The Moon's Precious Little Star

"Princess, what is that thing?" A noble pony asked as he approached Luna and Orion, along with a crowd of other nobles. Having just rescued her son from a horrible death, the princess of the night wasn't in the mood to deal with any pony, especially the nobles. So when a random noble pony decided to insult him by calling her son "thing" and "It," it put the princess further on edge. In the back of her mind, she could practically hear Nightmare Moon egging her on to attack the ignorant pony. "Please, princess, step away from that thing, it might be dangerous!" The noble pony pleaded, and though he thought he was helping, the noble insulted Orion a second time, lighting the fuse in Luna's mind that was Nightmare moon. Without warning, the princess of the night stood up and backed the noble right in the jaw, nearly shattering the bone and causing him to lose consciousness. Even though her victim was unconscious, Nightmare Moon still wasn't satisfied and urged Luna to step forward and crush his skull. The lunar Alicorn was only able to regain her self when her sister arrived on the scene and called out to her. When Luna sapped back to reality, she was met with the sight of ponies cowering before her, ready to bolt at a moment's notice. Feeling terrible for what she did, Luna stepped forward to apologize and explain herself, but when she did, the noble finched at her approach. Seeing their reaction and the fear in their eyes, Luna opened her mouth to say something, and yet she couldn't think of a single thing to say. So without a word, the princess of the night scooped up her son in her hooves and flew away from the scene as fast as she could.

A day later, and after a thorough talking to by her sister shortly after her outburst, Luna stood in Orion's room, pacing back and forth in front of her downtrodden son, who was trying to look as small as possible.

"Why can't you do as you are told?" Luna asked Orion, not that she expected him to answer as he tended to go quiet whenever he was in trouble. "Now, we have a group of angry noble banging on the castle doors, demanding an explanation!" The princess of the night angrily stated.

"To be fair, Lulu, this is as much your fault as his. Letting Nightmare Moon goad you into bucking a noble in the jaw and sending him to the hospital wasn't one of your best moments. Not to mention running off without explaining yourself didn't help," Celestia reminded her sister, to which Luna snorted dismissively. 'Perhaps if you go out and actually explain your prior actions, the noles might let give you a second chance." Of course, Celestia would want her to go and apologize, her first course of action whenever someone was angry with her and the kingdom, was to assume guilt and all but prostrate herself before the accuser, which drove Luna insane. Ignoring her sister's advice, Luna turned to face her son and was about to start reprimanding him again, but was cut off when he finally spoke.

"I'm... I'm sorry, mommy, I... I just wanted to show Dusk the observation orb, I didn't mean to cause trouble," Orion managed to out as he started crying. Sighing, the lunar Alicorn sat down next to her son and wrapped her front hooves around him in a hug.

"I know you didn't mean to cause trouble, but unfortunately, it happened anyway, and now we have to deal with it. I hope you understand why I'm yelling at you, right?" Luna asked her son, who nodded his head. Smiling, the princess of the night gave Orion a nuzzle before letting him go and standing up. "Now, the only question is how we are going to deal with the situation?" That was the million-bit question on both of the princess' minds. Not only are they dealing with an angry mob of nobles, but they are also dealing with the out of control rumours about Orion. It went from talk of him being some kind of pet the two of them found lost in the woods, all the way to Orion being an exotic sex toy from across the sea. Not knowing what they could say to stop the rumours, both the princesses stood in Orion's room in silence, contemplating their response.

"The only thing that I can think of is to hold a public address to apologize for what happened, and reveal that Orion is your son, and a part of the royal family," Celestia suggested when she finally spoke up. Sitting back down on the bed, Luna thought over what her sister's idea, and while she agreed on some level that it was the right move, she wasn't all that convinced that revealing Orion to the kingdom was a good idea.

"Are you sure, Tia? The rumours haven't gotten all that out of control, can't we just bribe a few ponies to help keep this quiet?" The princess of the night asked half-heartedly, and Celestia sadly shook her head.

