Celestia, i ask you dearly to take my brother and teach him in magic so he may not fall to darkness.
Signed - Starswirl the bearded.
Those words stumped her, a lot. he had a brother? She quickly wrote a letter back to him, using her magic to encase the letter in a yellow flame.
Starswirl saw a yellow flame fly through his window and create a letter that peacefully landed on his desk in front of him. "Hmm?" He picked it up and read it, not out loud though since he wasn't the type of pony to do that.
Serenity watched as he read it, while batting a ball against the wall.
I kindly accept your offer, and would like to know why you are asking this of me.
Signed - Celestia.
instead of writing a letter back, he walked over to the door tilting his head urging Serenity to come over to him. "Where are we going?" Serenity asked sounding excited.
Starswirl turned to him. "Canterlot castle, to talk to Celestia, and I hope her schedule is open."
While he was quickly bored by waiting in the room for a while, Starswirl gave him a glance followed by a smile. "Sorry I had no idea it would take this long." the door opened, he turned around since he had been facing the desk that Celestia would be sitting at had she been in the room when they arrived. "I thought I would meet the teacher of Serenity."
"Everyone of my students are taught by me." She said, wording not taken into account.
"Oh, well do I have to sign any papers for the test?"
Celestia shook her head. "They have to hatch a dragon egg, if they can't; I teach them until they can."
Well that was simple. "What about when they do hatch it?" Starswirl asked.
"They keep it as a pet and study further, some of my students refused the dragon as a pet though." She sat down at the desk. "I hope this little guy is special, I would like to teach students that have more magical potential again but I've already taught all of them." She looked directly at Starswirl when she said that, since he was the only student with that much magical potential.
"Don't worry, i won't let you down!" Serenity said, saluting the Princess.
She gave him a smile. "Actually, I do need you to sign this, it will allow me to be his legal guardian whilst I teach him." She levitated a paper onto the desk.
He picked up a fire colored quill and signed it. while he was signing it he noticed a phoenix perched on a stand. "You have a pet phoenix?"
She turned her head to face philomena. "Yes I do, she was given to me by my parents." She started to look depressed. "Before they left."
Starswirl finished signing it and handed the paper over. "Where did they leave to?"
"They went out of Equestria to help with a war, i fear the worst of them." She turned back to Philomena. "But Philomena keeps me hoping that one day they may return." She stood up and walked over to Serenity. "You may leave now. you can trust me with him."
Serenity smiled, Celestia nodded her head in the direction of the door. "Am i going to take the test now?" He asked sounding slightly excited.
Celestia nodded. "Follow me." She walked out the door and into one of the class rooms, in it there where a few judges sitting at the back of the room it seemed they were expecting him to fail or succeed. "It's less stressful if you ignore them." She said quietly.
A cart was pushed into the center of the stage, with red egg with black spots. Serenity had been practicing the spell to hatch the egg for a while now, his horn glowed as the egg floated up and a crack formed. he started grunting while his horn glowing brighter as a piece of the egg fell off and the dragon inside did the rest of the work at which point Serenity fainted. "Serenity?" He opened his eyes to Celestia smiling. "You have your cutie mark now." she said pointing to it.
Serenity gasped, and stood up to get a better look at it, it appeared to be a red crystal surrounded by a red-ish flame. "Not quite what i expected, but i like it!" He started wondering what it represented, but he would find out eventually.
Ten years, Celestia had let him leave to learn on his own and he had just started mourning the loss of his brother, and Celestia had received a letter the previous day that confirmed her fears of her parents. "I hate this!" He punched a cement circle that surrounded a statue "He got a statue! why don't i?"
Celestia sat there stroking the cement circle in remorse. "Of course he did, he was a famous wizard. and you aren't, yet." Serenity looked at a door just outside the room. Celestia noticed him doing so. "Don't, even i haven't gone in there." She said, knowing what he was thinking.
This fueled his curiosity, he had been interested in dark magic but never practiced it because Celestia never let him. "Why not?" He asked in a childish tone.
"Maybe because it's covered in ancient markings?" she said gesturing to the shape on the door similar to that of a pentagram. "I've only practiced dark magic once, when i was younger. but you learn with age, and i learn only hatred and anger can fuel dark magic, so i stopped." once she finished she saw him examining the door close up. "What did i just say?" She said pulling him away from the door.
He turned to her. "Fine." He began to wonder something, he was told that there was a spell for everything. "Do you think, that there is a spell to bring him back behind that door?"
Celestia stood up and hugged him. "Even if there was a way to bring him back you could, but what would you earn from doing it?"
"My brother? being alive and you know, not dead." He said stepping away from the hug. "Why is it bad to do it anyways?"
"I don't know, even in my long life, but we have to accept death as something that has to happen, not as an optional part of life." She pulled him back into another hug, but he refused it and pushed her away. "Serenity, we have to accept death and move on." She said in a more stern and serious voice.
His head sunk. "I don't want to accept that my brother can be brought back, and not do it!" He said stomping a hoof down.
Celestia sighed. "Serenity, i've sent many students away because of their emotions." She said turning her face away.
"Wait, how many students pass your magic lessons?" He asked flying back down.
She turned back to him. "Ten, with hundreds of rejects. i only do it because their emotions and greed of their own magical power would corrupt them." She walked over to the balcony. "But i am serious, i've accepted my parents deaths, and you should just accept it and move on like i did."
He sighed. "I don't care how much you can relate to my suffering, you can never understand my suffering completely." He said in a huff and walked out of the room, lingering at the door for a while. "Because you never knew if there was way to bring them back." He said finally leaving.
Once he slammed the door she turned her head to face out into the horizon. "I did."