling on his face right in front of me. The young pony then sprang to his hooves and straightened the wooden guard helmet that sat atop his head. He then smiled a wide smile that was barely visible behind the toy sword he gripped in his mouth. I couldn't help but giggle a bit at the spectacle . Obviously he was quite proud of his accomplishment.

"Did I do good? Did you like it!" mumbled Starry through the sword.

"Yes, It was wonderful! absolutely wonderful." Starry then leaped into the air and squealed with joy.

"I did it! I made Mommy happy! Now she doesn't have to cry anymore!"

What? It hit me like a freight train, a swirling torrent of emotions more powerful than anything I had ever experienced before. At first I was shocked, but at the same time I was overcome with intense joy and a strange feeling of guilt. Did I really cry that much?

"Oh, Starry, that's really sweet of you, and I'm sure you put a lot of thought into it. But you know I'm not your mommy?"

"No! you are my mommy! I know you are my mommy, and I love you!"

"I... I love you too Starry, but you know I'm going to have to give you away eventually... right?"

"But you can't give me away! If you give me away, who is gonna cheer you up when you get all sad?"

"I guess you're right." I then smiled and ruffled Starry's mane. "Now you better go to bed; it's getting really late!"

"Kay Mommy, goodnight!" Said Starry as he waddled over to his makeshift bed.

I lay down in my bed, a smile plastered across my face. I thought about the three years since I had found Starry, all the joy he had brought me, and all the stress! I was still happy though, because I knew all that stress was worth it to have somepony to live for. However, as I reminisced, I couldn't help but think that I had made a huge mistake. Sure Starry Night's appearance in my life was really helping me get through some tough times, but was it really right to keep him? Yes, I did look for his parents, but admittedly not as hard as I could have, and what if his parents were alive? Who was I to keep a mother from their child? To be honest, I knew nothing about children in the first place. The only reason that colt wasn't dead already was dumb luck. What did I expect was going to happen when things actually got hard?

***

"Check mate!" cried out Starry confidently.

"Great job!" I exclaimed, a stupid grin across my face. Starry was an incredibly quick learner. I may have been going easy on him, but still he picked up chess faster than anypony I had ever seen. I started to reset the board incredibly proud of how skilled at these games he had become in only a few months.

"I love it when you don't have go to and do that stupid princess stuff!"

I laughed. "Trust me, I do too."

We started to play again, but just as I began to move my first pawn there was a hurried knocking at the door.

"Princess! Princess Luna!" Came a worried voice followed by more knocking. I panicked, And jumped to my hooves looking frantically for a place to hide Starry Night. "Princess, I know you're in there! Get over here and open the door right now, or I'll have to come in!"

"Okay! Sure I'll be right there; just give me a couple seconds." In a fit of desperation I grabbed Starry and threw him headlong into the closet. I then frantically slammed the door shut, praying I didn't hurt the poor colt.

"What are you doing? I'm serious; stop messing around and let me in!" I galloped as fast as I could to get to the door, only stopping for a moment in front of the mirror to make sure that I didn't look too ridiculous. I then opened the door and came muzzle to muzzle with the captain of the royal guard, a huge fake smile plastered across my face.

"Oh hello there!" I squeezed out, totally forgetting my "Royal Canterlot Voice". "Oh, it's you. I'm so happy that you decided to interrupt my personal time again!”

"Yes, Uh... Hello, Princess. I'm sorry for being so short with you; it's just we have a bit of a problem on our hooves." Oh great! I thought. how could things get any worse!

"No it's just fine!" I moaned. "What is it this time."

"Well, you're sister was to meet with King Orion from Timbucktu today, but when we went to go look for her neither her nor Star Swirl were anywhere to be found."

"What!?" I screamed. "You're telling me Celestia has gone missing?"

"Yes, but—"

I interrupted him. "No butts! Tell Orion the meeting is canceled! We have a national emergency on our hooves! sound the alarms; Send out a search party! We need to find her!" What happened to her? I thought. Did somebody foalnap her?

"Princess!" he stopped me. "Celestia is fine; she's just busy."

"What do you mean?"

"Well you see…" The captain then proceeded to take a small piece of paper out of his armor. "She left a note." I snached the note away from him and begin to look it over.

