Stardust

Celestia woke up with a start, she opened her eyes she could see a white ceiling above her and to her right she saw the dark blue shape that was her sister. “What happened to me Luna?” she asked groaning as she sat up “where am

I?”

“You are in the Ponyville Hospital and you tell me what happened, why did you faint back there, what about the name UCAF Stardust caused you to do that?” the worry and anger was clear in her voice.

Celestia looked at the wall and shuddered as Luna said the name again. “Luna” she began “I guess I was feeling light headed or…” she was cut off by Luna’s scream.

“God damn it Tia don’t give me that horseshit!” she screamed in anger “something about that name made you faint and I want to know about it!!” Celestia cringed away from Luna as she raged on “none of that, Luna you are too young, or, Luna you wouldn’t understand, I want the truth Tia and you are going to give it to me”. Luna sat down furiously in a chair and glared at her sister.

Celestia sat there for a moment stunned at her sisters’ sudden outburst. She sighed and looked at her bed sheets unsure of what to do. There was clearly no deterring her sister until the truth was spoken so she did the only thing she could and began her tale.

BOOM

The explosion from the kamikaze shook the entire ship and the bridge of the ship burst into a chaotic mess of alarms, shouting and frenzied damage assessment. Celestia cursed herself for not being more vigilant. For the past 1200 years a war between the Alicorns and the Drakkons had been raging. The enemy had mostly been taking over outer worlds and mining planets but never attacked Alicron itself.

Celestia was one of four generals that commanded the military, although it was more like one general with three assistants to help him. The Drakkon forces had been assaulting the Alicorn barricade for almost three weeks now and their numbers only seemed to be increasing.

“Sir!” a young recruit said dismayed “that last explosion has knocked out our engine and we are on a collision course with the planets surface”. He seemed to be on the verge of tears as he received updated through his headset as he relayed the information “decks 16 through 35 have been ripped open and deck 14 and 11 are barely contained”

Deck 14 was the deck her sister was on!! “I must leave,” she said urgently turning to gallop off “I have to save my sis- OOF” she was cut off mid sentence by colliding with a pony. She got up dazed and looked down to find her sister still lying there.

“Sister I am so sorry!” she exclaimed helping her sibling to her feet “are you all right?”

“Yes Celestia” Luna sighed, “We art fine.” Celestia smiled sadly at her sisters’ bad grammar. She had been trying to break her into talking like everypony else but that hadn't worked yet. Luna was still fairly young and had much to learn.

“Sir, we will not be able to save the ship in time” the same pony said, “We must abandon the vessel to spare what life is left” with that he turned and buried his face in his foreleg and began to sob into it.

Celestia looked at him sympathetically for a moment then ran to a nearby intercom mic and said “all units abandon ship repeat all units abandon ship we are going down repeat we are going down”. With that she turned grabbed her sister to keep her close and ran to the hanger deck.

She finally arrived in the hanger and ran to the nearest transport ship. Celestia waited for anypony to board but nopony had run to the hangers. She lifted off and got out of the ship through the hanger door, nothing could have prepared her for the hell that had unfolded while she was escaping.

The Drakkon forces had already destroyed a good portion of her segment and were dispatching fighters to take out the escape pods. She watched in horror as they began shooting all the pods that were coming from her ship. Pod after pod was destroyed right in front of her face. Feeling sick she covered her sisters eyes and hit the thrusters to full.

Soon she was away from the battle and into another part of the blockade that was not being attacked. Some of their ships were heading for the battle to help but most were staying put in case any other Drakkon ships decided to come their way.

She looked around and saw the main flagship of the Alicornian military, the UCAF Stardust. She cursed herself for going this way because her superior was sure to ask questions. She neared the ship looking to go past it to warp away from the surely doomed planet when a voice came into through the com.

“This is UCAF Stardust, identify yourself” the voice sounded stern and threatening “if you do not respond we will be forced to kill you.” Now THAT was enough to scare her into responding.

“This is General Celestia of fleet three” she responded. She was hoping that she could draw this conversation out long enough to give her time for her escape. “We need back up at our blockade.” She could hear talking in the background but could not make out what they were saying.

