There was little to do but wait...and worry.
Starjumper walked slowly out of the library, with both a stack of books and an enthusiastic young mare following along behind him. Five days since his mother had brought him the warning had done little to settle him down. He didn't look it, and he certainly wasn't going to let Summer Dawn see it, but he was worried.
He knew this day may come. He knew that someday, there may be a reckoning between him and the thestrals, but he didn't think it would be quite like this, taking place not in some isolated forest or lonely glade, but in the most important city in Equestria and where everypony was going to see what came to pass. The night his mother brought the warning, he flew over the city and realized that his secret may be in real jeopardy.
He would have no choice. He would have to protect himself, to fight, and in a fight, there was only one rule: win. And against a highly trained warrior like a thestral noble and an entire squad of the elite guard that answered to the Night Queen, he would have to do whatever it took. There would be no way to be gentle, no way to be constrained. There would be no careful rules about what he could and could not do so the ponies in Canterlot didn't know his capabilities. There would only be the one rule, and the fact that if he didn't follow that rule, he may not only lose, but die.
Dying was not part of his future plans.
He'd already considered the problem, and with Princess Twilight's help, he'd addressed the biggest problems he'd face. The main issue was that at night, as a thestral, it would be him against however many of them came to Canterlot, and he was vulnerable. In the daytime, there was really no way they could corner him, at least not when they didn't know what he could do. They wouldn't be ready for that, and it would give him the advantage. But at night, without access to his unicorn magic, he was just another thestral, with nothing but his wings and his wits, and facing enemies who were much more prepared for that kind of fight than him. His mother had taught him how to protect himself, and he did have a weapon he could bring to bear as a thestral, but he didn't train to fight the way the Night Blades did, the way a thestral noble did. They would be far superior to him in a wing to wing encounter. And in that kind of situation, his primary goal wouldn't be victory, it would be staying alive long enough for the sun to rise, to change back into a unicorn and regain the advantage.
So long as the threat of the thestral delegation hung over him, the night would be his enemy.
Princess Twilight had done him a huge favor and addressed his greatest vulnerability, and that was the apartment. She'd cast a spell over the tower that wouldn't allow a thestral to cross the boundary of the tower's walls, a Warding spell, magic that he couldn't cast himself. That was the kind of serious high order magic that he was here in Canterlot to try to learn, a spell far beyond even anything in the school library, far too dangerous to be in a place where magical novices could find it. Princess Twilight had already sent him a book that taught the spell, and he was going to start on it as soon as he finished with stoneshaping and transfiguration spells. It would be his first major test of his magical skills, a spell so advanced and demanding that he may not have the power to cast it, even if he had the intelligence to learn the spell.
A ward was superior to a shield or force field in this situation because wards were permanent when cast properly, a spell that the Princess only had to cast once and would leave active until the need for it had passed. The main drawback to it was that it would also prevent his mother from crossing the ward line, so she wouldn't be able to come inside the apartment until the Princess removed the spell. But, that was a small price to pay for preventing the thestrals from ambushing him inside his own apartment. It provided him with a safe space, a fortified position from which to abide until it was safe.
The apartment had started as his sanctuary, but in a way, now it would be his prison. He preferred to spend the night hours outside and in the air, but he was grounded until the danger passed, forced to hide in the apartment until the thestrals came and went. That was going to be a rough ride. He'd feel a whole lot of cabin fever being trapped in the apartment, unable to do much more than read, study books on magic when he wouldn't be able to practice the magic he was studying.
It would be boring, and frustrating, but it was better than being dead.
"You've been even quieter than usual, Star," Summer Dawn observed as they came down the steps and turned towards his apartment.
"I'm just preoccupied," he told her. "Did you spend the entire holiday goofing off, or did you practice your staging like I told you?"
"I mastered it, thank you very much," she replied primly. "But I still had a good time. We had a lot of fun in Ponyville. And didn't you say that if I learned staging, you'd start teaching me shield spells today?"
"That's going to depend on if you're ready. But if you are, then we'll start tomorrow. I have a different challenge for you today," he answered, then he turned and narrowed his eyes dangerously as Nova moved towards them, coming down a sidewalk from the large main building on campus. The smaller stallion didn't seem to see them, wasn't looking in their direction, his head turned towards the younger filly that was walking beside him. He stopped abruptly, and Summer Dawn's protest died on her lips when she saw where he was looking.
"The Princess still gonna punish you if you get into it with him again?" she asked curiously.
"She didn't say any different, so I'm going to assume that's a yes," he replied. "Besides, it removes the nearly overpowering impulse to squish him. I'm thestral enough to not leave a fight unfinished."
She gave a bit of a giggle. "Crystal Bell told me over lunch that she's never seen him so quiet in class before. I can't believe it, but he's actually trying to not get expelled. At least for now," she mused, then she laughed. "Maybe that means that things won't be quite so bad when we're back in class for transfiguration."
"For the two weeks before the first opportunity to test out," he corrected mildly. "And I'm gonna make sure you test out on the first exam. You need the time to work on other things."
She gave him a bright smile.
They walked across campus, to his apartment, and he put her to the task of practicing staging while he went upstairs and checked the mailbox. To his relief, the flag was up, and he quickly pulled out the note within and read it. Got the official diplomatic missive today, thestral delegation will arrive in three weeks, on the 19th, and is scheduled to stay until the 23rd. The new Night Queen followed the diplomatic conventions and arranged an official appointment, which is a promising sign. So rest easy for a few weeks, Starjumper, and remember, they'll only be here for five days.
I'll leave the ward up. If you can arrange it with your mother, I can alter the ward to allow her to pass through it the same as I did for you, but she has to be here for me to do it. So talk to her about it the next time you see her. Oh, and you might want to put a warning note up on the balcony door so she doesn't try to cross the ward. That won't be very pleasant for her.
