Neigh Orleans had a proud tradition of not bothering celebrities, letting them get on with their lives in the understanding that being pestered by reporters or fans was not conducive to one’s patience – nor the health of a too-eager pony in a city surrounded by alligator-infested bayou. Thus it was without much fanfare when a large, official-looking carriage pulled up to the home of Moonsinger and Sky Shaper a week later, and Princess Luna stepped from it without the need to wait for her Night Guard to clear a crowd first. The Night Guard were here, of course, taking up guard positions, watching carefully for any sign of trouble as was their duty. There was very little in the world that could harm Luna anymore, but the same could not be said for anypony who happened to be nearby. The Night Guard was perhaps the only bodyguard corps in the world who’s primary mission was to protect those around their charge, rather than the charge herself.
There was no need to knock or announce her presence; the door to the small home swung open within seconds of Luna stepping from her carriage. “Majesté!” exclaimed Sky Shaper. “Bonjour! Come in, come in…”
Luna smiled at the eagerness of the commoner, following him into his home without pause. The whole family was waiting for her inside, all looking much more at ease now that a week had passed since Quartermoon’s death. Their pain was already passing, and they were already trying to get back to their normal lives.
“We, ah, didn’ know when you was coming,” Moonsinger said apologetically, her horn glowing as she tried to hide a dust cloth behind her back. “Ah’m sorry for the state of the place…”
Luna shook her head and put on her best reassuring smile. “It’s quite alright,” she insisted, then turned her attention to the four foals, all of whom were looking up at her with no small degree of reverence now that there was some distance between themselves and their grandfather’s funeral. “And how are you four?”
“We doin’ okay, majesté,” Limelight answered for the other three. As Luna had expected, his brave front had indeed transformed into true determination to make sure that everything was okay for his sisters and cousin, and he visibly drew strength from the chance to play big brother.
Luna nodded at the foals. “If you four don’t mind,” she said, “I need to have a private discussion with your parents, for the moment. But I’ll need to speak with you four as well.” She looked to Trixie. “You, in particular.”
Trixie shifted a little at that, eyes widening, as the other three foals looked quite concerned. “A…am Ah in trouble, majesté?” she asked.
Luna shook her head, her smile widening. “Not at all. Now, if you will excuse us…”
---
Luna had eaten at all of the finest banquet halls in Equestria and all of its surrounding nations for thousands of years, yet somehow, nothing ever quite beat the taste of home cooking. Neigh Orleans tradition made it bad manners to discuss anything without some kind of food nearby, and Moonsinger had been cooking up a storm of her best nibbling foods prior to Luna’s arrival. The recipes were strange, but surprisingly palatable – very surprisingly, given that Luna was ordinarily quite a picky eater.
(She particularly liked the shrimp and crawdad, and had to suppress a grin at the thought of how high Canterlot society would react to the idea of the Princess eating meat. Lunesiana in general, and Neigh Orleans in particular, were infamous throughout the rest of Equestria for their very-slightly carnivorous dishes)
Moonsinger sat at the head of the table – Luna insisted, as this was her house – with Sky Shaper to her right, and Luna on her left. Once they had settled in and Luna had paid her compliments to the mare for the food, she took a few moments to gather her thoughts.
“Trixie’s special talent,” she said, ruffling her wings a little. “It’s magic – but, more than that, it’s doing magic for others. That is a very rare and unique gift.”
Sky Shaper and Moonsinger looked between each other, and Moonsinger smiled a little. “Mon père had the same talent,” she said. “Even if Trixie don’ want to be un magicien anymore. She used to wan’ it more than anythin’, but with him gone now…”
Luna waited a moment as Sky Shaper placed a gentle hoof on Moonsinger’s withers, rubbing her shoulder, before pressing on. “I’m certain that that is only a reaction to Quartermoon’s passing. I take it the two were very close?”
Moonsinger and Sky Shaper nodded. “Don’ tell the other peeshwanks this…” Sky Shaper said, “Well, actually, they prob’ly know, mais…Ah think she was his favorite. She look so much like her mother…”
Luna nodded. Quartermoon had told her – as Moonbeam – about Crescent’s death a few times over the years. Trixie had even helped her grandfather in a few magic shows, with Moonbeam serving as a chaperone for the little filly on occasion, getting to know her rambunctious nature first-hoof. Luna was certain that Quartermoon had loved all his grandchildren dearly, and would never have declared any of them his favorites and heavily resented the implication…but it was obvious which one he had doted on the most.