"Dear Princess Luna," I read aloud. "I apologize for the inconvenience, but I will not be able to attend the meeting with King Orion. I am quite sorry for pushing this onto you so last minute, but Star Swirl and I are so close to making breakthrough on the mirror project, I can almost taste it. I just can't risk losing all of our progress this late into the game. I love you, and I hope you understand. Your sister, Princess Celestia." I dropped the note onto the ground and took a deep breath. "CELESTIA!" I screamed and slammed my hoof agents the door. "What were you thinking!?" I fumed at the thought of her thoughtlessly abandoning me. "I don't even know what the stupid meeting was about!" I looked over at the captain who was obviously quite uncomfortable.

"Uh, Princess..."

"WHAT?!"

"What should I tell the king? He has made it quite clear that this meeting is an important one, and I fear that canceling it could be very bad for foreign relations."

"You know what? I'm so mad I don't even care right now! Tell him whatever the heck you want."

"Princess! Think about this rationally; you have a responsibility to—"

"I don't have a responsibility to anypony!" I cut him off. "Besides why should I be responsible for cleaning up her mess!?"

"Don't be childish, Princess! Making sure we are on good terms with other nations is of utmost importance."

"You know; maybe YOU shouldn't be telling ME what to do!" I snapped frustrated.

"No, I shouldn't, but it looks like I have to! You should know how to take responsibility without me telling you, Princess!"

I sighed and looked down at my hooves. "You're right," I whimpered. " I shouldn't have let my anger cloud my judgment. Just tell him I'm... getting ready."

"Yes, Princess," He then smiled, slicked back his light purple mane, and said, "good luck."

I trotted back into my room at a snail's pace, trying desperately to keep myself together. I pushed my muzzle against my window and watched as a few drops of rain splattered on the glass.

"Why were you yelling Mommy?" called a familiar voice.

"Nothing Starry, just grownup stuff."

"It's okay; we can play more of the games, and then you will be all better!"

"No. I can't. I'm sorry, but mama is busy; she has to do her work."

"But you said you didn't have to do any of that work stuff today!" Starry sniffled, his eyes beginning to well up with tears.

"I know I did, but I—"

"You promised!" Starry wailed.

"Things change!" I shouted and immediately regretted it. Starry recoiled in fear and backed away. "I... I'm sorry I didn't mean..." Starry then started to howl, tears rolling down his little face. I tried to go and comfort him, but he just hid under the bed and went silent.

***

"Princess Luna!" shouted King Orion, fuming with anger. "Are you even listening to me!?" I pulled my head off the table and wiped the drool from my chin. I looked up and saw that I was in the royal dining hall just now remembering I was in a meeting with The King of Timbucktu.

"Oh yes! I have totally been listening to your highly riveting and amazing tale king!" I droned sarcastically.

"Miss Luna! I find your tone to be highly unprofessional!" moaned the king. "What I am telling you is of dire importance! Strange creatures have been sighted in Timbucktu's air space and are stealing from our ponies!"

"What have they been stealing king?" I grumbled.

"They have been stealing our love," he said stone cold.

"Oh! Have they?" I snickered. "And what do these 'love stealers' look like?"

"That's the thing!" He jabbered. " they can look like anypony!" I took a sip of my tea and raised an eyebrow.

"sure they can," I joked. "And what exactly do you want me to do about it?"

"Probably nothing. To be honest, I was hoping I would get to talk to your sister," he cooed venomously.

"My sister?" I slurred through my teeth.

"Of course! At least she wouldn't have mocked me like a school pony."

I opened my mouth preparing to say something I would regret, but just as I began to speak the captain of the royal guard came bursting through the door.

"Princess Luna!" He inhaled deeply trying to catch his breath. "There is an intruder in the castle!"

"What?!" Screamed Orion. "An intruder!?"

"Calm down. I'm sure it's nothing. You!" I said turning to the captain. " What sort of monstrosity had the gall to breach the sanctity of our castle!" I shouted as royally as possible.

"Well..." he mumbled. "I think you should see for yourself."

I stormed through the great halls of the castle, following the burly guardspony to where he had found the intruder. I was curious at who could have gotten past the castle's heavy security, and I was even more curious as to why the captain didn't want to tell me who the intruder was in the first place.

"I apologize again for interrupting your meeting ma'am; I hope King Orion doesn't take it too personally."

"Are you kidding?!" I scoffed. "That meeting was terrible! I would have done ANYTHING to get out of that place!"