As was usual for the Princess when she wrote him notes, it wasn't signed, and it was rather informal in its structure.
Well, that was a relief. He'd still worry about it a little bit, prepare for their arrival, but it did mean that until the 19th, he'd be able to return to his usual routine. And that was something of a comfort to him. For a pony like him, forced into isolation due to the secrets he had to keep, it was little things like a routine that made life a little less lonely. His routine gave him a sense of purpose, and that sense of purpose kept his mind occupied.
Lonely. He walked up to the edge of the second floor and looked down at where Summer Dawn was practicing her staging, and doing a pretty darn good job of it, he could admit. He couldn't deny that she was starting to grow on him a little bit. She was somepony to talk to, somepony that never pressed him for more than he was willing to say, and her honest enthusaism about learning magic was almost infectious. She had an engaging personality, she was funny and observant, she loved magic, she loved learning new things about magic, and he was starting to share in her elation when she learned something new.
He put a hoof on the side of the wall, then rotated from a horizontal plane to a vertical one as he started down the side of the wall towards the floor. Summer Dawn did give him a bit of a glance, but she was getting used to seeing him do that, since he did it quite a bit inside the apartment. He didn't go out of his way to get to the stairs, he just went right up and down the wall. He didn't hide his ability to walk on walls...sometimes to the detriment of the librarians at school. The one time his favorite table was taken, he didn't feel comfortable sitting at another, so he decided to just sit on the ceiling over his favorite table. And did that ever cause a row in the library, because none of the students were getting any studying done. They were all too busy looking up at him.
"I still can't get over how cool that is," she told him as he reached the floor and negotiated getting his hooves from the wall to the floor.
"There's a unicorn spell that mimicks the effect," he shrugged. "Learn it and you can find out what it's like."
"I bet it makes a thestral's house a lot different from ours."
"Well reasoned," he nodded. "Thestrals houses aren't built like unicorn houses. Thestrals see their living space in three dimensions," he explained when she gave him a quizzical look. "They're built with the understanding that the thestrals are going to be moving along the walls and the ceiling. The walls aren't dominated by right angles, the border between the walls and the ceiling and floor are rounded, to make it easier to move over them. And doors to other rooms aren't always at the bottom of a wall in a thestral house," he told her, pointing at the door to the balcony. "Most bedrooms are built so the largest open areas are on the ceiling, not the floor. Thestrals prefer to sleep inverted, hanging upside down, so they don't have beds."
"That sounds both creepy and cool," she chuckled.
"If it wasn't for gravity pulling loose objects down, their houses would look completely alien to you," he said lightly. "But that need to build shelves and tables and such all with the same orientation limits the creativity of their architecture. But, there is some thestral furniture designed for the walls and ceiling. There are stands in a thestral house, bolted to the walls or ceiling with a flat surface for putting things, almost like a tea table. They also build nooks in the ceiling so tables aren't in the way, almost what you'd think would be a hole in the floor. It's a void space in the ceiling with a shelf, and you store what you want to keep in there by sticking it up inside and on the shelf. But things like chairs and couches, thestrals don't really use them."
"That's pretty cool. Does your mom sleep in a bed, or on the ceiling?"
"She sleeps in the bed with Dad at night, but she prefers to take her naps on the ceiling, mainly so Dad can't bother her," he chuckled.
"So, your house is kinda built with your Mom in mind?"
"They renovated it, given the living space over the shop was built generations ago," he answered. "Mainly what they did was cover over the ceiling beams and add doors at the tops of the walls so Mom didn't have to come down to get into another room. But the big thing was covering the beams. Mom told me that she kept tripping over them when she first moved in."
Summer Dawn laughed. "That's hard to imagine, tripping over something on the ceiling. What, does she fall up or down?"
"Down, but what it mainly does it cause her to lose her grip with her front hooves and dangle off the ceiling by her back hooves. You have to remember that gravity still affects her when she's upside down, so if she loses contact with the ceiling with both forehooves or both back hooves, it makes her pull off the ceiling and she has to exert some force to get her hooves back on the ceiling. When she walks on the wall or ceiling, she always walks in a way so that one front hoof and one back hoof are in contact with a surface at all times. It's something of an ingrained habit, and you can see it in how she walks all the time."
"She won't pull free and fall?"
He shook his head. "We don't come free unless we want to, and it even works when we're not paying attention, or we're asleep. That's why we can sleep on the ceiling. Once we decide to stick to something, we stay that way until we decide to let go."
"What if you walk up a wall with wallpaper. Wouldn't you tear it off with your weight on it?"
He gave her an impressed look. "Very observant question," he complimented. "The answer is yes. That's why thestrals don't use wallpaper. But, there is a bit of a secret hiding in that magic."
"Oooh, what?"
"When a thestral clings to another thestral with the same bloodline, it doesn't put weight on them like that," he answered. "If my mother were to come along and put her hoof on my back and pick me up, it wouldn't just rip my skin off from all my weight being focused on that one spot. But, if some thestral not related to me came along and tried the same thing, then it would most likely tear my skin off, because my skin most likely can't support all my weight like that. The magic protects the thestral being picked up from being hurt so long as the two thestrals are blood related. I think it's a very specific, well, evolution of the clinging magic designed to give thestral parents a safe and easy way to carry their newborn foals, given that if they just put her foal in a sling, the foal may fall out if they go upside-down," he told her. "But it doesn't fade over time. My mother can still pick me up and carry me, because she's a big thestral and a very strong flyer. She's more than capable of carrying my weight when she flies. And I could pick her up and carry her the same way when I'm using my floating magic."
"That's pretty wild. So, you can sleep on the ceiling?"
