A/N - I'm not dead! 
A/N - I'm not dead!
Chapter 8
“Where were you?! I thought Mandagor’e murdered you or something!” Starshine whispered as their teacher was giving and introduction to Runics. Twilight was constantly shuffling in her seat and on her face was plastered a giant smile for no good reason.
After a while Starshine grunted and gave up trying to talk to his friend. Looked like Twilight was brainwashed or something…
The colt rested his chin on the double-table and sighed. He looked around and ran a hoof through his scruffy red mane. Old ladies at his dad’s library always called him cute and pinched his cheeks.
The colt shuddered.
He wasn’t cute. He was MANLY! He smiled. Besides, there wasn’t anything worse than how Damien looked, like seriously, couldn’t he have just cut his mane or something? Maybe like, dye it or something? Starshine’s dad had let him dye his mane green for two months before the colt had gotten bored…
He shrugged.
Finally after what seemed hours he looked up and gave a single percent of his attention to the teacher.
“…and they have to be draw precisely, or else the runes don’t work, or worse! They are somewhat similar and I don’t even want to know what happens of you make a curved line on Xibah in a Tree of Life summoning… May the Lunar Shadow hast mercy on your soul…” The icy white teacher shuddered.
Starshine didn’t necessarily like any of the teachers, well, except Nyx, she was awesome! But Mr. Snow seemed alright so far, except for the Trottingham accent. That was just plain weird. He was cold though, hence the name, but he wasn’t the fiery-depths-of-Tartarius-cold like Mrs. Mandagor’e. Starshine could respect that.
The colt sighed again and swayed a bit to the side. There was no benevolent force in the galaxy capable of making him study…
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“…as I stated yesterday, we will be working on spellcraft for as long as we need. Also, what I said yesterday is that the first thing we will learn is how to dispel a spell, Celestia help me, the horrors I’ve seen coming from younglings who never learn how use an eraser for magic…” Mrs. Mandagor’e grunted as she finished the sentence.
Despite having to sit through another Mrs. Mandagor’e episode, Twilight was beaming. For no reason. No reason at all. It was just one of those random moods she had never experienced before… and it was exhilarating!
Twilight was smiling. Like an idiot. And a particular somepony noticed.
“Miss Sparkle, what in the name of Celestia of Equestria are you smiling about?” Mandagor'e turned her grey eyes to still smiling Twilight.
The filly turned her massive grin towards the teacher and shrugged. Mrs. Mandagor’e raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She turned back to the class with her usual blank expression and kept talking about magic yada-yada-waste-half-a-bloody-hour-of-your-life-yada.
There was a small knock on the heavy wooden door. Everypony present diverted their attention just as the door was engulfed in a pure gold aura. Twilight could tell who that belonged to in seconds.
Celestia poked her head through the door wearing a very un-princess-y expression which was a peculiar mix of awkward, embarrassed and foalish. Twilight stifled a snicker as the princess’s gaze met with Mandagor’e. “May I interrupt, Julia?” She sang in her majestic voice.
“You already have.” The teacher replied with no change of expression.
“Right, sorry, mind if I steal away Twilight and Cluster?”
“And could I ask why, your Majesty?” The teacher said the last two words with venomous tone. She was even worse with royalty than Twilight herself.
Celestia gently smiled as she stepped through the door, leaning forward just a bit, not to hit her head against the doorway. She shot a glace backwards as if leaving a mental note to mind the low entrance on her way out. She continued as she looked over at super-smiling Twilight.
“I have to meet with Crystalline’s princess this evening before she heads over to Zebrica to study, and I can’t fit in a lesson of dragons as well. So I'm holding it now.” Celestia smiled as she spotted Cluster in the far corner of the classroom.
“You can’t.” Twilight’s ears dropped as she stared at her teacher. She continued. “Right now I'm teaching them the most important spell in their young lives and unless they master it they won’t be able to even pass the first year. So no. I can’t let them go anywhere until the lesson is over.”
Celestia paused for a second.
“But what if-”
“No. I will not give private lessons.” Mandagor’e glared at Twilight and then back to the Princess. The classroom was even more silent that a graveyard at a Silence Festival.