The Princess considered a few moments. “On occasion,” Luna said, “I have…taken ponies under my wing.” She ruffled her wings for emphasis. “Ponies within whom I saw the potential for greatness, who could impact Equestria in a very meaningful way. I think that Trixie could be one of those ponies.” Moonsinger and Sky Shaper both had their eyes widen in surprise at that, and Luna pressed on. “With your permission, and Trixie’s, I would like to apprentice her, with me, in Canterlot.”
“Apprentice her?” Sky Shaper asked, leaning forward. “Apprentice her for what, majesté?”
Luna shook her head. “Anything she wanted. I am…quite old, and have mastered a very large number of professions and trades over my lifetime as a result.” Luna shifted a little. “I would most prefer it if Trixie wished to join the Night Court. A special talent like hers could be of immense value to the ponies of Equestria. I think that Trixie could be nurtured into a noble in every sense of the word – ”
“A noble?” Moonsinger asked, eyes widening greatly. “Mon petite Lulamoon? But we are only commoners…”
Luna smiled. “More than a quarter of the nobles of the Night Court have commoner origins,” she said. “And especially in this modern age we live in, where railroad tycoons or business trusts can have as much, or more, power than a noble…I don’t think it would inappropriate in the slightest.” She checked herself. “That is, if you are alright with the prospect – and if Trixie herself is. She does not have to pursue a noble title. Not everypony I have apprenticed in the past has pursued that path. Orchard Blossom, for example, preferred painting and sculpture. Or Simple Words, who merely reorganized and modernized Equestria’s laws some hundred years ago before settling into quiet retirement.”
There had been nine in all, over the past thousand years. Four of them had been ennobled; their families were still members of the Night Court and had made it through Luna’s previous purges of the Night Court intact, if not necessarily untarnished. Three more had had no taste for governance and yet had still been helped by Luna to fully realize their potential. Orchard Blossom, for example, had been a painter, sculptor, and even an amateur architect – and had designed almost half of Cayo El Bayo in that final capacity since she lived there and decided the place needed some ‘sprucing up.’
Two…two had disappointed her. They had let their position as Luna’s apprentice, or the skills that she had taught them, go to their heads and utilized them for their own base desires. Mistral Concert had merely used his position as a noble for luxury, doing nothing extraordinary as a noble, and had passed the bad traits onto his sons and daughters. Luna had been forced to purge the family from the Night Court five centuries ago. Rimewind, meanwhile…well, she had been stopped in the end, before she could hurt anypony permanently.
Luna shook her head, clearing that memory away. “I do not wish to suggest that Trixie is in need of my patronage,” she said. “I am certain that she could develop into anything she wanted on her own. And, I could understand how you might not wish a niece you have raised like a daughter to live so far away – or how Trixie herself might balk, especially so soon after Quartermoon’s passing.”
The two ponies looked between each other, Sky Shaper unconsciously extending a wing to brush against Moonsinger’s side. “It’s…it’s quite an offer, majesté. Living in Canterlot…”
Luna was essentially making a sales pitch, and saw nothing wrong with playing up the benefits. “She would live in Canterlot Castle,” she said. “I have a set of apartments there set aside for this purpose, in fact, very near to my own chambers. We just finished renovating the entire castle to have gas heating and lighting, as well as mixer taps for hot and cold water in our plumbing. And of course there is the Royal Library, the Royal Gardens, not to mention all the sights and attractions of the city of Canterlot itself.”
Moonsinger smiled a little. “Oui, Ah’ve been. Mais, Ah’m not worried ‘bout that, majesté. Ah’m worried ‘bout not seein’ Lulamoon for years an’ years.”
Luna offered a smile of her own. “It would not be like an old-style apprenticeship. Rather, it would be much more like Trixie going to a boarding school, including time off during Hearth’s Warming Eve, and over the summer, when she could return to Neigh Orleans. And of course, should you wish to visit her at any other time, arrangements could be made. This would also not have to begin immediately by any means – Trixie could finish her school year here in Neigh Orleans, and come to Canterlot this fall.”
The husband and wife considered. “Ah…Ah suppose we’d have to see if Lulamoon wants it,” Sky Shaper said. “If she’s okay with the idea, majesté.”
Luna nodded. “Of course.”
---
Trixie and her cousins had been brought in by her uncle and aunt, and the whole situation explained to them. Predictably – based on the eight previous times Luna had done this – Trixie was at first confused at the offer, following by surprised and elated and ready to say ‘yes’ in an instant. Luna had stepped in then.
“But you would be living in Canterlot,” she said. “It’s four days away by train. You’d be there for most of the year, for at least the next seven years – more likely ten years, or more. You wouldn’t be living with your family, your aunt and uncle and cousins.”