"Can and do," he replied easily. "Mom's right. The bed's comfortable for sleeping at night, but the ceiling's perfect for a nice nap in the afternoon. The day's heat rises up against the ceiling and makes it warm and toasty. It's a very comfortable way to nap."
She gave him a look, halfway through her practice staging spell, then gave a laugh. "I imagine living your house in Baltimare must be pretty crazy," she said. "You and your mom and your sister walking around on the ceiling, your dad and other siblings stuck on the floor."
"It doubles our living space," he said dryly. "But, my brother can walk on walls too. The only one of us who can't is Dancer, and boy is she ever mad about that," he chuckled. "And I think I will teach you the spider climb spell, so you can get an idea of what it's like. It's not a very difficult spell to learn. I bet you could learn it in a couple of hours. It's very simple magic."
"Hey, you know I never say no to you teaching me a new spell," she grinned. "And it'll be bonus points for my final, so that's win-win."
After about another hour of practice with staging, Starjumper stopped her. "I'd say you're competent, and that's all you need," he proclaimed, which made her beam at him. "It's time for you to take your first real lesson in teleportation."
That got her immediate and undivided attention. "Ooh, before we even do shield spells?"
"This is something you should learn now, because it will help you with your shield spells too," he answered. "And you can thank my dad for you doing this now. Dad didn't learn this until after he learned the spell, and it caused him all kinds of problems. So, we're going to avoid that and get you started on this technique now."
"And what is this technique?"
"Simple. Paying attention," he answered.
"Huh?"
He lifted his saddlebag off the peg by the door, buckled it on, then floated his clock over and placed it inside. "Follow me."
Her expression betrayed her curiosity as she fell in behind him as he came out the door, then walked beside him as they came down the steps and turned towards the Promenade. She was quiet as they walked together, glancing at him from time to time, clearly unsure what he was up to. He'd never taken her outside for a lesson before. They reached the wide avenue, and he turned her towards her house. "A shield spell is unlike any other spell in one important way," he began, not looking at her, walking and looking straight ahead. "And that's that it can fail if you try to create it with a foreign object crossing the spell's matrix as it forms, unless you specifically take that object's presence into account and design the shield to go around it. But to do that, you have to know exactly where that object is and how it's going to intersect your shield, so you can tailor the shield's dimensions accurately. in other words, if you try to create the spell with something unexpected crossing the shield's border, the spell fizzles. Given that the reason you're creating a shield is to protect yourself, it's absolutely imperative that you don't let that happen. And that's why you're going to learn how to pay attention."
"I...think I get it?"
"Look there," he said, turning his head towards the Corner Cafè, one of the older coffee shops in the city. Summer Dawn said she went there a lot, since it was a popular place to gather after school. "Now look away." She looked up at him in confusion. "What did you see?"
"It's the Corner Cafè," she replied uncertainly. "I go there a lot with my friends. They have great coffee."
"Well then, I guess that means that you know it. Describe it."
"Huh?"
"Describe it. What did you see?"
"Well, it's...the cafè," she floundered. "I don't get it."
He glanced down at her, then went back to looking ahead. "The building is built of white granite with marble cladding. There are six windows on the side facing the Promenade. Each one has an arched top with angled panes of glass in a black metal frame. Red bunting is stretched across the tops, with tasseled ties. The curtains are yellow velvet, tied back with gold tasseled cords. There are eight tables outside the building, behind a wrought iron fence that is four feet high. The fence connects to the side of the building on the left, but wraps around on the right and continues down Gem Street. There is a gate on the corner where the Promenade crosses Gem Street. The gate has a simple lever latch with no locking ring. There are scratches on the bars closest to the open side of the gate, hinting that the gate is chained shut at night. The tables are made of marble, with upholstered metal chairs painted to resemble wood. The upholstery on the chairs is yellow brushed velvet that shows no signs of being stained by rain, suggesting that the velvet is protected by magic spell to resist the elements. The rivets attaching the cushions to the chairs are brass pinwheel types. Each table has a closeable umbrella over it that extends one foot past the outside edges of the table under it. The umbrellas are pale yellow and white alternating stripes with fringe. The third umbrella from the right has a very small tear in a yellow section of its striping. Each table has four yellow placemats, and on them are rolled sets of silverware in yellow linen napkins. There are six ponies sitting at the eight tables. Two at the table on the left, two at the third table from the left, and one each at the tables on the right and second to right. One of them is Strider, from class, sitting at the table on the right. He is not wearing clothes, but has a white writing quill tucked over his right ear. He is reading a book sitting on the table. I think I've made my point, so I won't describe what the other five ponies were wearing, what they're doing, or what you can see through the windows," he said dryly.
She gave him an astounded look, then snapped her head back towards the restaurant.
"That is what you need to learn," he told her, looking down at her. "How to pay attention. How to know what you see, and remember what you know. This skill is critical for using shield spells, Summer Dawn, so you can accurately place the shield in the available space without it intersecting a solid object. To do that, you have to know exactly what's around you, where everything is, how much space you have, and if anything might be moving that might cross the border of your shield as you build it, which will make it fizzle."
She took a deep breath, then looked up at him. "I'm a little--well, I don't think I can do what you just did," she told him.
"Of course you can, after you practice a while. You think I could do that without practicing for years?" he asked simply. "It's a skill, Summer, it's something you learn to do. And like any skill, you get better with practice."
"Well, then I guess you need to teach me the trick of it."
"There is no trick that I can teach you," he replied. "Learning how to pay attention is all you, Summer. It's something you have to learn how to do on your own, learning the trick to remembering that works best for you, because you know you better than anypony else. It just takes a strong mind and determination, and you have both. Having discipline helps, and I'm still working on teaching you that," he added dryly.
"Oh please," she said primly, which made him chuckle.