The princess sighed. “Alright, you win Julia, I will personally tutor them if they fall behind on the subject.”
Mrs. Mandagor’e smirked with a small ‘huph’.
Celestia extended a wing and waved. “Come now the two of you, let’s not keep the others waiting.” Twilight shot up from her seat and shoved her blank notes and two books in a pile and nearly spilled her ink as she pushed them onto her back and dashed over to Celestia’s side and waited for Cluster.
As the three ponies turned to exit the room there was a loud smack and Twilight tossed herself around to see Celestia tentatively stroking the base of her horn for a few seconds before lowering her head and swiftly closing the door behind her the second her hooves made contact with the red carpet of the stone corridor.
The princess sighed before giggling. “I will never hear the end of this little fail of mine…” She looked down at Twilight. “Well you seem in an awfully good mood, my little Twilight.”
Twilight offered a massive smile. Celestia giggled as she looked behind Twilight and spotted a pair of ponies. “Oh, Sunflower, that’s where you went, I see you found Octave.” She walked past Twilight to the two ponies. The was the one Twilight had seen the days before. She was yellow all over with her mane covering one of her bright green eyes. Behind her stood a stallion that looked to be as old as Moonglow’s stallion friend. He was gray with a white mane and pink eyes and a musical note as his cutie mark.
“Hey there Princess, thanks for bailing me out of Gym.” The young stallion smiled. Celestia chuckled.
“Then be a dear and take the little ones to the nursery, I need to grab Venus from the Medical wing.”
The stallion saluted as a joke and walked over to Twilight and the others and began leading them away. Twilight managed to shoot a desperate glace at the princess. She got lucky.
“Twilight dear, how about you come along with me?” Celestia softly asked. Twilight squeaked and shot forward stopping just before Celestia’s hooves.
Celestia smiled but said nothing as she watched the others disappear behind a corner. Then she finally looked down at Twilight. Her horn began to glow with her signature golden glow as the pile of school supplies levitated off Twilight’s back and popped into nothingness. “I teleported them to your room Twi’, so you don’t have to carry all that stuff around.” She gently smiled as she crouched down, inviting Twilight to hop on her back.
The filly wasted no time to just be together with her favorite pony in the world! Ok… maaaaybe Moonglow and Shinning came before… maybe…
Twilight, being the somewhat reckless and clumsy filly, slipped as she tried to wrap her hooves around the Princesses neck and managed to accidentally strike the alicorn at the base of her right wing. The princes winched as her wings spread open out of instinct.
Only now Twilight noticed something was off. Her mentor’s right wing was around half its original size with ruffled and misaligned feathers sporting a few droplets of dried blood.
“Princess, are you alright?!” The filly gasped as Celestia rose back up on her hooves. Her expression was still a little bit paned but she seemed fine.
“I… I'm fine, Twilight. Remember what I said about somepony having a baby hydra?” The filly slowly nodded with concern in her eyes. “Well that’s taking care of.” She offered a small smile. “Don’t worry, we took it far, far away. There’s a swamp called Froggy Bottom Bog near the Everfree forest and we let the little monster go free, though I still have to have a word with the colt’s parents.”
Celestia shot an angry grin at nothing in particular. She looked back at still concerned Twilight who seemed to have frozen in place to not hurt the Princess by accident again. “Serves me right,” She continued. “I have a thing for using my wings for various random tasks, guess that’s a lesson learned.” She gently giggled.
“Come now Twilight, let’s visit little Venus from Nagaraac.”
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Twilight sat on the soft carpet of the nursery as she listened to her Mentor talk about dragons and such. Spike had curled up in her hooves and now was snoring against her chest. She looked to the side.