"Uh... Well, I guess you're welcome then," he said confused. "We're almost to where I saw the intruder; it should be just around this bend." we then both came to a skidding stop in front of a wall of more guards.

"What are they for?" I asked.

"I stationed men on either side of this hallway to make sure IT didn't escape."

"Uh, okay. Can I see 'it' now?" He nodded and took a deep breath.

"Men!" he shouted. "Stand aside!" The guards then moved apart making an opening large enough for us to move through. I looked through the hole, but when I saw the dark blue figure standing before me, I almost had a heart attack. "Princess, what's wrong!?" shouted the captain, grabbing me as I fell to the floor.

"N-nothing," I stammered; pulling myself from the ground. "I was just surprised to see a child in the royal castle!"

"We were as surprised as you were," he said understandingly. "The weirdest part is, nopony has any idea where it came from! Do you have any ideas?"

"Oh, he must be from the, uh… school field trip that visited last week.”

"Well, wherever it came from, it's becoming a big problem." The captain sighed as he watched his fellow guards try to subdue Starry.

"Got it!" shouted one guard triumphantly, holding Starry above his head. Starry then kicked the guard in the muzzle and blew a raspberry as he galloped away. "Never mind!"

"For Celestia's sake, really!? Sometimes I feel like I'm surrounded by idiots. Anyway could you help us out here? Maybe you could use the ‘Royal Canterlot Voice’ or something?” he pleaded.

"Oh, of course I can," I said stepping forward. I cleared my throat and swallowed hard. "Child!" I shouted. Starry Night then whirled around to face me his eyes growing wide. "Thou must stop your shenanigans at once!"

Starry stared at me for a minute and then began to laugh hysterically."Mommy!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

. All the guards then gasped and started to murmur.

"We think you are mistaken little one," I said, on the brink of hyperventilating.

"No, I know my mommy!" he squealed galloping toward me.

"Halt!" I shouted, but before I could stop him Starry Night jumped onto me hugging me tightly.

"I knew I would find you!" he peeped.

"Princess, are you sure you don't know this thing?"

"For one it's not a 'thing’; it's a colt." I said turning to the other guards. "All of you!" I barked. "You will forget everything you saw here on this day! Do you understand?" The guards nodded frantically. "I don't want you telling anypony about this, not even Princess Celestia herself! If anypony asks, all you know of this event is that a field tripping colt went missing in the castle, and was then found and returned to his parents." I then glared at the guards and growled, "and if I find out that a single one of you has talked, then you will ALL be punished, harshly. Now, do you understand?"

"YES, PRINCESS!" they shouted in unison.

"Good," I purred. "You may go." I then waved my hoof, and the guards scrambled back to their posts. However as soon as they were all gone I collapsed to the ground and heaved a sigh of relief.

"What, may I ask, was that!?" Snapped the captain of royal guard. I jumped at the stallion's presence.

"What are you still doing here? I told everypony to leave."

"No! I want answers!" Said the guard stubbornly. "You're not going to put on a show like that and expect me to keep quiet. My job is to ensure the safety of all, and if I feel like anypony is in danger, unidentified colts included, I need to know!"

"Fine," I grumbled. "Meet me in my chambers in one hour, and I'll tell you everything."

"Alright, I'll see you there," he's said and stormed away. Just then I remembered that Starry Night was still clinging to my neck. I pulled him off and sat him down in front of me.

"Starry Night!" I yelled. "What were you thinking!?" Starry frowned and looked at the floor.

"I just wanted to see you Mommy... I... I'm sorry," he said, his eyes welling up with tears.

"Oh Starry, don't cry; you just can't be galloping out of our room like that."

"But it's so boring alone! I wish I had somepony else to talk to," he whimpered.

"I know, honey, I know," I said picking Starry up and holding him to my chest again. Just then, as I held him, I was struck with an idea.

***

"So, that's the whole story." I said, sipping tea from an ornate cup.

"I see," muttered the captain running his hoof through his light purple mane. "So, this thing—" I gave him a piercing glare. "Sorry, this child is an orphan?"

"That's just it; I don't know. I can't find a single thing on his parents no matter how hard I look."

"That is strange," he said, rubbing his pure white chin. "So, what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know." I frowned. "I suppose I'll have to keep living with him like I have been."