"Well, you're still young," he observed.
"I'm three months older than you!" she retorted.
"Whatever."
She gave him a hot look, then burst out laughing when she saw his very subtle expression. "Alright then, Mister Younger But Wiser, let's try again."
In all, Starjumper was both surprised and pleased at her progress just over the afternoon. By making her understand just how much she didn't see when she was looking at something, it made her pay much more attention, and that allowed her to recall much more than he expected. He knew she had a vivid imagination and a very good memory, and she proved it to him by being able to envision what she remembered seeing and then report back to him everything in her mind's eye.
That was actually how he did it. She'd stumbled across his own mnemonic device by instinct.
When his clock blared three gongs, he immediately stopped and turned around. They were about halfway between the school and her house, and she turned with him and kept pace with him. "Not bad," he told her after she described the storefront of a boutique to him. "Now, the key is to practice, Summer. Every time you walk into a room, pay attention. See what's in the room, learn the texture of it. Remember it. Always place yourself within that memory so you know where you are in relation to where everything is, especially the things not in your field of vision."
"And this is the first step to teleportation?"
He looked down at her. "In a way," he replied. "Him not being aware of his surroundings was what caused my Dad so much trouble when he learned the spell. He kept hurting himself because he kept trying to reappear inside other objects."
"Ow!" she breathed. "Did anything get stuck in him?"
Starjumper chuckled. "The magic won't allow it. If you try to reappear inside another object, the magic displaces you to the closest available open space that you'll fit within," he explained in a calm voice.
"How would that hurt him?"
"When the magic moves you in ways you don't dictate, or against your will, it creates...resistance," he answered. "That resistance burns you when you reappear. The more the resistance, the more it burns. And that's on top of whatever injury you may suffer when you reappear, if you, say, reappear twenty feet in the air, or reappear on the railroad tracks in front of a moving train. Falling to the ground is no doubt going to break your legs, at least if you don't stop yourself first. And appearing in front of a train will most likely kill you if you don't react fast enough," he said bluntly.
She gave him a surprised look.
"This spell is not for the meek, Summer Dawn," he told her directly. "This is real magic. This is for real magicians, and to be a real magician, you must accept the risk that comes with tapping into forces that can reshape reality itself. The first rule of teleportation, Summer Dawn, is a very simple one. Mistakes hurt. If you try to reappear inside another object, you get burned. If you don't put enough energy into the spell and come up short of your landing point, you get burned. If you don't correctly define the three aspects of teleportation you control, you get burned. When you learn this spell, Summer Dawn, it will hurt every time you make a mistake. You will burn yourself trying, and do it again, and again, and again, and again. It takes real determination to keep trying in the face of what you know is waiting for you if you make a mistake, and you will make a mistake. What you should ask yourself tonight, Summer Dawn, is if you're willing to commit yourself to this. Are you willing to risk hurting yourself over and over and over again to gain mastery over magic, Summer Dawn?" he asked, looking down at her with an intense stare.
"I don't have to think about that overnight. I want to learn," she declared confidently. "These last two weeks, Star, I've never felt--it's like this is what I've wanted to do all my life," she told him. "I've always loved magic, and now I'm learning more than I've ever learned before. I see things I never noticed. I can sense the way magic flows around me, like it's flowing through my soul. I've never felt like this. I've never felt more right about what I'm doing. I want to learn," she told him. "I want to learn everything you can teach me, Starjumper. I want to know everything you know. I want to be able to do what you do. So yes, I will commit. I will keep trying no matter how many times I burn off my mane, because I know that eventually I won't burn it off anymore."
"You'll do far more than I ever will, Summer Dawn," he told her calmly, but with dignity. "I told you, you're a much stronger magician than I am. Than I will ever be."
"But you know magic," she told him. "You know more than the professors think. You know more than you tell anypony. I don't know why you don't tell ponies what you know, why you hide how great you are at magic, and that's not my business. But these last two weeks, Star, I've seen it. The way you use magic, the way it responds to you, how effortless you make everything you do look...I don't think I could ever have that kind of grace with my spells. I may be stronger than you, at least so you say, but I don't think I'll ever have the skill to use magic like you do."
He looked down at her, a bit honestly surprised. But...he should not have been. Summer Dawn was very smart, and what was more, she was very perceptive. She had a very quick and agile mind, and she saw things that many other ponies missed. He'd noticed that over the last two weeks. "You'll learn everything I know in a few months," he told her dismissively. "You seem to think that I'm something that I'm not, Summer Dawn. I'm just a self-taught dabbler from a family of shopkeepers."
She gave him a long, direct look, that actually made him feel a little bit sheepish.
They reached the school without any further discussion, and she followed him up the steps. He turned and faced her when they reached the apartment door. "I know, three bells," she said. "I'm not going to follow you in. But I think I need to admit something, because I don't think you can teach me the way you want to if you think you have to hide it from me."
He looked down at her, his expression neutral.
"You can teleport," she declared. "And I get the feeling that if you try to hide it, you can't teach me how to do it as easily as you taught your Dad."
He gave her a long, penetrating look, trying to conceal his surprise...and a little bit of delight. She'd figured that out? She was much more perceptive than even he suspected!
"You don't have to say if you can or not," she told him. "That's your secret, and that means it's my secret too. What I'm saying, I guess, is that you don't have to pretend if it means you can't teach me the way you want to, always trying to hide exactly how you know what you know when you supposedly can't cast the spell yourself."
"I told you, I never learned from the book," he told her firmly, looking down at her.
"You wrote that book, Starjumper," she declared simply. "It's written in your hornwriting. Of course you didn't learn anything from it, because you already know everything in it."
"Yes. I wrote that book, when I copied everything from the original book into the new one using my own hornwriting," he challenged. "That doesn't mean I wrote the original."