A new voice came on the com. “This is General Moonlight please explain why you are not with your fleet.” He sounded very angry but did not jump to conclusions until she had explained herself.

“Sir,” she said hesitantly “we need back up immediately. The Drakkon ships are tearing through our own.” She said this while preparing for her warp jump, she was almost clear!

“You know I can’t give them much assistance because they might be trying to lure us away so they can flank us” Moonlight told her “I will see if Starlight or Sunbolt have any ships to spare”. She was past the ship now and was about to make the jump. “Wait!!” he exclaimed “WHAT ARE Y-“ his voice was cut off as they made the warp into deep space.

Celestia looked at her sister as she finished her story. “We drifted through space for weeks until we found this planet. When we arrived the ponies here worshiped us, I wanted us to be happy and I…” she was tearing and snuffling as she said the last words “I wiped your memory and made you think that we were here the whole time”. With that Celestia burst into full-blown tears and buried her face into her bed sheets.

Luna looked at her sister stunned and hurt at her actions. Her sister abandoned her planet to escape instead of help? That didn’t sound like the Celestia that she knew. “I think I need to be alone for a while” Luna said almost monotone. She got up to leave and looked back at her sister who was staring pleadingly into her eyes.

“Please don’t hate me” she managed to squeak out before hiding her face into her sheets again.

“How could I hate my own sister” Luna said and walked back to her sibling to comfort her. She stayed with her sister until she had cried herself out and was sleeping soundly. Luna stood up and crept silently out of the room not wanting to disturb her sister.

She had just gotten out into the hallway when a lavender blur ran to her asking over and over if the princess was ok. She smiled as she recognized the blur as Twilight Sparkle. “She is fine Twilight” Luna said gently “she is sleeping now but you may be able to see her when she awakes”.

“I saw a team of pegasus carry her here and I ran here as fast as I could” the young unicorn was clearly distressed and Luna told her to go home.

“My sister is under some mental stress now, you may be able to see her in a few days time”. Twilight said goodbye and began to walk back home.

She didn’t raise her head the whole way, as she was naturally concerned about her mentors’ health. She looked at the sun now in the sky and wondered what mental stress she could be under. A few hours later the answer would come to her doorstep.

Moonlight had stopped pacing as he realized that not all alicorns have to come from his old world. And this was confirmed when he asked his new friend about it. Zecora had told him that they had been here as long as history had existed. “Zecora?” he asked, “do you have any history books here at your house?”

She looked up and said, “no I only have medicine books here but I know someone who has plenty of books”. She smiled and got up from her chair “she does live in a library after all”. They got their things gathered up and left the house. She noticed that he had left the device that was attached to his flank behind; he still wore his saddlebag and his jumpsuit.

“You might want to leave the clothes behind,” she said tentatively “ponies here don’t normally wear clothes”. She waited for his response and he merely chuckled at her suggestion.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “I have a plan to disguise myself”. With that his horn began to glow and his jumpsuit, saddlebag, wings and horn disappeared. She looked at him and saw a normal pony with the same colorations as before. His cutie mark, she noticed, was of an eclipse.

“You look like a normal pony now” she said in awe “I could never tell the difference between you and what you looked like before.” They exited the forest and he looked around with curiosity. Ahead of them was a road and they followed it until the town was in sight.

“This is a small town,” he said with contempt “my hometown was the size of a large starship”. He looked down the road and saw three little ponies approaching them. “I will let you do the talking,” he said, “you know more about the area than I do”.

As the group of three got closer he noticed that they were little fillies and smiled at their playful bickering.

“Ah told ya scoot” one said “ya shouldn’t have gone and tried to jump that hay bale, now ya got hay all in your mane”. The orange one named Scoot retaliated with excitement “I don’t care what you say, Rainbow Dash said that it was an AWESOME crash!!” A white one next to them both said “I think you both are crazy!!” and they all started laughing.

The yellow one looked up and saw the approaching ponies and called out “hiya there Zecora!!” and Zecora smiled.

“Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetiebell how are you?” she said trotting up to them, Moonlight stayed behind. “Why are you heading toward the Everfree forest?” she asked becoming sterner.

