Moonstone watched as Milky Way cuddled up to her sister, tucking her under her wing as she settled down, though it was clear from how the mare held herself that she didn’t trust him for a second. Galexia, who had returned to Moonstone momentarily, abandoned him once more to go hopping over to the little filly, who happily accepted the ferret into her forelegs, cuddling her, much to her sister’s chagrin.
Moonstone sighed, before turning back to his audience, ignoring the ferret that had betrayed him. “A long time ago, when I was a bit younger than you, I wasn’t able to use magic, no matter how hard I tried. I asked many ponies as I traveled if they would teach me, but they all said that they were too busy.”
“Late one night, a full moon shining above me in the sky, that’s when I got her. I was asleep on the side of the rode, exhausted from traveling that day, an-”
“Excuse me,” Hot Streak spoke up, raising a hoof. “Why were you sleeping on the side of the rode? Were you and your parents going somewhere?”
Moonstone opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything, unable to think of how to answer the question. After thinking for a moment, he stammered, “W-well, I was too far away from an inn to stay for the night, and I... Don’t remember where my parents were that night,” he explained, avoiding their eyes. “A-anyway, I was asleep, when I was awoken by a rapidly moving bush, vibrating for a moment before the largest ferret I’ve ever seen in my life pops out, charging right at me with foam coming out of its mouth, its eyes wide with feral rage.”
The foals’ eyes grew wide, before scooting a little closer, paying complete attention to what he was saying. “I’m still not sure what happened to help me, but that night, in that instant, I used magic for the first time! There was a large stick right in front of me, and without thinking, I reacted, flinging the stick up in time to hit that animal right under the jaw, knocking it up into the air. Surprised that it had worked, I almost missed my chance, barely hitting it again on the side of the head when it came back down. It stumbled, before getting back to its paws, though I could tell it was thinking twice about attacking me again.”
“Seizing the initiative, I hit the ferret again, causing it to squeak out in pain. I quickly followed it up with another hit, and after a couple more hits, it had finally had enough, and retreated, probably off to go lick its wounds.”
A couple of the colts cheered, while several of the fillies looked sad that he had beaten up a ‘defenseless’ animal. “Afterwards, I was so exhausted that I fell down, lying on my stomach as I gasped for breath. After a moment, I turned around, because I felt something on my back, and I was afraid it was a spider. When I looked, I saw several things that easily made that the best night of my life. First of all, I got this,” he explained, using his magic to lift his cape to show off his flank. “My cutie mark! I can only assume that it means I’m good at magic, but to be honest, I didn’t care, and I still don’t care! I had it, and that’s all that had mattered to me. Not that I had much time to look at it, because there, sitting on my flank, looking first at my cutie mark, and then at me, was Galexia,” he continued, looking over to his Familiar.
“She was barely a third the size, and her eyes looked huge at the time. She slowly padded up my back, looking me in the eyes, before climbing onto my mane, where she fell asleep. I had a hard time falling asleep in the grass that night, but it was still the best night’s rest I’ve ever had,” he finished, sighing happily.
“Wow...” the group gasped, before Hot Streak exclaimed, “So you got it when you got your cutie mark!”
“Nu-uh! Weren’t you listening?” one of the other colts argued. “He got it when he learned how to use magic!”
“But he said he didn’t know how to use magic, and that it was reflexes,” the red colt countered, getting ready to fight.
“Woah woah woah,” Moonstone interjected swiftly, jumping between them. “No fighting! For all I know, maybe you’re both right! Maybe familiars are so rare because both have to happen at once, who knows? But there’s no point in fighting about it! That’s not going to prove anything!”
The two colt stewed for a moment, before the consented, begrudgingly saying sorry to their opponent. The second after that, however, they both rushed right up to him, side by side, begging, “So can you teach us magic?! We want familiars too!”
“Uhh... H-help,” he squeaked, looking over to the mare to take over.
She, however, was giggling madly, laughing, “I don’t think so! Go ahead, teach them some magic,” she taunted, sticking her tongue out.
“W-what?! But, but they’re supposed to be learning manners or something,” he protested blindly, caught off-guard.
“Are you kidding? That’s just because that’s what all of the other nobles teach the kids! Every noble who has kids take turns watching the children to keep them from being a distraction to the meeting, and it’s up to them to tutor the foals. I was gonna teach them whatever they wanted to learn, and lo and behold, they want to learn magic, so go right ahead! Make my job easier,” she smirked, tossing her mane.
Moonstone swallowed, before looking back at the crowd of eager eyes, all silently begging him to teach them some magic. ‘Oh Frell me,’ he thought to himself, swallowing hard.
.o.O.o.