Trixie blinked at that, her instant acceptance tempered. She had been standing with her front hooves on the table, but at Luna’s words she fell back onto her haunches, looking down. “Oh,” she said.
Luna pressed her lips together. “As well, much of my time is taken up by affairs of the Crown,” she said. “I would make every effort to make time for you beyond simply being your teacher, as much as I could, but…it might be less than a young filly needs.” Fears of that had been exactly what had kept her from raising a daughter of her own, despite the opportunity – but that was the past, and things had worked out…as well as could be expected, for the moment. Luna pushed thoughts of Cadance from her mind. Trixie was not a newborn filly, she had been raised by a loving family already, the most important, formative years of her life already taken care of by her uncle, aunt, and late grandfather.
Trixie looked into Luna’s eyes, with a little defiance shining in her own. “But Ah got mah cutie mark!” she insisted. “Ah’m not a little filly no more.”
The adults in the room – including Luna – traded knowing smiles at that. “Of course not, shâ,” Moonsinger said. “But you ain’t a grown-up neither.”
Trixie couldn’t argue that particular point, though she looked might she might try anyway. Her cousins, meanwhile – consciously or otherwise – had bunched closer to Trixie, as though trying to protect her from Luna taking her away. “How come we don’ get to go to Canterlot?” Sharp Minded asked. “Ah wanna go!”
“Me too!” Night Echo insisted. The youngest pony in the room stepped even closer to her older cousin, small wing folding as best it could around Trixie’s back. “We…we could move to Canterlot! Oui? An’ all live in the castle!” She beamed at her apparently genius solution to the problem. Sharp Minded seemed equally pleased with the idea, but Limelight, if anything, blanched.
Luna looked to Moonsinger and Sky Shaper. “That is a possibility,” she admitted. “I could even help pay for the move. Not to the castle, most likely, but a home in Canterlot could certainly be found.” It wouldn’t even have to be government tax money that some malcontent could whine about. Luna had over the past several thousand years invested a considerable amount of her own personal finances into a variety of places, and was quite independently wealthy as a result.
The two other adults both shook their heads, however. “Ah don’ want to uproot the whole family,” Moonsinger said. “An’ this home has been mah family’s for generations, an’ Neigh Orleans too. There’s as much bayou as blood in mah veins, majesté.”
“An’ what ‘bout all our friends here in Neigh Orleans?” Limelight asked his sister. A very small jolt went through Trixie at that, even though the question wasn’t directed at her.
Luna nodded in understanding at Moonsinger and Limelight, and then turned to Sharp Minded. “To answer your question,” she said, “the apprenticeship I’m offering is one-on-one. I can make time for Trixie, to teach her whatever she desires, but I couldn’t make room for two young foals, teaching you each different subjects. It wouldn’t be fair to either of you.”
“But why Trixie?” Sharp Minded demanded. “C’est pas juste! Just ‘cause she done got her cutie mark an’ now she gets to go to Canterot…”
“Hey!” Trixie exclaimed. “Ah didn’ ask for this!”
Sky Shaper’s wings snapped open, and the arguing foals both noticed and stopped their exchange. “La Princesse se tient là, poulains,” he reminded them.
The two fillies both looked down at the admonishment. “Désolé,” they said as one.
Luna wasn’t sure how she could explain things in a way that wouldn’t continue to seem so unfair to Sharp Minded. Instead, she looked to Moonsinger and Sky Shaper. “This isn’t a decision that needs to be reached immediately,” she said. “You can take as long as you need.” She looked to Trixie. “You as well, Trixie. I am asking you to make a choice about your future that normally could wait for several years…it’s not a decision you should rush into.” She leaned down from where she was, so that she could look across the table at Trixie’s eye level. “And no matter what else, I want you to be happy in your choice.”
Cutie mark or no, she was only a young foal, yet Trixie seemed to understand the importance of Luna’s wish for Trixie. She nodded. “Oui,” she said. “Ah…Ah think Ah know what Ah want, mais…Ah’ll wait, majesté.”
Luna nodded once again, and looked to the adults. “As I said, take as long as you need. I shall be in Neigh Orleans for the rest of the day, staying at Margrave Blue Skies’ estate. If you need longer I can have priority given to any letters sent to Canterlot.”
“Merci,” Moonsinger said, “But Ah don’ think that we’ll need that long. We can’ meet you before you leave.”
Luna acknowledged that with a nod, then looked back to Trixie. “Whatever choice you make, I will support,” she promised, “now and always.”
