//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11: Backwards and Forwards 
// Story: Magic in the Stars 
// by Australian Chaos 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 11

Backwards and Forwards


After the incident in the mall involving Cosmo and Derpy Hooves, Starfall's life returned to a sense of normality for the following week. He did not see Derpy again after that day, and simply assumed she had returned to Ponyville, where she had mentioned living. The little piece of information had made him ask if she knew a young mare about their age called Twilight Sparkle. Derpy had replied that while she did not know Twilight personally, she did know one of the unicorn's closest friends, a pegasus called Rainbow Dash, who she was on relatively good terms with.

Starfall also never saw any more of his former friend Cosmo after that day, and though he didn't like admitting it, kind of hoped he did not bump into the black unicorn again. With the way Cosmo had reacted to him, he would not put it past Cosmo to try and hurt him in some way. It seemed that, even after nearly two years, Cosmo still had not forgiven Starfall for what had happened...

Then there was the matter of the two fillies who had casually passed off a rumour within earshot of Starfall about him attempting to get cosy with Princess Luna. While it was true that many colts and stallions had dreams of marrying either of Equestria's ruling alicorns, Starfall knew it was a dream nopony could possibly hope would become reality. Even so, over the next week, his mind refused to leave the subject alone, forcing him to beat back several daydreams daily of him and Princess Luna in situation that could be easily interpreted as more than friendly, should anypony find a way of accessing his thoughts.

In an attempt to banish these daydreams, Starfall simply poured himself harder into his studies during his evenings with Princess Luna, as they covered material on the planets hovering distantly in the night sky. Learning about their odd, and sometimes downright strange orbital patterns, along with the ways one could differentiate them from a star, even with the naked eye. Towards the end of his first week of actual study under the Princess of the Night, he had learned more about the planets than he had in his entire life, and now felt he had a much better understanding of not only the distant worlds, but also of the night sky in general.

But as intensive as his study regime was, Starfall had noticed that Princess Luna was giving him looks that grew more and more surprised each day. Eventually, on Friday, after five nights of exhaustive study of the planets, Starfall put down his quill, having just taken some more notes on a particular planet they were focusing their studies on, only to look up and find Princess Luna once more giving him that look. It was like she wanted to say something, but at the same time was reluctant to say it.

"Uhh, Princess Luna?" he called tentatively, gently seeing whether she was going to say whatever was on her mind. "Is something wrong? Did I miss something in my notes?" he asked, sounding almost wary...her fiery temper that had been prevalent when they had first met was still fresh in his memory, and he had no desire to repeat the experience tonight, or any time at all while he remained her student.

Princess Luna blinked, looking at him like he had just snapped her out of a particularly deep set of thoughts, before shaking her head. "No, no...'tis nothing, Starfall. Return to thy studies," she assured him, though Starfall could tell she was being far from honest. Figuring it was not his place to pry a Princess about her troubles, though, Starfall did as he was requested, once more heading over to the telescope to continue tracking the planet's orbit.

He had noted, as his books and studies had backed up, that this planet had a rather odd orbit. It would make it's way along the southern side of the sky, as any other star, or even the sun might in winter. But then, about two thirds of the way across the sky, it would slow down, stop, and start to backtrack, retracing it's steps through the sky. He had been tracking this reverse orbit for almost two hours now, and noted that it was slowing down in the sky once again.

Over the next hour, Starfall kept making notes on the planet's position in the sky, and was stunned by what the figures were telling him. The planet had slowed it's reverse orbit to a complete stop, and was now resuming it's old, normal orbit, heading back the way it had originally been going when it had first made its way above the horizon.

Starfall was both baffled and amazed by this phenomenon, but did not speak up, instead continuing the track the planet's path, and keep regular notes on it. But he found that there was little of interest left to document. The planet seemed to be done with it's strange dance, and was heading with apparent purpose towards the south-western horizon once more, and speeding up as it went.

Some time later, as the planet finally faded below the horizon, Starfall finally packed up the telescope and went back to his desk to assimilate his notes and consolidate them into something a little more substantial than a series of numbers and figures with scribbled notes stuck in the margins and between the numbers. Princess Luna had apparently decided that this planet was the one they were going to study exclusively for the next few weeks, and Starfall figured that it's erratic orbits, and reasons behind it, were one of the reasons for her choice. He did have to admit that, despite having a greater affinity for stars over planets, that this strange orbital path had left him fascinated, and curious about it. He figured that the next lesson would be more theoretical than today's practical approach, probably learning about the nature of the planet's orbit, and why it was like this.

As he got his notes and observations neatened out and explained in better detail, he noted that the lesson only had fifteen minutes left to it. It was at this point that Princess, as was her habit, came over to his side, looking at his work over his shoulder, once more giving a strange look at his progress. "Very well, Starfall, we think thy work is more than adequate for tonight. Thou hast made greater progress than I had predicted once again," she commented as an aside note, almost to herself, leaving Starfall nodding, smiling slightly at the compliment, before moving to pack up, stopping only on two occasions to add a little something to his findings as a new thought or idea struck him.