There were eight ponies in total, the Princess excluded. Herself and Cluster, Sunflower, the filly from the Puffle’s, Venus the small and edgy, red and green filly from Nagaraac she had visited in the Medical wing. There was a small, gem-enchanted respirator around her muzzle. Apparently the filly had severe lung problems and couldn’t do half the stuff Twilight on a daily basis did and she also had to wear the respirator wherever she went. The hissing sound was kinda’ annoying though…
There was also the older colt, Octave, with his sky-blue dragon that tried to join the conversation with foalish mumbles. There were three more but Twilight couldn’t remember their names. One was a lavender colt that looked as old as Moonglow and then there were two young mares, one was orange and this was apparently her and her orange dragoness’s last year at the school. And the other mare was lime green with a completely shaved mane and this was her fourth year in the school. Her yellow, boy-dragon was silently sleeping behind her, occasionally flapping his hoof-sized wings.
All and all, this had been fun. Twilight learnt so many things about dragons, and in any case, she was happy to not be near Mrs. Mandagor’e and she was thankful for the chance to spend so much time with Spike, up until the dragon had fainted from playing too much.
Apparently hiding her eyes behind her hooves was super-exciting for the little buddy…
“…no actual time period when they grow wings, though that shouldn’t be a discouragement, since it can depend o-” The door slammed open and Celestia was cut off as everypony (and awake dragon) turned to see a few familiar ponies.
“Lookie here, I see nine ponies who were late for dinner!” Moonglow, the midnight blue, overgrown-filly with a white mane and a big ruby earring smirked as she walked into the nursery levitating half-a-dozen metal plates with those weird domes covering them. Behind her appeared her two best friends, Sky and Aurora, with drinks and more plates that seemed to be steaming. Out of nowhere came Starshine with a bunch of napkins and towels on his back and in his mouth. And of course, behind him was a very disgruntled Lyra, probably unsure why the heck was she even there, carrying a basket of spoons and forks.
At first the princess looked shocked but after a spark of her horn, checking on the sun’s position, and a glance at a clock that had actually died at half past six she smiled back at the group of intruders. “If we keep having take-outs the kitchen staff is really going to flip, Moon’.” For the first time in her life Twilight had heard the princess use any kind of slang in her speech. It was… stunning to say the least.
Moonglow stuck out her tongue at the princess before she spotted the purple-all-over colt. “‘Sup Lavender?”
“Nothing…” the colt mumbled back. “Only Checker’s been asking about you all day…”
“Aww, ain’t that cute?” Moonglow replied in her usual tone as she looked at the black-and-white dragon next to the colt. She tossed her head to one side and the plates she was carrying spun around and landed just before every other pony in the room. “Hayloaf and apple fritters on me!” She joked as her two friends placed down the rest of the plates and drinks.
Spike churned in his sleep as did most the other dragons. His emerald eyes popped open and he smiled at Twilight before noticing the shiny plate before him. The little dragon reached out for the object with an intention to eat it just before Twilight stuffed an opal in his mouth like a pacifier and placed him in a pile of pillows beside her.
Twilight didn’t even get a chance to breathe before her sister appeared beside her and shoved her aside as she sat down. The filly scowled at her sibling who was smiling back her usual arrogant tone.
Twilight felt a poke from behind her. She tossed her head around and expected to see her little dragon, instead she was met with a pair of turquoise eyes.
“GAH!” She backpedaled only a few hoofs before she tripped over her sister’s laying form.
“Heh, you alright Twi’?” he asked.
“I hate you all…” the filly mumbled as she re-opened her eyes to see none other than Starshine. “How did Moonglow get you in on this? More importantly how in the wide world of Equestria did you get Lyra in on this thing?” Twilight asked as she felt her sister’s amber aura pick her off the ground and place her back on her hooves.
“Well…” The colt started with an odd smile. He paused. “Your sister’s very persuasive. Besides, Lyra really wanted to see the dragons, she said something about a sister telling her stories or whatever, I can barely make what she says anyway since she's uber quiet all the time…” The colt carelessly placed his hooves behind his head and leaned back.
“You’re the only one she actually talks to, ya’ know…” Moonglow turned to Twilight who looked back wide-eyed. “I knew from day one she wasn’t a squealer, ether.” The aged filly smirked.
Twilight took a few moments to look in her sister’s amber eyes. Then she looked away and saw that everypony (and dragon!) was already eating their dinner. She looked over to Celestia to see two phoenixes sitting on her head along with an apple fritter levitating before them. One of the fiery birds, the bright red and golden, was Philomena and the other-
Moonglow stuck a hoof in her mouth and whistled. “Pyrelight! Over here!”
