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// An Apprentice 
// Story: Midnight Blue 
// by adrusi 
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I stood on the balcony of the tallest tower of Canterlot Castle. looking out over the balustrade, I saw the undisturbed gardens below, and above them, the streets and houses of my beautiful city, sprawling outwards organically for what seemed like miles. All was peaceful, the streets were completely empty except for one stallion who walked away into the distance by the light of his horn. But I hadn't come out to admire the tranquility of the city, I looked further up, above the rooftops, to see my sister beginning her evening ritual.

It had been two months. Two months since I presented my sister with the offer to return to Canterlot with me. During the first weeks I preoccupied myself with apologizing to her and didn't notice, but ever since she returned she wasn't acting her normal self. Assuredly, she was much better than in the beginning; after she heard my pleas for forgiveness, my recollections of loneliness, she became almost like her old self again. Almost.

She wasn't quite herself in the months preceding her exile either, but I had always attributed that to her growing jealousy. Now I wasn't so sure.

I had been avoiding asking her about it for fear of her feeling I was encroaching, but I knew it had to be done. I watched as Luna descended toward the neighboring tower and waited for her to cross the bridge connecting our towers. I faintly heard a distinctive sound heralding her arrival. Trot trot trot. She entered without a word and lay down in front of the fire. I gathered all my courage and approached her.

"Luna," I uttered, "are you sure you're completely alright?"

"Why do you ask sister?"

"I've noticed that you're still not quite your old self. I can totally understand if something is wrong, so if something is, please don't hesitate to tell me about it."

"Nothing is wrong. I am fine."

"Luna, I can tell that not everything is fine, and I wouldn't expect it to be, but I feel responsible for any pain you feel and I want to help you."

"I said I'm fine."

"Is it that there's something you are not telling me? I assure you, nothing you could tell me would make me angry. I wouldn't even banish Nightmare Moon again if given the chance. That is a mistake I will not repeat."

"It's not something I wish to discuss."

"Listen Luna, I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, but I can tell you're uncomfortable as it is. You must resolve this conflict if you wish to truly return to the way it once was."

"The reason I don't want to discuss it is because you've made it very clear that you feel great pain about what happened in our fight. I do not want to cause you more distress."

I was right; it *was* something that started before her exile.

"Luna, I just want to have my sister back as she was, not always reserved and downcast."

"Celestia—"

"Luna please, tell me what is on you mind."

"Very well."





It all started a few years before I first refused to lower the moon. I was visiting the little foals at the Canterlot schoolhouse, teaching them about the history of Equestria. They all listened attentively, I felt every pair of little eyes in the room focusing on mine, but almost nopony asked any questions—it was clear what everypony was really interested in. Only one little filly didn't seem entirely absorbed by my royal status. This one unicorn seemed more interested in my presentation than my title. She was deeply engaged and asked truly insightful questions that I've never heard anypony ask before.

I met with the filly after school let out. She was a white-colored unicorn with a mane that reminded me of the blue lilies in the pond near the castle. When I approached her, she told me that her name was Midnight Blue. I informed her that I thought the questions she had asked during my lecture were deeply thoughtful and that I was impressed. At first she blushed, taken aback, but over a few seconds her bashfulness changed changed into excitement and pride settled in. She then proceeded to ask me if I could teach her something else.

Delighted, I said, "I'd love to teach you anything you want, just ask!"

She responded immediately, "I've been studying magic from books over the past few years, but I've been looking for a teacher. The problem is that the only magic teachers in Canterlot are from the School of Magic and they don't accept fillies as young as me. Do you think you could teach me?"

I wasn't sure what to think. On the one hoof, I finally had somepony who treated me more-or-less as a friend rather than as a deity. On the other, I had a little filly asking me to teach her about magic, which can be very difficult and sometimes very dangerous, not to mention it would be quite a commitment in my already busy life.