---
Luna had heard it theorized that the older a pony got, the faster their perception of time was. A young foal and an old stallion would experience the same objective hour, but for the young foal it would appear to take an interminable amount of time to pass, while the old stallion would feel that it took a subjectively shorter while.
The Princess found the inverse to be true, for herself, anyway. She had no true idea how old she was; her best guess was that she was somewhere around forty thousand years, but truthfully anything before she and her sister had begun interacting with ponies some ten thousand years ago was distorted and blurred. After all, before getting to know the mortal, miniature versions of alicorns, she had had never had a reason to distinguish between seconds and seasons – not for any protracted period of time, anyway.
She found that time, especially, seemed to slow down when she wished it would go by faster. Margrave Blue Skies was not an unpleasant pony by any means, and was in fact exceptionally genial at being able to host the Princess twice in as many weeks. No doubt the margrave would spin the perceived favor to his advantage in the Night Court; as long as it was nothing more than name-dropping and a general sense that he was on good terms with the Princess, Luna wouldn’t begrudge him it. They spent time going over some plans for expanding Neigh Orleans by draining some of the nearby bayou, to which Luna gave her blessing provided the environmental impact could be minimized; as well, Blue Skies showed Luna the planned web of telegraph lines that would be going up over the next few months, adding Neigh Orleans to the growing list of cities connected by wire to Canterlot.
It wasn’t boring, per se; at least, Luna didn’t find it such. Certainly Blue Skies’ focus on things of true importance to the largest city in Lunesiana was better than some of the minutiae she had to deal with back in Canterlot – she almost shuddered every time she thought about the Great Letterhead Controversy. However, talking with the Margrave wasn’t what she wanted. As a result, seconds seemed to last minutes, minutes crawled by like hours, and hours moved with the geological slowness of a glacier.
At length, just as she was about to lower the Sun beyond the horizon, Luna had been contacted by one of Blue Skies’ servants, who informed Luna that the Moonsinger family were awaiting her presence in one of the margrave’s lounges, the margrave and his staff having been informed that the family would likely be showing up at some point. Luna and Blue Skies had asked the kitchen staff to prepare some light snacks as per Neigh Orleanean tradition, Luna had lowered the Sun – doing her best to ignore her sister’s presence within it, as always, and almost succeeding, as always – and then went to meet them.
She found the small herd of commoners having already taken some seats, each looking out-of-place in the opulence of the margrave’s estate. Moonsinger and Sky Shaper had both pulled on their best formal capes, shirts, jackets, and shoes, dressing their best for their visit to the home of the provincial noble. The foals, meanwhile, forwent clothing beyond simple capes of reasonably fine material. Even the foals of nobility tended to, since clothing was generally reserved for special occasions only and foals grew in size too quickly to make constantly replacing their outfits economical, even for the wealthy.
Introductions between Moonsinger and her family and Margrave Blue Skies were made, for the in the name of formality, and a few minutes of light banter for politeness’ sake was performed, Blue Skies complimenting Moonsinger’s set designs on a play he had seen, and the excellent weather that Sky Shaper had played a part in organizing and making for Neigh Orleans. The Margrave, however, knew that he wasn’t really a part of this conversation, and so as soon as the food arrived from the kitchens and was found to be satisfactory for everypony, he found a reason to excuse himself and did so. Luna appreciated that, and resolved to tell him such before she left.
And so, it was just Luna, Moonsinger, Sky Shaper, their three children, and Trixie.
“So,” Luna said, as they all settled down onto couches. “I take it, then, that you have reached a decision?”
“Oui,” Sky Shaper confirmed, and then looked expectantly to Trixie.
The foal shifted a little, tapping her front hooves together and taking a deep breath. After letting it out, she looked to Luna. “Oui, majesté,” she said. “Ah’d like to go to Canterlot an’ be your apprentice, s’il vous plaît.”
Sometimes, things went exactly the way Luna hoped they would. Usually only in small ways, but she counted and cherished the victories nonetheless. “Merci,” she responded, a broad smile on her face. “I would have supported any choice you made, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t happy you chose this one.”
“But Ah wan’ to finish mah school year first,” Trixie added quickly. She looked to her cousins. None of them looked elated at her choice. “An’…an’ you promise Ah can come back every year?”
“Of course,” Luna guaranteed. “And for a week on either side of Hearth’s Warming. I’m not trying to take you from your family.” The reassurance seemed to assuage the fears of Trixie’s cousins. Luna considered a moment. “Do you know what it is you would like to learn? I can teach you almost any trade or skill, help you become a master of anything you like. Mathematics, the sciences, artistry, spellcraft, even magic like that your grandfather performed.”