One hour later, and they had made some progress, though there were only a few, Milky Way included, who had actually managed to make anything happen to the small balls they were trying to levitate, though they mostly just twitched a little. Hot Streak tried one last time, when the colt next to him taunted, “Come on, Hot, can’t you feel it at all? I thought you were better than that!”
Before the fight could start, Moonstone had already levitated the two colts, holding them in front of him as he started to lecture, “No! If there’s one thing I won’t tolerate, it’s bullying! I will not have you making fun of somepony else just because you’re better at something than they are! How about trying to help them get as good as you are instead, huh? Why don’t y-”
“Umm, sir?” Milky Way interrupted, poking his foreleg gently. “They weren’t making fun of each other; they’re best friends. They were just joking around.”
Moonstone turned back to the colts, both of whom were looking around the room, rather unphased by the conversation. The purple colt looked at Hot Streak, before taunting, “I bet that it takes more energy to keep me floating than it does you!”
“Oh yeah?! You’re on! Hey mister, which one of us is it harder to keep floating, me or him?” the red colt asked, looking at Moonstone eagerly.
“Umm...” Moonstone replied dumbly, caught off-guard. “You both weigh, like, nothing...”
“Woah, so could you keep us floating for hours?” both colts asked, their eyes wide. “Cool! Can we do that?!”
Moonstone set them back down gently, answering, “Yeah, if you practice a lot, and work really hard, then you’ll be able to do some amazing things when you grow up!”
“Like you?” Streak asked, his voice full of wonder.
“... No, not like me,” Moonstone corrected quietly, his voice soft. “You want to be much more amazing than me... A-anyways, just... Study hard, alright? You have no idea how many kids there are would would do anything to be able to have the opportunity to learn like you can. You kids have money, clothes, a family, a future...”
“Halt!” two guards shouted from the entrance of the room, each ready to attack. “Step away from the foals and nopony gets hurt!”
Moonstone blinked, then asked, “What? What for, and under whose orders?”
“There he is! Don’t just stand there, your morons! Arrest him!” a mare in a fancy dress shouted, pointing at Moonstone. “This commoner broke into the castle, threatened the servants, and forced Starlight Sonata to help him foalnap our children!”
The entire room went silent for just a moment, before Moonstone and the pegasus mare exclaimed at the same time, “What?!”
“Alright sir, come with us quietly, or we’ll have to resort to using force,” the first guard said, albeit reluctantly.
Moonstone blinked, then chuckled quietly, smirking, “You really think you can just take me away quietly? First of all, I did absolutely nothing wrong. Secondly, you can ask the foals if I’ve done anything wrong, and they’ll prove you wrong. Thirdly, unless you have some unique magic that I’ve never seen before, there’s no way you’ll be able to even touch me, let alone restrain me and take me into custody.”
The guard looked nervously to the noble, who commanded him, “Arrest him, he’s lying!”
‘He’s new to this, isn’t he?’ Moonstone thought to himself, amongst making fun of the guard as he went over a mental checklist. ‘Let’s see, armor that doesn’t quite fit right? Check. Awkward movements associated with unfamiliar armor? Check. Nervousness? Check. Restless fidgeting? Check. Uncertain attitude? Check. Yeah, he’s a newbie. I don’t want him to feel bad, but there’s no way I’m getting thrown out for something I didn’t do!’
As the Pegasus guard rushed him, Moonstone easily side-stepped, then turned and used the pegasus’ back as a chair to jump up and over the table, landing on the other side with a flourish, using magic to idly straighten his cape so that he’d look his best. “Look, I promise I’m not making fun of you, kid, but you’re going to have to call backup if you want even a vague chance of catching me. And I don’t mean just a few. Speaking from personal experience, you’re going to need at least... Oh, I’d say a couple dozen guards to start with, and then we can go from there,” he taunted, dodging the guard’s attacks while he spoke.
Finally, just to make the guard feel better, Moonstone stood still, letting the guard ‘catch’ him, before being flung off, Moonstone’s magic flinging him up into the air with ease. “Sir, please, didn’t they teach you anything at training? You want to catch a pegasus, you send a pegasus. You wanna catch a unicorn, send a unicorn,” Moonstone smirked, popping his neck.
He jumped, however, when he heard Princess Luna shouting at the top of her lungs, “Halt, Criminals! Thou shall fall by Our... Umm, where are they?”
Princess Luna stood at the entrance to the hall, but now looked somewhat puzzled. “Ah, Moonstone! Thou hast already apprehended the culprits? Excellent!”
She started to trot forward, pausing when the group of fillies and colts bowed, waving for them to get back up with a smile. “Ah, Starlight Sonata, correct? Didst the young ones cause thee any troubles?”
“No, Your Highness. He, umm...” she looked over to Moonstone, frowning slightly.
Moonstone blushed, apologizing as he bowed deeply. “M-my apologies! One never introduced myself, did I? I am Moonstone, Miss Sonata.”