"No, Luna, we can't nay; we shouldn't do such and underhoofed thing to our little ponies, they deserve to know the truth. Besides, wouldn't it be better for every pony to know of the crown prince's existence?" With a sigh, Luna looked down at her son, who, in turn, looked up at her. Celestia was right; it would be better if the kingdom knew of her son's existence, especially since she wouldn't need to keep him cooped up in the castle all the time. Luna's biggest worry and objection to her sister's plan, though, was the fact that Celestial Ascendant was still at large. Since his escape from the old castle's dungeon, he found renewed vigour in his cause and began claiming he was invincible, and that the favour of Celestia was upon him. The princess of the night worried that if she let the kingdom know of her son, he would become a target of that lunatic's cult, putting his life in danger. With a long, drawn-out breath, Luna came to a decision and nodded her head in agreement with her sister's plan.

"Alright, what do we need to do?"

Over the next couple of days, Celestia and Luna worked their tails off to make sure Orion was ready to appear before so many ponies. Having only ever known a small number of ponies, he hasn't been exposed to a crowd over ten, most of them being thestrals who kept to themselves. Princess Luna spent every single waking moment of the night with her son, drilling him on the proper way a prince should carry himself and how he should speak in front of a large crowd. While he was enthusiastic about making his mother proud of him, Orion wasn't all that cut out to follow instructions, and continually failed to get the mannerisms right. His constant failure put a major damper on the prince's spirits, which in turn caused him to fight Luna more and more each day until he refused to speak to any pony.

Standing in front of her son's room, the princess of the night knocked on the door, and upon not receiving and answer, let out a frustrated sigh. Testing the doorknob, and surprisingly finding that it wasn't locked, she opened the door and stepped into the room. Standing in the doorway, Luna looked around the room and saw that her son was nowhere to be found. Feeling her heart begin to race, the princess forced herself to remain calm as he had to be in here somewhere. Fearing her son might pull a disappearing act, she made sure that there were a couple of guards standing watch in the hallway. Getting an idea, Luna opened the door to his room before forcefully closing it, which no doubt startled the guards on the other side, and waited. It didn't take long for her plan to bear fruit as she heard a heavy but relieved sigh come from under the bed. Crossing the room, Luna stopped in front of the bed and lifted the sheets before crouching down to look under it. There under the mattress, just as she expected and curled up into a ball, was her son. With his back turned to the door, Oron had no idea that he was found out, and only noticed when his mother dragged him out with telekinesis. As soon as the prince felt the magic wrap around him, he struggled to free himself from her grip; unfortunately, no matter how hard he fought, Orion was unable to free himself from Luna's magic, and after a few attempts resigned himself to his fate. Once Luna got her son from under the bed, she laid on top of the matres and curled herself around him.

"Are you okay?" She asked Orion, who didn't say anything and simply shook his head. "Would you tell me what's wrong?" There was no answer from the prince at first, but after a few moments, he finally spoke.

"I can't get the movements or speech right, and I'm afraid of appearing in front of so many ponies and messing up." Was all Orion said in response before once again going quiet.

"It's alright to feel scared," Luna said in a comforting tone. "You've only been acquainted with a small number of ponies; it's only natural for you to feel a little fear."

"But I don't want to be afraid; Galatea says fear makes you weak! I want to be like you; you never get scared of anything!" No longer able to hold it, Orion buried his head in his mother's chest and started to cry. Seeing her son begin to break down, the lunar princess hugged him tightly.

"Please don't cry, being scared doesn't make you weak no matter what that griffoness says. Galatea is a griffon, and I'm not sure they can even feel an emotion like fear," Luan explained to her Orion, who stopped crying for a moment to look up at his mother. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret," she suddenly said in a conspiratorial tone. The lunar Alicorn leaned down to whisper in Orion's ear. "I sometimes get scared too." When she leaned back, Luna saw her son's eyes go wide in bewilderment and disbelief, which caused her to chuckle at his expression. "When you fell out of the tower and started plummeting towards the ground, I felt like my heart was going to break out of my chest." For a few seconds. Luna stared off into space as she vividly played back the memory of that night. When she looked back down at her son, she noticed that he had backed away from her slightly and that his head hung low. Leaning forwards, the princess of the night nuzzled her son and reassured him that she wasn't mad or blamed him for scaring her. For the rest of the night, Luna stayed curled around her son and told him of all the times she got scared until they both fell asleep in the morning.

After Orion and Luna's heart to heart, the prince began to take his lessons seriously again and even started to dedicate more and more of his free time to get them right. Even Dusk Walker and Galatea helped him when they could, though it was mostly just an excuse for them to spend time with their friend. Of course, the griffoness would rather do anything else than help the prince with his lessons, but she eas nothing if not loyal to those she considered close to her, not that she would tell him that. Dusk, on the other hand, was having the time of her life; she always liked to play make-believe, so when she was asked to help Orion by pretending to be apart of a crowd, she couldn't agree faster.