She just gave him an amused look. "I told you, you don't have to admit it. Or not admit it," she said with a slight smile. "But I thought it was only fair that you know that I know, and that what we know isn't for anyone else to know. Just in the interest of complete honesty," she added lightly. "So, I'll see you tomorrow morning in the library? Are we starting on transfiguration?"
He gave her a long look. "You say that to me, and now you think you're just walking away like nothing happened?" he countered.
"Yes. Yes, I am," she replied, looking up into his eyes unflinchingly, with the slightest of smiles on her beautiful face. "I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good night."
He was quiet as he watched her turn and enshroud herself in an aura of pink magic, then she rose up from his porch and started home, floating away with some impressive speed. She'd gotten into the habit of doing that, both to avoid the hustle and bustle of the street and to practice, and if anything, it certainly got a lot of attention from ponies on the street.
Impressive. Very, very impressive, and what was more impressive was that he didn't feel nervous over what she knew. And that surprised him. She'd unraveled one of his secrets using nothing but her powers of observation, and he wasn't angry. He was surprised, but he wasn't angry. In fact, he was rather impressed, and even a little proud, that she'd figured it out.
And he wasn't freaking out. She'd proven over the last two weeks that she could keep a secret...and she was right. It was going to be extremely hard to teach her how to teleport without admitting he could cast the spell himself, since so much of what he was was tied up in that spell. It defined him as a unicorn, it was his special talent, and to be honest about it, there was probably no magician in Equestria that could use it the way he could.
It was who he was.
Besides, he realized as he watched her flit out of view, no other pony was going to figure it out like she did, because she could see things he didn't allow any other pony to see. He didn't talk about magic with others. He didn't talk to others much at all, not unless he absolutely had to. She was the only pony in Canterlot who was in a position to see past the walls he erected around himself and see the garden of privacy he cultivated behind them. She had not only seen one of his secrets, she had accurately predicted that the fact that he was keeping it a secret was going to adversely impact his lessons.
And that was what made her so impressive. She could see that what he knew was going to come into conflict with what he was teaching her when the time came, that he would have far too detailed and intricate knowlege of the spell to not possibly be able to cast it himself. And that was what made that mare so deceptively formidable.
She was powerful, yes. But she was intelligent, she was observant, and she was creative, and that made her far, far more formidable than her power ever would.
He closed the door and then started walking away from it, then disappeared in a circular burst of golden magic, reappearing upstairs at the writing desk. He had a lot of work to do, and thankfully, he could study magic from a book while a thestral.
But, reality intruded before he could so much as unfurl a scroll on stoneshaping magic when he heard his mother call from the balcony door. "Aiiiyahhh! Star! What in the long shadow did you cast on the door?" she shouted testily. "I'm gonna whip your withers, pup!" She always called him pup when she was mad at him.
"Don't try to come in!" he shouted, then vanished in a circular burst of golden magic and reappeared in front of the door. "Princess Twilight cast a spell over the tower!"
"Is that what it was?" she asked, rubbing her nose with a hoof. The short, fine fur around her nose was singed. "Well, whatever it is, it's certainly working. And it's a bit painful," she complained.
"It's a ward to keep thestrals out of the apartment," he answered. "The Princess said she could come and fix the ward so you can pass through it. Let me write her a note and see if she's available after she lowers the sun. Wait there, and don't come anywhere near the door."
"Oh, I'm not gonna now," she replied evenly. "You owe me a new muzzle, young pup."
"Try knocking next time," he retorted, then he vanished in a circular burst of golden magic before she could deliver her snappy retort.
To his relief, the Princess answered within a minute of him sending the note through the mailbox, promising to come as soon as she lowered the sun. He advanced up to the edge of the second floor and looked down at the door, staying close to the mailbox just in case she sent another note. She had a habit of doing that. "She's coming as soon as she lowers the sun!" he called. The clock gave its second warning, telling him he had fifteen minutes. "Fifteen minutes! You want something to drink or something while we wait?"
"I want you out here fixing the fur around my nose, pup," she retorted, which made him laugh.
He came out and endured the whack from her wing, then attended her little problem. He'd learned a spell that caused fur and mane hair to grow at an accelerated rate, to repair the damage he did to himself when teleporting when he was younger, and he cast the spell on her. The spell would make fur grow back in a matter of seconds, but when it came to manes, it took it much longer. There was a strange issue with how magic affected the mane that made using that magic very tricky, and that fact was half the reason why he kept his own mane so short. After burning it off more times than he could count, and the spell to fix it taking so long to work, he'd gotten used to the buzz cut. The singed fur on her muzzle around her nose quickly filled back out, the blackened ends of it breaking off and falling away, restoring her to former glory. "There, all better," he said soothingly. "Do you want me to kiss it, too?"
"Watch it, pup, or I might make you do just that," she said with a slight smile, which made him laugh. "Anyway, I'm glad you've taken some precautions."
"I had to get the Princess to do it. I have no idea how to cast that spell. But I'm gonna learn," he said adamantly. "It's just too darn useful for when I move into my own place."
"Well, it sure works," she said, rubbing her nose again. "Now get me some tea."
Attending to that task took most of the time, the clock giving the final warning just as the teapot started to whistle, and he managed to get her tea out to her and back inside and well away from any window that might let a pony see what was coming. The instant the moon crested the horizon, he gave a hiss of pain as his horn burned away and the wings tore through the skin and fur on his back, the bones and sinew quickly growing out and the flesh and tissue and skin following it a brief second later. He gave a sigh of relief when it was over, folding back his wings and reaching for a rag to clean the blood off his sides. Nightsong was sitting on the balcony sipping her tea when he stepped out enough to see her, giving him a glance as the sky darkened steadily and the moon rose. She knew he wouldn't come outside until it was completely dark, just in case anypony was looking at the tower.