The other phoenix lifted its head and hooted as she noticed the midnight blue pony. She spread her golden and bright green wings and took flight, while snatching the rest of the fritter on the way.
Pyrelight flew over the three foals before doing a summersault and weightlessly landing on the tip of Moonglow’s horn. The filly and her phoenix looked back to see Celestia and Philomena glaring them down and looking for their lost snack. Starshine stifled a snicker.
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After what seemed forever, Twilight was munching down of her hayloaf. Celestia had excused herself and left to meet with this princess or whatever she was, because Celestia was the Princess and there couldn’t be another princess, Twilight thought.
Lavender, the colt who was purple all over, turned out to be from Moonglow’s class and he and Aurora were sitting aside talking about whatever older ponies talked about. Sky, Cluster and three others had turned in early and the nursery was becoming quieter and quieter as time passed. Moonglow had stayed with Twilight and Starshine the entire evening, as if making up for something. Lyra was nowhere to be seen and Twilight assumed the filly just left. Spike was gone too but Twilight didn’t worry about the dragon much, since he had a tendency to wander off.
But finally she felt a big yawn coming her way. Twilight pressed her head against her sister’s chest and closed her eyes.
Sleep now, stuff later.
“Hey Twiley, how about you and Star go to bed?” Twilight heard her sister’s melodic voice draw her away from the grasp of sleep. “I’ll stay back and help Aurora and Lavender clean up.”
Twilight forced one eye open. “Make sure Spike is ok, ok?” She mumbled.
“Of course.”
Twilight felt her pillow get up. And by pillow she meant her sister. The filly wobbled, as she blinked open her eyes and pushed herself up on her hooves. “What if I get lost?” She wasn’t sure if she thought or muttered that sentence. She saw a golden-green light fly over her and something in her mind told her to follow the oddly colored phoenix to her bed. And so she did. And Starshine dragged himself behind her.
Today was a good day.
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Moonglow walked between the empty cribs of the nursery. The light was dim, the giant room powered by only half a dozen wisps, which was pretty horrible considering the ceiling was three alicorn’s high and the nursery was the size of the library.
Moonglow squinted her amber eyes to try and make out general shapes, but she too, felt sleep gripping the edged of her mind. After all, she was only twelve.
As Moonglow placed her hoof down she stepped into something squishy. “Oh for the love of !!! Nightshade, I am going to murder you if this is what I think it is…” the filly hissed as she raised her hoof to her nose. It didn’t smell like… it smelled like apples… apple fritters…
Moonglow shook off her hoof and stepped around a stack of boxes to see a small, aquamarine filly with a purple dragon curled in her embrace. A pale yellow light came from the filly’s horn.
Moonglow raised an eyebrow and looked up, trying to see her own midnight blue horn. She closed her eyes for a few seconds. As she opened them the remnants of manalight faded from her eyes and instead, her horn now glew with a pale amber light.
“Neat.” She smiled, but that smile quickly faded as she looked down at the little filly before her. “Oh Lyra.” Moonglow sighed as she picked up the two creatures in her magical field and gently placed them on her back. Having a baby sister left you with a few useful skills as an ex-part-time-foalsitter.
Moonglow tilted her head a bit so the light from her horn lit up a small circle around her. She thought back to the apple fritter she’d stepped in and mentally warped her magic around the plate and the mush atop it. The aged filly looked to where Lyra had been sleeping and saw a pair of chewed sapphires along with an untouched hayloaf. Moonglow easily picked the items up with her amber magic and turned the way she came from.
Lyra stirred in her sleep just a tad and that made Moonglow turn her head. She looked at the small aquamarine unicorn that resembled her own sister so very much for a few moments before looked past the filly to see her own mark. Three magenta six-point-stars that looked just like Twilight’s.
“The things you’ll do in your lifetime…” The aged filly whispered to nopony in particular. “Stars don’t mean magic… they mean future, and your future… it’s colorful…” Moonglow nuzzled the little filly’s cheek.
“Very colorful.”