There was only one more day till the address, and Celestia felt that Orion was ready after seeing his rehearse his part the day prior. Unfortunately, her optimism was proven wrong as the prince locked himself in the bathroom and wouldn't come out. He felt incredibly sick to his stomach and hung his head over the toilet for more than half the night with his mother at his side, rubbing his back. Both Galatea and Dusk stood on the other side of the door, not sure what to do to help their friend. All they could do was stand there and cringe whenever they heard the sound of Orion retching through the door. Unable to stand the retching any longer, the filly and griffoness walked over to the bed. They tried to converse the best they could, though it wasn't an easy task given that neither of them was very fond of the other.

"Do you think that Orion is going to be okay?" Dusk asked Galatea, who let out a dismissive snort.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. You namby-pamby ponies may have raised him, but he's as tough as nails, and almost as tough as me," she said with a small smile. While she wasn't sure how to feel about the pony comment, Dusk couldn't agree more about how tough the prince was. The conversation between the two lulled, and an uncomfortable silence hung in the air that was only broken when the bathroom door opened. Luna stepped out of the bathroom, and at first, the filly and griffoness didn't see Orion with her. A second later, Galatea noticed her friend hanging off of his mother's back and asked the princess what happened. Luna didn't answer the question, and instead, walked up to the bed before slowly and carefully placing her son under the covers.

A sudden knock on the door announced the arrival of another pony. Stepping into the room, Celestia looked at her nephew with worry that nearly rivalled Luna's. It was her idea to address the kingdom and reveal Orion to the populace at large, and so when she heard that the prince wasn't feeling well, she rushed over to see if there was anything she could do to help as the solar monarch felt like she was responsible.

"Is he okay, Lulu?" Celestia asked, and unable to tell if he was better at the moment, the lunar monarch could only shake her head. With a sigh, Celestia crossed the room and sat down next to the bed. "Do you think he'll be ready for tomorrow?" She asked, and this time Luna smiled and nodded her head.

"Yes, I think he'll be fine by then, it just a little bout of nervousness," the princess of the night stated, and immediately after, Galatea burst out laughing.

"A 'little bout'? Orion's been puking his guts out half the night!" The griffoness yelled out between her bouts of laughter. Grumbling, Luna rolled her eyes and ignored Galatea's obnoxious laughter to keep her focus on her sister.

"Yes, well, regardless of how my son had been feeling for the past few hours, I have a good feeling that tomorrow will go well," Luna said with hope laced in her voice.

"I hope you're right, Lulu, I hope you're right."

Does the universe hate me or something? Luna thought to herself as she marched down the halls of the castle towards her son's chambers. Once again, the prince had locked himself into his room and refused to come out. When she woke up earlier in the night, Luna made sure Orion was up and told him that he needed to get ready. All seemed well, and her son showed no signs of stress or nervousness, but when he didn't show, even though the courtyard was steadily filling up with ponies, Luna knew something was wrong.

Reaching Orion's room, Luna tried to open the door and found that it was locked. With a sigh, she knocked on the door and waited for a response, and upon not receiving one, she rolled her eyes and channelled a spell. With a blinding flash of light, the lunar monarch teleported into the room and immediately spotted her son on the bed. He was wrapped in a cocoon made out of his blankets with a deep scowl on his face. Seeing her son in such a ridiculous manner caused any anger or frustration, Luna was feeling to cool.

"You know? I don't think cocooning yourself in your blankets will stop me from taking you to the courtyard," Luna stated with a playful smirk that earned her an annoyed huff from her son before he turned away from her. Rolling her eyes, the princess of the night walked up to the bed and sat next to Orion. "I know you're feeling nervous and scared, but you need to be strong, and if you do, I promise that everything will get better." That seemed to do the trick as Orion unwrapped himself from his banket and looked up at his mother.

"How can you be sure?" He asked through a quivering voice, Giving him a reassuring smile, Luna lunged forwards and tickled her son.

"Because I'm your mother, and mothers know everything." Being unable to keep his composure, no matter how hard he tried, Orion started to roll around on the bed as if it would somehow save him from his mother. After about a minute of tickle torture, Luna decided that her son had enough ad stopped, but not before kissing him on the forehead, which he hated. "Feeling better?" She asked, and even though he was grumbling about the kiss, Orion nodded his head. "Good, because now its time for you to bravely greet the kingdom."