I told her, "How about we meet again tomorrow in the Canterlot Gardens and you show me what you can do. If I think that it would be safe to teach you more magic, I will be your teacher. But if I tell you that I don't think it's safe, I want you to understand that there's a good reason. I don't want to keep you from reaching your potential, but even more, I don't want to risk any harm coming upon you."

She said that she understood and that she couldn't wait to show me what she knew. Then she informed me that she needed to head home or else her parents might begin to worry. As we parted ways, I told her that I looked forward to seeing her tomorrow.

The next morning we met in the Canterlot Gardens. It was a beautiful day. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, thanks to the hard work of the weather patrol. The birds chirped freely as they practiced their singing, and a number of ponies were picnicking under the thick canopy of a tall oak. I told Midnight to show me some of the magic she had been practicing.

Gleefully, she inquired, "Can I change the color of your mane?"

Startled, I replied, "If you think that you can do so safely, but that's fairly advanced magic; magic of that difficulty is usually only taught in the third year of magic school."

She declared with a confident smile, "I've done it for my mom plenty of times before, she loves to change up her mane every once in a while."

Amused, I said, "Go ahead, change it to whatever color you like."

After a brief pause, Midnight Blue stared at my mane in deep concentration and changed it to a beautiful burnt orange. Everypony else in the gardens turned to look at the little filly who just cast a spell upon a princess. They seemed to think that this broke some unspoken rule and stared in horror as they waited for the fierce punishment that was never to come.

Instead, I looked up at my mane, confounded when I saw that she had successfully changed its color. I turned to her.

"This is amazing!" I exclaimed. "Certainly I will teach you more about magic if you are already able to perform it at such an advanced level. Certainly there's room for improvement, and a lifetime of studies left, but I must say: I am impressed!"

She beamed at me, and I can't describe the way it made me feel. I asked her if she wanted to show me where she lived, and while at first she was too overwhelmed by the acceptance, she quickly returned to her usual excited self and we bounced off to her home. I had taken on an apprentice.





Now I was confused. How did I never know about such an important part of my sister's life?

"Why did you never tell me you took on an apprentice?" I asked her.

"Celestia, when we were younger back then, you were... You were a different mare."

It was true. Given my benevolence of the past few centuries, one would never know the way I acted when I was younger.

My sister and I were something special. Not only were we alicorns, which is an extremely rare power in and of itself, but we were also the controllers of the Elements of Harmony. We discovered this during Discord's evil reign. We weren't princesses then, but we felt it was our duty to save Equestria. We discovered that the only way that Discord could be defeated was through the use of the Elements.

We searched for them for many years, but until we found them we never expected that *we* would be the ones that could control their power. I suppose it was the strong bond between us that enabled us to do so. After we banished Discord using the Elements, everypony hailed us as heroes and asked us to take Discord's place and become rulers of Equestria.

That's when I changed. Being immortal as alicorns are, and having control over the Elements gave me access to an unstoppable source of power and made me feel like a god. As ruler of Equestria, I began to demand that everypony treat me as such. Out of respect, everypony did. But Luna was incorruptible; her status and power never clouded her head and she always wanted to be treated as a normal pony. But alas, everypony assumed that since I wanted to be treated like a god, that my sister did as well. So she was never able to fit in with the others.

After I banished Luna, I found that I felt very lonely. Luna had been my only friend for over a century, and now she was gone. For years I tried desperately to return her from the moon, but the power of the Elements was too strong for me to counteract with my own magic, and I found that I could no longer control the Elements. My strong bond with my sister was broken and no longer was I qualified to control the Elements and bring harmony to the world.

Initially I became severely depressed, but I realized that if I wanted to not be lonely, I needed to try to make friends with the ponies from whom I had so long demanded reverence. It had been centuries since I made that decision, but still the ponies were not completely accustomed to treating my like an equal, however the situation had improved, and I was able to take an apprentice, Twilight Sparkle, who saw me not just as a mentor, but also as a friend. It had taken me 993 years to find a true friend.

I could understand why Luna didn't tell me about her apprentice, especially if she had so little regard for authority. Who knows what I would have done to her.

"I understand, sister. Continue please," I said solemnly.