"There, look,"
"Where?"
"Right there. See the colt with purple and teal mane?"
"And the filly with diamond on her forehead?"
Whispers followed the Glimmers from the moment they left their dormitories the next day. Ponies lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at them, or doubled back to pass them in the corridors again, staring. Morning Shine wished they wouldn't, because she was trying to concentrate on finding her way to classes.
There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at CSFGU: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The ponies in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Shine was sure the coats of armor could walk.
But the worst thing that they had encountered so far was Leach. Morning Shine and Eclipse managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning. Leach found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the royal treasury. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Mistrall, who was passing.
Leach owned a pukwudgie called Mrs. Porgy, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Leach's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Leach, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Leach knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone, except perhaps the Weasel twins. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Porgy a good kick, but do that and you’d have pukwudgie stickers in your hoof.
And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Morning Shine quickly found out, than igniting your horn and saying words.
They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a “ghost”. Professor Snow was extremely old, and every student spread the rumors that Professor Snow had been teaching since the school first opened. Snow droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Clover the Clever and Starswirl the Bearded mixed up.
Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little unicorn who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Morning Shine, Eclipse, and Sparkling Radiance's names he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.
Princess Luna was again different, her classes were the only ones to be held at night. Morning Shine had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic thee shall learneth at CSFGU," she said. "Anyone messing around in mine own class shall leaveth and not cometh back. Thy have been warned."
Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Sparkling Radiance had made any difference to her match; Princess Luna showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Radiance a smile.
The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Mistral's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. Her classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire she'd met in the Everfree Forest and was afraid would be coming back to get her one of these days.
Friday was an important day for the trio. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.
"What have we got today?" Morning Shine asked Eclipse as she poured sugar on his porridge.
"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Eclipse. "Lulamoon's Head of Slytherin House. They say she always favors them - we'll be able to see if it's true,”
"Wish Princess Luna favored us," said Morning Shine. Princess Luna was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.
Just then, the mail arrived. Morning Shine had gotten used to this by now, but it had given her a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.
Hedwig hadn't brought Morning Shine anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble her ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls. This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Shine's plate. Morning Shine tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:
Dear Morning Shine, Eclipse, and Sparkling Radiance,
I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?
I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.
Spike
Morning Shine borrowed Eclipse's quill, scribbled Yes please, see you later on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.
It was lucky that the three had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to them so far.
At the start-of-term banquet, Morning Shine had gotten the idea that Professor Lulamoon had mixed feelings about her. By the end of the first Potions lesson, she knew she'd been wrong. Lulamoon didn't have mixed feelings about Morning Shine - she hated her.
Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.
Lulamoon, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, she paused at Morning Shine, Eclipse, and Sparkling Radiance's names.
"Ah, yes," she said smirked, "Our three celebrities,"
Draco Malfoal and his friends Crab and Gargoyle snickered behind their hooves. Lulamoon finished calling the names and looked up at the class. Her eyes were violet like Twilight's, but they had none of Twilight's warmth. They were cold and harsh, yet completely smug.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," she began. She spoke in a grand manor capturing the classes attention - like Princess Luna, Lulamoon had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish horn igniting, many of you will hardly believe this is magic - unlike Lulamoon’s amazing skills in the art of showbiz - Lulamoon doesn't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... Lulamoon can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as Lulamoon usually has to teach,"
More silence followed this little speech. Morning Shine and Eclipse exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Sparkling Radiance was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a ‘dunderhead’.
"Glimmer!" said Lulamoon suddenly. "What would Lulamoon get if Lulamoon added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Morning Shine and Eclipse stared at each other, not knowing which one of them was supposed to answer.
Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Morning Shine glanced at Eclipse, who looked as stumped as she was; Radiance's hoof had shot into the air.
"Why are you speaking in the third person?” Morning Shine asked.
“Lulamoon does not have to explain herself, now answer the question,”
“I don’t know ma’am,” said Morning Shine.
Lulamoon's lips curled into a sneer.
"Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything," she sneered.
“Says the self-centered teacher who can’t shut up about how great she is,” Eclipse said under his breath.
She ignored Radiance’s hoof, and made her way over to Eclipse.
"Let's try again. Glimmer, where would you look if Lulamoon told you to find her a bezoar?"
Radiance stretched her hoof as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Eclipse didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoal, Crab, and Gargoyle, who were shaking with laughter.
"I don't know, ma’am," Eclipse muttered.
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Glimmer?" Morning Shine forced herself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. She had looked through her books at home, but did Lulamoon expect her and her brother to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?
Lulamoon was still ignoring Radiance's quivering hand.
"What is the difference, Glimmer, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
At this, Sparkling Radiance stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.
"I don't know," said Morning Shine quietly. "I think Sparkling Radiance does, though, why don't you try her?"
A few ponies laughed; Lulamoon, however, was not pleased.
"Sit down," she snapped at Radiance. "For your information, Glimmer, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"
There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Lulamoon said, "And a two points will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Glimmer,"
Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Lulamoon put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. She swept around in her long purple cloak dotted with stars, watching them weigh dried nettles (not the student Nettle Longflank) and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoal, whom she seemed to like. She was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoal had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Nettle had somehow managed to melt Mystic's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Nettle, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his forehooves and legs.
"Idiot colt!" snarled Lulamoon, clearing the spilled potion away with the ignition of her horn. "Lulamoon supposes you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"
Nettle whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his muzzle.
"Take him up to the hospital wing," Lulamoon spat at Mystic. Then she rounded on Morning Shine and Eclipse, who had been working next to Nettle.