Trixie’s head turned to one side at that. “But you the Princess,” she said, no doubt trying to imagine Luna Equestris, Sovereign of Equestria, up on stage trying to perform sleight-of-hoof, and finding herself unable to truly see it happening.
Luna chuckled slightly. “I’ll admit to not being quite as good as your grandfather was, Trixie. And yes, some might balk at the idea of the Princess ‘wasting’ her time teaching a pony stage magic.” She leaned forward a little, and continued in a lower voice. “But the great thing about being Princess is that nopony can tell me what I can and can’t teach my apprentice, if it’s something she wants to learn.”
Trixie giggled a little, and despite themselves, so did her cousins. After a moment, Trixie shook her head. “Ah don’ want that, nohow,” she said. “Ah…Ah think Ah wan’ to teach mahself, just like Grand-père did. Mais…Ah think Ah want to try an’ become a noble pony, majesté.”
Luna leaned back up at that, and glanced to Sky Shaper and Moonsinger, who both nodded themselves, before looking back to Trixie. This was exactly what she wanted Trixie to choose, but she wouldn’t allow the pony to fly in blind. “I should warn you, Trixie,” Luna said, her smile dropping and doing her best to look as serious as the moment required, “that path is a difficult one to canter on. Most nobles, like Margrave Blue Skies, are raised from nearly birth into their positions. You will have to learn history, sociology, rhetoric, management, economics…catching up to a noble pony equal to your age won’t be easy, never mind progressing from there. And even once you are ennobled, the Night Court can be…difficult to navigate. Your skills will be constantly challenged, and your morals. You will face tough choices on a daily basis, and your every decision will affect the lives of hundreds, sometimes thousands, sometimes millions, of ponies at a time.”
Luna wasn’t even certain that a foal was capable of understanding this. Trixie stood up on the couch, however. “Ah still wan’ to try, majesté,” she said. “’Cause…’cause mah talent, it’s doin’ magic for others. Oui? An’ Grand-père, he say that magic, it ain’t the tricks. It’s more than that. It’s showin’ the audience somethin’ ordinary, an’ then turnin’ it into somethin’ special.” She smiled. “Ah think Ah can show Equestria a thing or two, majesté.”
Luna retained her stern visage for just a moment, but Trixie’s sure smile didn’t falter, and Luna couldn’t help but return it. “Well said,” she said, and looked to Sky Shaper and Moonsinger. “And you have no objections to this? Trixie has chosen to walk a very difficult path.”
“Oui,” Sky Shaper agreed. “Mais, it’s Lulamoon’s choice. She’s not all grown up yet, but she ain’t no petite peeshwank no more neither.”
“An’ we’ll be right here in Neigh Orleans if she needs us,” Moonsinger added.
Luna studied the two for a moment, before nodding. “Very well,” she said, and looked back to the couch that was full of foals. “And as for the rest of you…are you alright with your cousin’s choice?” It wasn’t something that they truly had a say in, of course, but Luna wanted to make sure that if this was really what Trixie wanted, she would be going into it with any grievances aired – no regrets kept bottled up, no objections kept hidden, nothing.
The foals nodded. “We talked,” Limelight said. “An’ we’ll be sad to see Lulamoon go…mais, she gotta go where she gotta go.”
Sharp Minded nodded as well, agreeing with her brother. “Ah’m jealous…” she said, “mais, Ah’ll just have to do somethin’ to make Lulamoon jealous. Maybe…get a special somepony first!”
“Excusez-moi?” Sky Shaper demanded, wings flaring a little. “Ah don’ think so, peeshwank!”
Trixie had made a face of her own at that, like she’d bitten into something bitter. “Ah don’ want a special somepony nohow. It’s icky.”
“Oui!” Night Echo agreed, the little pegasus standing on the couch and fluttering her wings. “An’ as long as Lulamoon come back every summer an’ Hearth’s Warming, an’ when she’s a noble she get me a castle an’ makes me a Lady, Ah’m okay with it, too!”
The latter probably wasn’t something that Trixie would be able to do, and all of the other ponies in the room knew it, but didn’t see a reason to disabuse Night Echo of her foalish fantasy; she’d figure things out on her own. “Very well, then,” Luna said, and smiled brightly. “In that case, I shall ask the Margrave to prepare a celebratory dinner for us. Thank you again, Trixie, for accepting my offer. I’m sure you will make me, and your family, very proud.”
Trixie beamed. “Oui!” she agreed.