After nodding, she continued, “He was beginning to teach them how to use magic when we were so rudely interrupted by somepony screaming some sort of nonsense about a foalnapper, and then the guard came, an-”
“Princess Luna!” Milky Way exclaimed, rushing up to the princess, tripping on her hooves a little in her haste to make her way over to Luna, asking quickly, “Do you know how to get a Familiar?! Is there any way for me to get one? I’ll do anything it takes if you can help me, I promise!”
Luna looked down at the begging filly, unsure of how to answer, as she wasn’t used to little fillies rushing up to her with requests, when the unicorn mare from earlier rushed into the room, followed by a small number of guards, as well as Princess Celestia. “There he is!”
Princess Celestia strode forward, her face stern as she ordered, “Step away from the criminal, if you would please, Luna.”
Princess Luna, Moonstone, and Sonata blinked, looking around for a moment, before sighing as Luna replied, “Sister? What criminal art thou speaking of? Unless...” She turned to look at Moonstone, her face grim as she continued, “Of course, I should have seen through your disguise! You thought that thou could fool me, did you? Well no longer!”
Moonstone’s eyes widened as Luna’s horn began to glow, completely taken off-guard. He closed his eyes, remaining relaxed, thinking, ‘Well, whatever I did, at least I know she’ll judge me fairly...’
He snapped his eyes open when Luna exclaimed triumphantly, “Aha! Thou thought that thou couldst hide behind a uniform, did you? Do you even know what the punishment for impersonating a guard is?!”
“B-b-but I’m not-” the guard stammered, his eyes wide with fright as he was dragged out from behind Moonstone due to Luna’s magic.
“Luna, I wasn’t talking about him! I was talking about the one in the cape!” Celestia snapped, keeping her magic focused on the foals, in case he tried to use them as a shield.
Luna and Moonstone blinked, before looking at eachother slowly, confused. “And... What did he do, exactly?”
Celestia paused as the noble mare started ranting, “I’ll tell you what he did! That stupid mongrel broke into the castle, killed dozens of guards, hiding their bodies in the walls of the palace, before coming to foalnap the children to brainwash them into becoming assassins to kill for him and his evil organization, which is planning to take over Equestria from beyond the borders!”
Silence reigned supreme in the hall for a moment, before everypony replied as one, like a big gospel choir, “What?!”
“Yeah! I know how you crazy cult types work, but I’m not crazy, no sir! I know you’re going to foalnap all of the virgins to sacrifice them in some sort of ritual to bring back that murdering psychopath Nightmare Moon, who’s gonna start murdering everypony because she’s a bit-”
“ENOUGH!” Celestia yelled, her eyes blazing in rage. “I will not hear any more of this... Nonsense! One more word out of you, and-”
“And that’s not all! Order today, and we’ll double your order! Two foalnappings for the price of one! But wait, order in the next five minutes, and we’ll include free shipping!” the mare continued, her eyes bugged out, her mane askance. As the foals backed up behind Moonstone and Sonata, scared of the strange mare who was walking about how they were going to be kidnapped, Celestia lifted her foreleg, before bringing it down sharply onto the mare’s head, knocking her out.
After a moment of silence, one of the fillies piped up, asking timidly, “I-is the bad lady gone now?”
Celestia sighed, then smiled as her guards discreetly took the mare away, allowing her to reply with a smile. “Yes, the bad lady is gone now. She just needs some help, that’s all. Everypony needs help every once in awhile, and right now, she needs a lot. Don’t let her scare you, alright?” she asked the foals gently, smiling down at them.
The foals were quiet for a moment longer, before Milky Way asked, “So who helps you when you need help, Princess Celestia?”
Celestia blinked, caught off guard, before she smiled softly, replying swiftly, “Well, my sister Luna, of course!”
“But what about before she came back?” Hot Streak asked impulsively, tilting his head to the side.
Celestia blinked, her mouth hanging open a bit, not expecting that question from the young ones. After a moment of silence, Moonstone spoke up, chuckling, “All of you, of course! You’re going to be nobles when you grow up, aren’t you? When you grow up, you help her make very important decisions that impact ponies all over Equestria! That’s why it’s important to learn as much as you can, and to do your best, so that you can help the princesses make your home as great as possible for everypony. Understand?”
“Yes sir,” most of the foals chimed back happily, though there were a few in the back who rolled their eyes.
The nobles started filing into the room, intent on collecting their foals. What they didn’t expect was their children rushing to them as fast as they could, talking about how they were starting to learn magic.
“Dad, it was awesome!” Milky Way gushed, jumping up and down excitedly, not noticing Galexia holding on tight to her mane. “We were told this great story, and then he started teaching us how to use magic! I even got my rock to move!”