"Why not tell Celestia? I'm sure she could find—"

"No!" I yelled, slamming my hooves on the coffee table. The captain jumped back stunned. "I... I'm sorry, I just... You've seen how she's been acting lately; she's so obsessed over her 'projects' that she's ignoring everything else. Even If I told Celestia, she'd just dump him in some random orphanage somewhere and be done with it."

"Princess, maybe an orphanage is where it... He, belongs."

"No! I can't take that risk."

"What risk?" asked the captain perplexed.

"I don't know; they might treat him badly. Or... or they might give him to some terrible family who won't love him!"

"I think—" he lay his hoof on mine and stared at me with his piercing dark blue eyes. "—you may have become a bit too attached to the kid." I flinched, his words cutting deep into my heart.

"You're right," I said, beginning to sob. "I know I should give him up, but he told me he loved me, and I love him too!" Tears rolled down my muzzle and showered the floor like rain. "You saw! He even calls me mommy. I want to keep him, but what I really want is for him to be happy, and right now I'm now sure what that means."

The captain nodded his head compassionately."I get it, I really do, but what exactly do you want me to do about it?"

"Help me!" I cried. "I'm scared and confused, and I don't know what to do. I have been doing this alone for more than three years; all I want is a little support."

"Okay," he said flatly.

"What!?" I stammered.

"I'll help you take care of him."

"But you said it yourself, maybe It'd be best if I gave him up."

"Well I changed my mind. If it's true that you couldn't find anything about his parents in three years, then it's obvious that they're either dead or don't want him back. Besides why give him up for adoption if he's perfectly happy with you?"

I wiped my muzzle and smiled."Thank you."

"Now what do you need me to do?"

***

"So, all I have to do is keep him busy while you're at work?"

"That's it," I said preparing to leave.

"That can't be too hard. Can it?"

"I don't know; you saw him the other day."

He whipped his head up and looked at me, his eyes wide."I'm in trouble aren't I?"

I just laughed and opened the door. "Oh, wait one more thing?"

"Yes, Princess?" replied the captain.

"I never caught your name."

"Oh, my name? It's Midnight Legacy."

"Midnight Legacy, that's a nice name.” I said, nodding my approval. “ And by the way, you can call me Luna. No more of that 'Yes, Princess' nonsense okay?"

"Of course, Luna.”

"There you go! That's so much better!" I then giggled and left the room. But just as I began to trot down the stairs, I heard a very loud crashing sound and the familiar laughter of a tiny blue pegasus.

After that, things were normal for the most part. Midnight Legacy took care of Starry during the day, and I came home to him at night. Nopony suspected anything. After rumors of an intruder, it just seemed like Midnight was staying in my room to protect me. Also, to my relief, Starry warmed up to his new protector extremely quickly, even having fun and playing with him. As I had expected a little bit of help was going a long way; just having somepony else to cover for me had relieved a massive amount of stress from my shoulders. However, by far the best part of the new arrangement was that Starry seemed happier then ever, and that meant everything to me. Two whole years past with little trouble. We had found our rhythm, and nothing could throw us off, at least until he started flying.

***

I was in the library that day filling out some sort of pointless paperwork when the door blew open. "Luna!" came a frantic shouting.

"What!" I whirled around dropping my quill violently.

"You have to see this!" shouted an excited Midnight Legacy.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming! And for goodness sake, don't scare me like that!" I replied, jumping from my desk and galloping up the stairs. "You know, some of us have important work to do and don't have the luxury of being able to drop everything and go mess around."

"Oh, and taking care of your little monster isn't important?" asked Midnight smirking back at me.

"Just show me what ever it is you wanted to show me, okay?"

"Alright, but be prepared because you're going to flip!" Midnight led me through the castle and back to the my room stopping in front of my door.

"Okay, get on with it; I've got stuff to do!" I nagged.

"Wait," he said peeking inside. "I have to make sure he's still doing it."

"Doing what!?"

"Okay, you can look now," he said as he slowly pulled the door open. I pushed past Midnight and looked into the open room, but when I saw what was inside, I was speechless.

"Mommy, look! I'm flying!" squealed Starry Night as he fluttered awkwardly through the sky.

"That's amazing!" I shouted, overflowing with excitement.

"Yeah, it's crazy; isn't it?" Midnight grinned and shook his head. "I can see why you like this stuff."

"What stuff?"