"You - Glimmer - why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another two points you two have lost for Gryffindor,"
This was so unfair that Morning Shine opened her mouth to argue, but Eclipse kicked her behind their cauldron.
"Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Lulamoon can turn very nasty,"
As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Morning Shines mind was racing and her spirits were low. She'd lost four points for Gryffindor in her very first week - why did Lulamoon hate her so much?
"Cheer up," said Eclipse, "Lulamoon's always taking points off Farrier and Gallop. Let’s get Radiance so we can go see Spike,"
At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Spike lived in a cottage on the edge of the castle grounds. A crossbow was outside the front door.
When Morning Shine knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and loud hissing. Then a mare's voice rang out, saying, "Opal! It’s just guests! Spikey Wikey, get the door please!"
Spike’s face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.
"Hang on," he said. "Rares, can you get the cat?!"
He let them in, struggling to keep a angry Opal from attacking the three foals.
There was a big cozy living room, and there were stairs leading to the bedrooms. In the next room over a was a decent sized with a open fire heating a copper kettle.
"Make yourselves at home," said Spike, as Rarity came out from the kitchen.
“Hello, darlings! It’s so good to see you again!” Rarity exclaimed, embraces the three foals. “Does anypony want biscuits?”
The biscuits were soft and fluffy with raisins. Rarity had poured out some tea and handed Spike a bowl of gems.
“Rarity I thought you and Spike lived in the heart of Canterlot with all the nobles, why are you hear?” Sparkling Radiance asked.
“Well, with Spikey Wikey-” Rarity started.
“Could you not call me ‘Spikey Wikey’ in front of the kids Rares? It’s kinda embarrassing…” Spike interrupted trying to hide his reddening face.
“As I was saying, Spike would stay here for the whole school year as the heart of Canterlot is a ‘long commute’ for a dragon with wings…” Rarity explained. “And those nobles are just so snobby and rude, so-”
“So, as our kids got older, Rarity decided that the whole family would stay here during CSFGU school year and go to our home in the heart of Canterlot during the summer,” Spike finished.
“But isn’t Crackling Flames around our age?” Eclipse asked.
“He is, but his school isn’t that far from here,” Spike smiled. “Maybe on a Saturday you can catch him and say ‘hi’,”
The foals started talking about their first lessons. They were delighted to hear Spike call Leach ‘that old bat’, much to Rarity’s disapproval. Morning Shine told Spike about Lulamoon's lesson. At the mention of Lulamoon Spike and Rarity gave each other worried glances. But Rarity told Shine not to worry about.
"But she seemed to really hate me,"
"Rubbish!" said Spike. "Why should she?"
“Spike, now is not the time…” Rarity said through her teeth.
Morning Shine could tell that Rarity and Spike weren’t telling her something. But decided that she’d ask them privately later.
"How's life with Flash?" Spike asked Eclipse. "I’m not a huge fan of him in all, but he’s okay,"
“Spike!” Rarity fumed.
“What? I’m just saying,” Spike defended himself.
“But his biological child is right in front of you!!” Rarity pointed out.
As the married couple bickered Morning Shine wondered if Spike had changed the subject on purpose. Morning Shine picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under a tea cozy. It was a cutting from the Foal Free Press:
ATTACK ON THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE
Investigations continue into the attack on the Crystal Empire that happened on September 1st, widely believed to be the work of unreformed changelings or other dark forces.
The Crystal Army, lead by Prince Shining Armor, tried to halt the siege on the empire. But to no avail, help had to be called in from the other kingdoms including: The Changeling Kingdom, Yakkyakkistan, The Dragonlands, and Princess Twilight Sparkle and Prince Flash Sentry. While in the process of battle Princess Twilight Sparkle and Prince Flash Sentry vanished without a trace.
"We have sent search and rescue parties to look for them. All we hope for is that they return to us safely," said Princess Cadence.
Morning Shine read the article with her mouth agape. Thoughts swirled in her head. That’s why Auntie Twilight and Uncle Flash left in a hurry to the Crystal Empire… And they’re gone… Why do I always lose the people I care about? No, Shine they just disappeared, they’ll turn up soon and they’ll be okay. No, they’re gone! What have I done to deserve this?! Morning Shine started to cry and it caught Rarity’s attention.
“Morning Shine, whatever is the matter, darling?” Rarity asked with concern.
Everypony and dragon turned to look at Morning Shine who levitated the piece of parchment in front of them.
"Were you two ever going to tell us about the this?" Morning Shine asked looking down at the ground, "Or were you going to keep if a secret? Like everything else major in our lives,"
There was silence Eclipse and Sparkling Radiance looked at the paper, while Spike and Rarity were hesitant to speak.
“Morning Shine,” Spike started, “we were going to tell you, honest. We just didn’t know how or when…”
“We know things like this can be hard, darling. We just wanted to keep you safe,” Rarity stated calmly.
“Keep me safe?” Morning Shine asked. “Does keeping me safe include keeping me from the truth?”
“Morning-” Spike spoke.
“No! I never wanted any of this! First learning of my parents demise and know this!!” Morning Shine said gesturing to the piece of parchment.
“Darling, please-” Rarity begged.
“Why do secrets have to be kept from us?! WHY DO I HAVE TO KEEP LOSING THE PONIES I LOVE?!?” Morning Shine screamed sobbing.
Morning Shine burst out of the cottage sobbing with rage and sadness. Spike and Rarity looked at each other with disappointment. And Eclipse and Sparkling Radiance left the cottage silently, tears streaming down their faces.
As Morning Shine ran back to the castle she had wondered: How many more secrets were being kept from her? And did Spike and Rarity know something about Lulamoon that they didn't want to tell her?