Once Orion agreed to stop pouting, Luna opened the door to his room so the maids in charge of getting him properly clothed could enter. Without missing a beat, they filed into the room and dressed the young prince in elegant Blue and gold clothes. When they finished getting him ready, Luna ushered her son out of his room and through the halls. As the two of them rushed towards the castle's entrance, the princess drilled her son on how to conduct himself and what to say one last time, just to make sure this went as well as she hoped it would.

Standing next to the doors, Celestia greeted her sister and nephew when she noticed them coming. The solar monarch crouched down and looked at the young prince in the eyes and asked him if he was ready. Taking a deep breath, Orion nodded his head. Smiling, Celestia stood up and nodded her head to the two thestrals standing guard at the doors. The young prince watched with awe as his aunt stepped out to greet the crowd without a hint of fear or hesitation in her step.

"Greetings, my little ponies. I know its late, and most of you would like to be asleep in your beds, but I assure you it was necessary, and I thank you for coming regardless of how tired you must be. Now, as I'm sure all of you know by now, there is a rumour about a strange creature living in the castle. Well, tonight, my sister and I will reveal the truth and put the tales to rest." Once the solar monarch finished speaking, she stepped back to let her sister take her place.

"As my sister said, tonight we shall reveal the truth about this 'strange creature' you all keep hearing about," Luna said through gritted teeth, she didn't like referring to her son as a strange creature, even if it was necessary. "But first, I would like to Apologize to the Blueblood patriarch for my actions, and I hope tonight will help you all understand why I acted the way I did." Looking over the crowd, Luna spotted the nobles and saw that many of them were talking amongst themselves; unfortunately, most didn't look convinced. "The second thing you should know is that he isn't some dumb animal, but a fully sapient being like us ponies." Without waiting for more information, the news ponies surged forward to ask the princess to clarify what she meant. With the help of her sister, Luna managed to calm the journalists, promising them that they will be able to ask as many questions as they like later. "Now, the third thing is that I've adopted the being and made him my son, and he is now the crown prince of the night!" Unable to hold out for later, the news ponies went into a frenzy and began pushing each other out of the way to get closer to the princess. With a sigh, Luna turned away from the ponies and beckoned her son to step forward.

Taking a deep breath, Orion confidently stepped out of the castle, Or at least as boldly as he could manage while his legs were shaking like crazy. Seeing her son try and put on a brave face despite his obvious fear, Luna let out a small chuckle before turning her attention back to the news ponies to keep them from swarming her son, but, to her surprise, she didn't need to as all of them were staring wide-eyed at Orion. When the prince finally made it to where his mother was standing, he looked up at her for emotional support, When she looked down and saw the look on his face, Luna knelt nuzzled him while whispering words of encouragement in his ear. Thanks to her keen hearing, the princess was able to overhear the whispered conversations in the crowd, and it seemed that this simple, familiar gesture was winning over the crowd. Breaking away from his mother, Orion took another deep breath and faced the assembled ponies.

"He-hello, my n-names, Orion, it's nice to meet all of you," he said with a bow, which much t Celestia and Luna's shock and joy most of the ponies mirrored. "I'm not sure what species I am, but I can assure you I'm not an animal." Once again, the whispering in the crowd picked up; though this time, it was only from the ponies that were still skeptical of Orion, and mad that Luna harmed one of the nobles. "If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them," he said, and almost immediately, the news ponies rushed forward, even knocking over a few of the night guard in the process. Instinctively, the thestrals standing guard by the door sprag into action and shielded the prince, flaring their wings out and hissing menacingly to keep the reporters back.

"Enough! Your all acting like a bunch of foals!" Celestia shouted, using the royal voice to make sure every pony hear her over the chaos. It wasn't all that often that the average pony got to see Celestia mad, but when they did, the effect was immediate. Even Luna was shocked as she had seen her sister upset or mildly annoyed, she had never seen her sister yell at the common pony like this before, what made it even more shocking was that her made and tail had caught fire. Feeling ashamed of themselves, and fearing the solar monarch, the news ponies quickly backed up and returned to where they were standing when the princesses first stepped out of the castle. "Alright, now that you're all calm, for a line as best as you can, and we'' answer your questions." Not wanting to incur the wrath of the sun princess again, the news ponies hurriedly formed a queue. Now that the journalist ponies were calm, the two thestrals shielding Orion went back to their original position. Uncurling from the ball he put himself into, the prince stood back up and looked like he would bolt at any moment. Seeing the look on her son's face, Luna gave him another reassuring nuzzle.