"You know! Raising a child, it's, I don't know... exciting."

"Don't tell me you're getting attached to him too," I said, bursting out into a fit of giggles.

"What!? No, He's just... Cute,"

"I’ll have to agree with you on that one.” As if on cue, Starry then crashed into the wall.

Things got a bit more complicated after that. Midnight Legacy was an earth pony, so the duty of properly teaching Starry how to fly fell square on me. I once again had to find time to skip out on work to give Starry his lessons, which was made worse by the fact that I couldn't take him outside, leaving me with the uncomfortable space of my room for practice.

After a few more crashes and a lot of broken things, I made up my mind that it was time to take Starry outside. I knew it would have to be at night because there would be less chance of being seen, so I picked the night of the full moon. That way, we would get in some practice, and while I was at it I could show him what my job was all about.

***

"Alright. tonight is the night," I said, plucking Starry from the bed and hoisting him onto my back.

"Are we going outside tonight!" asked Starry bouncing up and down.

"You bet," I chimed. "as long as nopony sees us... Now," I said turning to Midnight. "if anypony asks, where am I?"

"You are visiting a zebra tribe at the edge of The Everfree Forest," recited Midnight robotically.

"Good," I purred "And what am I doing?"

"You are discussing a dispute over the forest border." replied Midnight, pacing back and forth.

"Perfect! Now, I'd better be on my way before the sun goes down."

"Why? I thought you wanted to do it at night?"

"Yeah I do; I just thought while I was at it maybe I could show him the thing that I do." he looked at me blankly. "You know, the thing with the moon and the stars!"

"Oh! Why didn't you just say so?"

"Anyway, I should probably get going," I said as I opened my gigantic window.

"Be careful!" yelled Midnight as I flew out into The Everfree.

I flew for a while looking for a good, relatively unforested, spot for us to fly. I eventually settled on a small grassy field with no trees and a good view of the sky.

"Are we going to fly now Mommy?" beamed Starry as I landed on a soft patch of grass.

"Not yet," I said calmly. "First I have to show you something." I pointed to the sky just as the sun started to dip below the horizon. "You see that?"

Starry looked out, squinting his eyes slightly. He didn’t react much at first, but his face began to glow as and the sky exploded into a dazzling ballet of reds, oranges, and blues.

"That," I said smiling. "Is a sunset." the sky then went pitch black; the moon and stars were now nowhere to be seen. Starry squealed and grabbed hold of my leg. "What's wrong?"

"I'm scared of the dark," he moaned.

"It's okay honey; I'm right here. Besides, it's only going to be dark for a few moments." I took a deep breath and began to warm up my magic.

"Since I first found you, you've been asking me about my job and what I do. Well, tonight I'm going to show you."

"What do you mean Mommy?" asked Starry cocking his head slightly.

"Well, you know how every morning the sun rises, and every night it sets?"

"Yeah."

"Well, my big sister does that; She makes the sun rise and set."

"Really?" asked Starry, awestruck.

"She certainly does! But there can't be sun all the time; things would get too hot and dry out. That's where I come in. You see, I control the moon and the stars, so that way even in the dark there will always be light!"

"Woah! Really?!"

"Yes, really!" I said giggling. "Do you want to see me do it?"

"Well duh! Of course I wanna to see!" declared Starry impatiently.

"Alright, alright, I'm doing it!" I exclaimed, beginning to cast the spell. My horn then started to glow bright blue as I gathered all the magic power I could muster. "Alright, make sure you're watching, because I can only do this once!" I said with a loud grunt. suddenly, a strange purple aura began to flow around me in elegant shimmering strands, and a small sliver of white light began to appear above the horizon. Starry watched, mouth agape, as the silver moon flew up into the darkness glowing brightly in the clear sky.

"Amazing!" shouted Starry, clacking his hooves together.

"If you liked that, get ready for the next part!" I beamed as I got ready to form the stars. Starry then looked right at the sky, leaning so far forward I was sure he would fall. My horn then made a loud cracking noise, and the stars began to burst into existence like popcorn on a hot stove. Then Starry's jaw totally dropped as the stars danced across the sky forming complex shapes and designs, finally settling in their appropriate constellations. "How did you like that?"

"Are you kidding me? It was awesome!" blurted out Starry.

"I'm so glad to hear that," I cooed, satisfied with my performance. "Now, let's get to those flight lessons."