“We are crusading!!!” they all shouted in unison. Then the one named Scootaloo asked, “So Zecora, who’s your friend?”

“His name is Moonlight and you are not going into the Everfree alone” she said quickly.

The three fillies all groaned until the one called Sweetiebell said “why don’t we visit my sister, she might let us draw with her designer pencils!” then in unison they all shouted as loud as they could “CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ARTISTS, AWAY!!!!!”

Moonlight cringed at the volume of their voices and watched them race away.

“They are very nice fillies,” Zecora said laughing “but sometimes they have too much energy.” She continued down the road with Moonlight in tow as they entered town.

As they walked there were no ponies on the streets but he could see a few peering out of dark windows. He looked around curiously and looked to Zecora for answers.

“Don’t worry,” she laughed “they did this to me when I first got here.” they were walking toward a large tree. “Once they get used to you, I think that they will like you” she looked at him and smiled. He looked at her and smiled back.

They reached the door of the library, which was in a tree much to Moonlights’ surprise. Zecora gestured for him to wait and stepped forward to knock on the door.

“Just a minute!” a feminine voice called out from inside the building “Spike can you get the door?”

The door opened to reveal a purple and green reptilian creature. The little creature looked like a lizard of some sort, possibly a dragon.

“Oh hi Zecora” the little creature said, “Who is your friend?” Moonlight stepped forward and reached out a hoof for Spike to shake.

“Hello, my name is Moonlight and I am new here” he said while vigorously shaking Spikes’ hand “I have come here with my friend Zecora to learn about your history.” Zecora smiled and rolled her eyes at his formal language then thought, “well, there goes me doing all the talking”.

Spike detached his hand from the firm grip of Moonlight and opened the door wider to allow the two ponies inside the library. He closed the door behind them and told them to wait there while he went to get Twilight.

He came back several minutes later with a lavender unicorn in tow. The newcomer, who Moonlight assumed to be the one called Twilight, looked at him with interest. She stood there studying him (with much interest) for at least a minute until she finally came forward to greet them.

“Hello” Twilight said “how are you doing Zecora?” She spoke to Zecora but never took her eyes off of Moonlight. Before Zecora had a chance to answer she started to talk to him, asking lots of questions “hi, my mane is Twilight, I mean name is Twilight. How are you today? How long are you in town? What is your special talent? Your mane is beautiful! Ho-“she was abruptly stopped by a clawed hand covering her mouth.

“I think we should let him tell us his story in his own time Twilight.” She chuckled nervously and blushed as she realized that she had been a little overbearing.

“uh-he-he um sorry about that.” She said quietly. She made more unintelligible mumbles and walked back upstairs. Moonlight watched her go and looked to Spike for an explanation. He shrugged and told them where the history department was.

“If you want to check out a book just find me or Twilight and we will get it signed out for you” he said “we don’t want books missing without us knowing about it”. He waved goodbye and went back farther into the library.

They spent the rest of the day in the library. She was stunned at how fast he could read, he had finished at least three large history books since they got here, she was reading a Daring Do book when he closed his book and got up.

“Perhaps I should find a place to sleep here in town instead of being a burden to you Zecora” he said “Do you know of any places that I can stay in here in town?”

She looked up from her novel and said “there is the hotel but that is usually full.” She closed her book and got up “if there is no room there you may stay at my hut until there is an open spot.”

He did a deep bow and said (with extreme drama) “thank you fair Zecora, I am forever in your debt.” She rolled her eyes at him and led him outside. They walked in silence until they arrived at the hotel. He went inside to check the availability of their rooms. A few minutes later he came back out and told her that he was on the waiting list for rooms.

They walked back by the library on their way out of town, what they didn’t know was that there was a certain lavender librarian watching them leave.

Twilight sighed as she watched them leave town, it had been a productive day after all. She now had something that she could write to the princess! She walked back inside her library to get some parchment and a quill. Spike was downstairs but that was ok, she wanted to write this one herself.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I met a new pony today. He was the same size as me and he had the most beautiful silver mane. His name was Moonlight and he was the handsomest pony I have ever met. I am hoping that I can get to know him better and become his friend.

Your faithful student,

Twillight Sparkle

Ps. I think I am in LOVE!