Like him, she had to partially open her wings when she was seated, else the spined tips of her wingbones would scrape against the floor. That was how large her wings were, and since he was her son, he shared that unusual trait. So did every thestral in his family. That was why his thestral family was known as the Longwings in the Nightlands. Before she was Nightsong Astra, she was Nightsong Longwing.
"She should be along any time. She's usually quite punctual," Starjumper said from inside. And sure enough, before he could put the teapot away, he heard the clatter of metal-shod hooves on the balcony outside.
"Hello Nightsong!" he heard the Princess say. "It's good to see you again!"
"And it's good to see you, your Highness," she replied in a warm tone. His parents had met both her and Princess Starlight when they came to Baltimare to negotiate with Starjumper over coming to school, and his mother being who she was, Princess Twilight left Baltimare with a new friend. "Did you like the tarts?"
"Oh, they were very good!" she answered. "They were still fresh when they got here."
"I'm glad. It took some doing to get the ingredients. Some of them come from the Nightlands."
"Well, it was worth it, both me and Starlight thought they were completely delicious. Now, I already know why I'm here, so let me take care of it so you can get inside," she offered. "It won't take but a minute."
"Will Comet Tail and the foals need you to get in?"
"It only works against thestrals, so Songbird will need me to get inside. Silver Moon and Dancer will be able to cross the ward safely. Why, are they coming?"
"The family's going to come visit in a few weeks. That's the reason I'm here, to tell Star about it and make a few plans."
"The thestrals?" she asked seriously.
"Yes, ducky, we thought it might be best if we were in Canterlot when they're here. Both to have a chat with them...and to put us all in one place, and a place that's well defended. Just in case."
"I understand," Princess Twilight said soberly. "I'd be happy to host your family in the Royal Palace while you're here. That way you don't have to pay for a hotel, and you'll be in a well protected area."
"That sounds wonderful! I'll make you a thestral specialty, mushroom and starleaf casserole!"
"I'm looking forward to it. Now, give me just a minute."
Starjumper watched from inside as the Princess advanced up to the door, and her horn limned over in a lavender glow, the color of her magic. The air in the doorway seemed to shimmer briefly, a very dim light, and then it faded away. "All done. You can get in now," she said, making a grand gesture with a hoof.
"Why thank you, ducky," Nightsong said with a smile, and she trotted in without hesitation. The Princess came in behind her, and she gave him an animated smile when she saw him with his thestral wings. It was the first time she'd seen him that way. "I see you're your mother's son, Starjumper."
He had to give a dry chuckle, opening and closing his large wings deliberately. "It does run in the family," he answered.
"Now, since I'm here," she said, walking over to where he had cushions on the floor and sitting down. "Let's talk about this visit."
The two thestrals joined her, and they spent nearly an hour discussing his parents' intentions and arranging things. The Princess was going to let them stay in the palace while they were in Canterlot, more or less under the protection of the Royal Guard, but Starjumper would stay in his tower while the thestrals were there, just to make absolutely sure that he didn't accidentally cross paths with one of them in the hallways. He would, however, have Royal Guard protecting him as well, just doing it covertly. The Princess was going to station four guards on the palace balcony directly facing his tower, so they could keep the tower under direct supervision and respond quickly if the thestrals tried to get in. It was going to make things a bit awkward with the thestrals and his family in the palace at the same time, but there was little Princess Twilight could do about that. It was Royal tradition to domicile diplomats and emissaries of high rank in the palace, so the Night Queen's daughter and her guards were definitely important enough to extend that hospitality.
As usual when it came to Princess Twilight, she developed a very detailed and very thorough plan, from providing protection for Starjumper's family to managing the itinerary of the thestral delegation to both keep them busy and minimize the danger that they'd cross paths with his family in the halls and create an ugly international incident. She wrote everything down as they worked out their plans, and when they were done, she had a fairly long scroll of notes.
"Alright, I think we have everything covered," the Princess declared, looking over her scroll. "Can you manage closing the shop for an entire week, Nightsong?"
"We were already planning that," she answered. "The shop will be alright. It's not the first time we've closed it for a week to go on vacation."
"Oh, okay. Good, I didn't want your shop to lose business," she said with a nod. "You and your family can get here the day before the thestrals are scheduled to arrive and leave the day after they do. I'm sure we can keep them entertained for a week. There's a lot to see and do here in Canterlot." There was a sound out on the balcony, and Starjumper stood up respectfully and bowed when Princess Starlight filed into the apartment through the open door. "There you are, Starlight," the Princess said with a smile.
"I was wondering if you forgot to come back," she chided lightly.
"Sort of. Come in and we'll get you up to speed."
Starjumper felt a bit awkward having both Princesses in the apartment, sitting side by side and discussing Princess Twilight's plan, but it was an awkwardness his mother certainly didn't share. She was too outgoing and fearless to be intimidated by just about anypony, or any social situation. Granted, she didn't exactly follow social conventions--the truth was, she could be quite embarrassing--but she certainly wasn't afraid of them. The fact that she had the audacity to call both Princesses ducky was proof of that. "Does it sound like a good plan, Starlight?" Princess Twilight asked her after going over the scroll in detail.
"It does to me," she answered with a nod, ruffling her wings a bit. Like Princess Cadence, Princess Starlight's wings weren't a solid color. The leading edges were the same color as her fur, but her feathers darkened to a dark blue close to the color of her mane at the tips, creating a gradual shift in color that Starjumper felt was quite handsome. "It puts protection on both Starjumper and his family without making it obvious, it keeps his family entertained while they're here, and it lets us keep an eye on Moonblade while she's here by keeping her movements under control. If we can keep her in the palace, she can't cause any mischief."