While the princesses dealt with the press in the front, Celestial Ascendant stood in the very back of the crowd, out of sight of the Alicorn sisters and their guards. When the cult leader initially heard of the royal address, he passed it off as nothing important, especially since it had to do with Luna. His decision changed when he started to hear the rumours about the strange creature and had to go see if they were true in the hope, he might get some ammunition to use against the night princess. Now, not only did he have something to use against Luna, his cult had a much easier target than Luna herself, one that would hurt her more than any torture they could inflict on her. Seeing all he needed to see, Celestial Ascendant turned and walked away from the castle, all the while laughing to himself.

One by one, the news ponies who formed a queue walked up to the steps of the castle and asked their questions, most of which were on the subject of what race Orion as and where he came from. The prince did his best to answer the questions he received while getting some help from his mother and aunt from time to time. As the questions kept coming, Orion seemed to be growing in confidence, he no longer stuttered when he spoke, and there was a shorter pause between the inquiry and his response. For several hours, this pattern repeated itself, going late into the night and into the early morning, all in all, things were going better than Luna could have hoped for. That was until the lead reporter of the Equestrian Gazette stepped forward. The Equestrian Gazette was a trashy tabloid paper that liked to spread, at best, tales of fancy as truth, and at worst, outright slander. Some of the worst articles they had ever published were the ones that accused the entire noble class of being apart of a secret foalcon ring that groomed their foals into proper nobles by raping them, and claiming that the princesses were aliens hellbent on weakening the pony race with their talk of friendship. Naturally, both instances caused a considerable uproar and were forced to make a retraction, promising never to do anything like that again, which only lasted a few weeks before they wrote another slanderous article.

"Princess, you say you've made this creature your son, but how do you know that this isn't the first wave of some alien invasion strategy?" The news pony asked, directing the question at Luna. Knowing that her sister would have a hard time keeping her temper in check, considering it was taking all her willpower not to lash out herself, Celestia stepped forward and answered the question.

"While my sister and I don't know what species, Orion is, both of us are sure that he isn't apart of some invasin plan." The news mare scribbled some notes into her note pad, undoubtedly something slanderous that would paint the princesses and Orion in the worst light possible.

"Well, that's all and good, but how can we trust your word when you and your sister haven't proven that you yourselves aren't aliens? For all, we know you could be apart of it!" All around the mare, the other news ponies were booing and jeering at her, not that she cared one bit. Growing tired of this slanderous tabloid journalist, Luna stepped forward intending to put her in her place but was held back bt her sister, who had her usual "that would be a bad idea" look. Having no reason to distrust Celestia, the princess of the night nodded her head before stepping back.

"Please be reasonable, what can I say to reassure you that Orion is not a threat to the kingdom?" The solar monarch asked the news pony. Unseen by the princesses, the tabloid journalist smirked to herself before giving her response.

"I know a few ponies who are rather adept at sealing with mind control. If you would allow me to take the prince, with an armed escort, of course, they will determine if he has mind dominating abilities or not." No longer willing to remain quiet, Luna pushed past her sister and addressed the Equestrian Gazette journalist.

"Under no circumstances will I allow my son to go with you or any other ponies to test if her had 'mind dominating abilities.' I don't trust you or any other pony to take charge of, Orion, when there are still cultists on the lose, some of which have already made an attempt on my life once before!" All around the tabloid journalist, many of the other ponies began to whisper amongst themselves, asking why the princess was so mad and why she didn't want to make sure she wasn't being manipulated. The conversations picked up until there was a vast amount of the crowd demanding the prince be tested. Knowing that her work was done, the slanderous news pony bowed to the princesses before backing up into the crowd and disappearing from sight. From their vantage point, the princesses could see the number of ponies turn against them spread like wildfire, so Celestia quickly thanked the ponies for coming and tells them that there will be no more questions. A small uproar ensues as a large group of ponies surge forward to demand that the princesses hand over Orion. Reacting as fast as they could, the night guard blocks the way, allowing the royal family to retreat back into the castle.