Sure enough, Starfall found himself packed up ten minutes early, looking over to Princess Luna, wondering if she really intended to finish the lesson early...something she had adamantly refused to do before now. Sure enough, before Starfall could even pose the question, she nodded, gesturing to the door in a distracted manner...a manner which extended to her tone as she spoke up. "Move along, young Starfall. We shall continue this lesson tomorrow evening," she insisted.

Starfall gave her an odd glance, giving her one last chance to say what was leaving her distracted to the point where she was treating him with something akin to kindness, before finally moving to leave. "Okay, then. Thank you, Princess Luna. I guess I'll see you tomorrow," he said, a little awkward at the strangeness of the conversation, before moving to leave.

As he reached the doorway though, Princess Luna's voice made him stop. "Wait, Starfall." Despite the apparent demand in her wording, her tone was soft and reluctant...clearly having an internal battle over whatever she was about to say.

Starfall turned, respectfully facing her, but otherwise remained silent as he waited to see what the Princess would say, if anything. After several moments of awkward silence, the Princess of the Night finally spoke again. "We...there is something we feel we should say. But we are not sure how to say it..."

Starfall really did not know quite what to say to this, especially since he did not have the faintest clue what Princess Luna was trying to say. A few possible responses came to mind, but he rapidly beat them back, trying to focus on the Princess was actually saying, and not what his mind was trying to suggest she would say.

"We..." Princess Luna got off to a staggering start, before appearing to gather herself. "We feel we owe you an apology, Starfall," she finally managed to say, Starfall blinking at her in stunned disbelief.

He had heard her words, and understood them, but to him, they just did not make any sense, coming front the Princess of the Night. "I don't understand, Princess. What do you think you need to apologise for?" he asked.

"Please, Starfall, spare the foolish act, we both know the reason for our apology," Princess Luna replied, her tone only marginally irritated. Despite her accusation, she ploughed on regardless. "We realise that our attitude towards thee has been...unpleasant, to put it mildly." She seemed to have gotten over the hardest part of what she wanted to say, once more charging ahead before Starfall could reply in any fashion. "We have been very hard on you these first weeks, and let our initial opinion of you cloud our judgement."

That last statement allowed Starfall to put the pieces together, and finally understand what Princess Luna was trying to say. After their initial meeting, in which she accused him of some rather serious crimes, she had been unable to get the idea that he was some kind of criminal out of her mind, and had been treating him as such. But from what she was saying, she had woken up to it, and was trying to apologise for it.

"After accusing thou of discovering the secret of the stars by unpleasant means, we fear we let our initial judgement of thee cloud our observations of thee, trying to see thou as the criminal we were sure thou were. Instead, we are forced to admit our mistake. Thou hast proven thyself to be an incredibly hard worker, and intensely focused on the studies we have arranged. We apologise for treating thee with such hostility, and hope to improve our attitude in the future."

Starfall had to admit to himself that this was probably one of the strangest situations he had ever been in. Here he was, with the Princess of the Night, in said Princess' personal study area, in the middle of the night, having said Princess apologise to him for treating him rather harshly since they had first met, a meeting which Starfall knew beyond any doubt had not left a good first impression.

Finally, after a few moments, seeing Princess Luna staring at him expectantly got him to get his throat working again. "Princess Luna, I know we didn't get off to the best start, and that was always going to cause problems. And as my mentor, I believe pushing me hard is almost in the job description, even more so when you account for the advanced studies I'm doing."

Princess Luna seemed surprised by his response, and her own words confirmed it. "Starfall, we feel there is a difference between pushing somepony to doing their best, and just being horrible to them. We crossed that line before we even commenced thy studies."

Starfall nodded, understanding her explanation, and even if he realised that she was right, he really did not hold it against her. "Princess, like I said, we got off to a bad start. You thought I was a criminal...you were always going to be suspicious of me for a while, even if I am glad you don't think that way about me any more. In any case, Princess Luna, I accept your apology," he added, offering a small smile.

Princess Luna gave a relieved smile of her own back. "We thank thee, Starfall. And we hope to improve our behaviour into something befitting a Princess of the Night." She paused, briefly, looking out the window to the night sky, before turning back. "It is late, and we have kept thou long enough, Starfall. We shall see thou tomorrow," she added.

Starfall bowed, doing a good job of containing his joy as Princess Luna nodded respectfully. It looked like they were finally going to turn a page, and with any luck, the next few weeks would be a lot more pleasant. "Good night, Princess," he said as he made his out of her study, ready to head back to his tower and get a good night's sleep.

But Princess Luna's final, parting words left Starfall with the feeling the next few weeks were going to be some of the best he had ever had in his life. "Starfall? Feel free to just call us Luna."