"That's what I was thinking," Princess Twilight nodded. "I'll go over this with Captain Flash Sentry in the morning, so he can organize the guard schedule."
"I'll tell Comet Tail about this when I get home tonight," Nightsong added. "We'll be here on the eighteenth on the first train in from Baltimare."
"I'll talk to the railroad and find out when it's supposed to arrive, so I can have some ponies there to greet you," Princess Twilight mumbled, writing a new line on her list. "And I'll make sure to make myself available to alter the ward so Songbird can get into the tower. I'm sure you'd like to spend that evening with Starjumper, and that close to the thestral delegation arriving, he won't be leaving the tower until after the thestrals leave. In fact, he should be restricted to the tower three days before they're scheduled to arrive, just in case they get here early," she amended. "I'll need to talk to the Headmistress and arrange for him to do his schoolwork from here while he's restricted. And I can make up some reason why he's here. We have to keep this under the table."
"Easy enough. Starjumper, I think you're going to be a naughty colt around the fifteenth," Nightsong said with a wink at him. "And you're gonna get your misbehaving rump suspended from school and grounded for two whole weeks. Then, after the thestrals leave, I do believe that the Princess will show mercy on you and rescind your punishment."
"Now that's sneaky, and hides the real reason perfectly. I knew I had a reason to like you, Nightsong," Princess Starlight laughed.
"A free pass to get myself suspended? I can think of several ways to cash in that favor," he said with a dark smile that made all three of the mares burst into laughter.
"Don't make a mess, I have to clean it up, you know!" Princess Twilight warned with a grin. "But yes, I think that's the perfect idea, Nightsong. Ponies will be too busy talking about him being suspended to connect the dots. Sometimes, we can use Canterlot's gossip machine in our favor," she said with a sly sidelong look at her sister Princess before making more notes on her scroll. "Alright, I think we've covered just about everything. Anypony have any suggestions?"
"Nope, sounds solid to me," Princess Starlight replied.
"I don't see any problems with it, your Highness," Starjumper agreed.
"It's a good plan, ducky," Nightsong nodded.
"Alright then. I'll get started on this list tomorrow morning. Nightsong, you get your family ready. Starjumper, you just keep doing what you're doing."
"I'm not really doing anything."
"And you're doing a great job, so keep it up," she grinned at him, which made Nightsong and Princess Starlight laugh. "Oh, keep your schedule open for Saturday after sunset," she added, looking at his wings. "We're going to have a very long talk about your condition, and I want to do a few tests."
He gave his mother a pained look when the Princess looked away. Princess Starlight caught it, and rolled her eyes a bit with a compassionate smile in silent agreement with his impending discomfort. The Princess was well known to be scholarly to the point of obsessive aggravation, and no doubt Princess Starlight had suffered the receiving end of it at some time in their long friendship.
After the Princesses finished up, and Nightsong spent a good half an hour chatting with both of them to catch up on things, Starjumper eventually managed to get them on their way. And since it was dark enough outside now, he and his mother ended up taking a flight. They far preferred to do their talking on the wing, with the crisp night air and the milky starlight caressing the night shadows. The two of them were flying out away from Canterlot to the southwest, towards Ponyville, and they discussed the Princess' plan between them, mainly talking about how it was going to affect the family. And it was a chance to pass along some personal information in a private setting.
"I got another letter from Shadowstep yesterday," she told him. "That's three in a week, and this one makes it clear that there's another letter out there that hasn't reached Baltimare yet. I think he sent one about every day after the Night Queen took the throne, and they're not arriving in the same order he sent them."
"What did it say?"
"More or less just confirming what we already know. That the Night Queen arranged an official visit, and what day they're supposed to arrive. He did talk about a few other things, though. It seems that they found another gallery behind the back wall of the cave, and they've broken into it and are clearing out the stalactites. He said it nearly tripled the size of the house. The cave's now bigger than the old homestead, and he rather likes it."
“Nice. He always does complain about how small the cave is in his letters." He sighed. "I still can’t help feeling partially responsible for him losing his house."
“He’s gotten over it, Star. He knows I’m happy, and he said it was worth losing the house to see me happy.”
“He really is a good brother to you, Mom.”
“Yes he is, Star. I hope someday you get to meet him.”
“Me too.” They banked slightly to the south, the lights of Ponyville coming into view in the distance. Nightsong then caught him up on everything going with his family back in Baltimare, from Dancer’s new lessons in magic to Songbird’s success in a school play. Songbird was a wonderful singer, just like her mother, and it was her dream to be the first thestral that broke into the big time on Bridleway.
“Oh, and I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that Dancer lost her baby incisor, and the new tooth growing in is a fang,” she said proudly. “I was starting to worry about that filly.”
“You’re terribly biased, Mother.”
“No foal of mine is going to be fangless,” she said adamantly, which made him chuckle. “I may have lost the fight with your father over just about everything else, but I was positive that she was going to have proper fangs.”
“You lost that fight over most of us. Songbird’s the only full thestral.”
“Well, your father is a tough old unicorn that’s hard to beat, which makes him a challenge worthy of a thestral,” she noted, which made him laugh. Nightsong had long made those running jokes about how their foals looked, how if they had horns or wings or thestral features were some kind of competition between the two of them.
“She’s gonna bite her lip so many times until she gets used to it,” he predicted. “How does she feel about it?”
“She’s the only one of you four that wasn’t born with fangs, so she’s happy about it,” she replied. “I’m curious to see if that means her spider magic is going to manifest."
“It’s possible,” Starjumper nodded. “The fangs do represent her thestral heritage, and the magic that's part of it.”
“It wouldn't be the first time the magic manifested late. That's what happened with Silver Moon. He couldn't use spider magic until he was nearly five. That poor colt, I'm surprised I didn't give him brain damage, all the times I'd push him against a wall or ceiling and try to get him to stick and he'd just fall down," she admitted, which made him chuckle. She looked down towards Ponyville. “Surprised we can see Princess Twilight’s castle from here.”
“It is pretty big. And garish,” he mused. "I don't think she knows how it looks to thestral eyes. All those clashing colors, it's almost giving me a headache," he complained.
“How’s that working?”
“With Princess Twilight?" he asked, to which she nodded. "I’m still doing the lessons she sends, and they’re getting harder and harder,” he answered. “The last assignment she gave was writing an essay about time magic. Seriously, what do I know about time magic?” he complained. “I’m fairly sure I’m gonna get it back tomorrow with about thirty nasty notes about everything I got wrong. I'm surprised she didn't save the letter writing and start lecturing me right there in the living room.”
Nightsong laughed. “She’s been putting you through your paces,” she observed. “Is Saturday the first time she's gonna study you up close?"
“Yeah, and I'm a bit surprised. Given it took her this long to say anything, I thought she was saving that for right before I leave, so she doesn’t have me around being mad at her,” he answered, which made her laugh. “I still can’t figure out how she knew about me, Mother. Who I am, what I can do, everything. She even knew I can teleport.”
“Celestia and Luna know just about everything, Star, and no doubt she was briefed before the Princesses went on their sabbatical. But, I’m not complaining, and neither is your father. He knew he couldn’t teach you properly. He was ecstatic that you came here to learn, because he was afraid you’d never achieve your true potential studying under him and using the family library.”
“He taught me more than that school teaches their students,” he snorted. “And Father’s a much stronger magician than me. And Dancer is going to eclipse both of us, maybe even put together.”
“Son, your father has told me many times that you are far beyond him,” she said seriously. “It’s not how strong you are that he didn’t think he could manage, it’s how smart you are. He says that you understand magic better than him, you see things in the magic he never even considered, so it was very hard for him to teach you. All he could do was teach you the spells, where you were teaching him about how magic worked. He said he learned from you nearly as much as you learned from him,” she said seriously. “Your father and Dancer may be stronger than you, but you are smarter than them. Much, much smarter.”
He gave her a long look.
“Don’t believe me? Ask your father when we come to Canterlot,” she grinned. “And you’re exactly where you need to be, son. You’re learning things your father could never teach you. And you’re where you have friends.”
"I have a student, not a friend," he corrected.
"I know a friendly pony when I see one, ducky," she told him. "That mare likes you, and I know you like her. That's what friend means."
He looked away, unable to refute that statement. "I...do have something to tell you about that," he said, looking back at her. "She's more clever than I expected."
"Oh? In what way?"
"She figured out that I can teleport," he answered. "Just by how I talk about the spell. She told me that I can't possibly know what i know if I didn't know how to use the magic, and then told me that I didn't have to admit or deny what I can do, since I obviously keep it a secret, so I can teach her the way I want to without worrying about her figuring it out. Since, you know, she already knows. She told me that if it's my secret, then it's her secret," he mused.
Nightsong laughed brightly. "I knew that mare was something special!" she declared. "And she understands you a lot better than I thought."
"That she does," he admitted quietly. "And that's a little unsettling. But...I'm not scared of her knowing. I was...I was proud of her when she told me she knew. I was proud that she managed to figure it out, proud that my student is being observant enough to see what's unseen."
"Son, you should consider something."
"What?"
"We've told you that your secret is your own. It's yours to keep, and it's also yours to reveal."
He gave her a long, nearly harsh look.
"You should start to consider if it might be best if this mare knows the truth. I know it makes it hard on you keeping it from her, and no doubt it causes problems in your relationship."
"We don't have a relationship, mother. I'm being paid to a do a job for her," he corrected, almost primly. "I am her teacher, she is my student, and she's paying me a nearly obscene amount of money to teach her magic. That is our relationship."
"Look me in the eyes and say that again, ducky," she challenged, giving him a direct stare. "If she learned one of your secrets and she proves she's trustworthy, you should consider telling her the others. That way you can have at least one solid friend in Canterlot, one that understands who you are and how it shapes your life much better, somepony you can talk to in both the day and the night. I'm sure it's lonely there by yourself."
"I'm used to being alone," he answered, without much conviction. "And having one friend won't make a difference either way."
“One friend is just the beginning, son,” she told him with a smile. “If you could find one pony out there that you’d allow to know your secret, there are bound to be others. You just have to go out there and find them, Star. They’re out there. Don’t shut yourself up in your apartment and try to live your entire life contained by those walls. It’s not who you are. It’s not who you were meant to be,” she said seriously.
“I already am who I’m meant to be, Mother,” he answered her evenly.
“Take it from your mother, Starjumper. Not yet,” she told him. “You have a little more growing up to do before you find your truth. And I think here, in Canterlot, you’re on the right path. You’re seeing what the world beyond Baltimare can offer you, and seeing where you can fit into that world. Don’t hide from it, son. Go out and find it. Embrace it! Act like a thestral, for Luna’s sake!” she said teasingly. “And you can start with Summer Dawn. That’s a fine young mare, son, and she’s rich,” she said enticingly.
“Mother.”
“What? I’m not allowed to wish my son marries up?” she asked lightly. “It’s my job to make sure you marry better than I did,” she winked.
“I’m sure Dad would love to know about this part of the conversation,” he threatened, which made her laugh.
“How can I possibly have married up when I married a unicorn?” she said with false superiority. “Sometimes I wonder what insanity possessed me. The only thing I got out of this whole deal was four good foals. And only one and a half thestrals out of the lot,” she complained, which made him laugh helplessly.
“You’re impossible.”
“And so are you. It proves you’re my son,” she replied with a sly smile at him.