“My, that sounds like an exciting morning you’ve had, but I thought your sister was going to teach you all today. Who came in to teach you magic? And... Why do you have a ferret on your head?” her father asked, the blue unicorn stallion frowning slightly.
“I say! I don’t know who you think you are, but my son is certainly far too young to be learning how to use magic!” one parent complained, causing many others to protest as well, ignoring their children’s protests.
Moonstone just laughed, shaking his head, commenting to Luna, “You never said your nobles had a sense of humor! Too young to learn... Ha, that’s a good one,” he gasped, wiping a tear of laughter from his face as he tried to calm himself down.
“I say, remove this ruffian from the premises at once! He is clearly touched in the head!” the first parent commanded, waving his hoof in Moonstone’s direction.
Moonstone blinked, then deadpanned, “You were serious? You’re kidding... You’re kidding, right? They’re how old?! Ten, eleven? When I was their age, I had already been able to use magic for 4 years. If they can’t use magic now, then what the hell have you been teaching them?
“It’s just magic,” the unicorn sniffed dismissively. “It’s not like it’s anything special. Besides, they’re not old enough to handle that kind of responsibility.”
“Not any- Are you- I-” Moonstone sputtered, his eyes going wide. “Are you crazy?! Magic is everything to a unicorn! Next you’ll be saying that the only purpose Pegasi have wings for is to fly!”
“Exactly,” the noble replied pompously, smiling smugly as he cleaned his monocle on his vest.
Moonstone shook his head wordlessly for a moment, before mumbling, “I’m not even going to try to argue with him, it would be a waste of time...”
“Wise choice,” Luna agreed. “Besides, it cannot be helped that nobility as pompous as he seem to forget what maketh each pony special. A single random commoner off the streets carries a vastly higher sense on what maketh a pony special than several dozen of them combined."
Everypony gaped at her in shock, surprised at how bluntly she had insulted all of the nobles. In the stunned silence, there was but a single sound: a snort, which was quickly hidden, but everypony glanced towards Princess Celestia. She had already controlled herself again, but to be on the safe side, she said calmly, “Excuse me, I sense something I must take care of immediately for the safety of Equestria, or I fear that everypony may be in danger.”
She teleported away, landing on the very top of the castle, where there was a small balcony. Closing her eyes, she began to concentrate as best as she could.
Inside the hall, everypony was startled as they heard a low, rumbling sound, slowly growing louder and louder, before Moonstone yelled out in a panic, “Earthquake! Everypony get down! Under the table!”
Moonstone quickly gathered all of the frightened foals to himself, levitating all of them to keep them from running off. Several moments later, when the rumbling had died down a little, everypony heard a crack being formed in the ceiling. Looking up, they saw the large, crystal chandelier coming loose, before it started to fall. Reacting faster than some of the foals could even start screaming, it was wrapped in a silvery glow, completely halting the progress of the chandelier.
After a few moments, when the rumbling stopped, everypony started to get up, looking around for where the chandelier had fallen, when to their amazement, it was still high in the air, close to the ceiling. Moonstone observed it casually, setting the foals down as he frowned, looking around. “Uh, Luna? Where did you want this thing? Are some pegasi on the way to fix this thing, or is it okay if I just take care of it?”
“Ha! Excuse us, common mongrel, we have a chandelier to tend to,” one of the nobles sauntered past, a smug look on his face as he bumped into Moonstone, though it didn’t affect his magic at all, much to the noble’s surprise. Nodding to the rest of the nobles, he concentrated on the chandelier, and soon most of the nobles were doing the same. One of the only ones not helping was Milky Way’s father, who was helping to calm down the rest of the foals. The other nobles were struggling a little, before one of them snapped, “Let go of it already, you idiot!”
Moonstone released his grip on the light fixture begrudgingly, and for a moment, everything seemed fine.
That fineness lasted the whole of two seconds, before one after another, nobles started staggering, their magic used up from trying to keep such a heavy object in the air so high up individually, rather than as a group. With a creaking groan, the multi-colored aura around the chandelier collapsed, and it plummeted to the ground, falling directly for the foals. They started to scream as it plummeted towards them, ready to be crushed at any second as they clutched at each other, not wanting to die alone.
Digit Pi clutched Milky Way to his chest, covering his daughter’s eyes as he looked away, not able to look. After a moment, when he still heard the other foals screaming, he peeked open an eye, his mouth gaping as he saw the chandelier, frozen in the air once more, though that was because it was stuck in a large, black bubble that surrounded the foals and his other daughter, Sonata.
Moonstone lifted the crystal structure once more, dropping the shield around himself and the children. As he fixed the broken lighting, he smirked at the exhausted nobles, mocking, “Now I see why you don’t care about magic: you all suck at it! Seriously, your kids could have done a better job, and they only just started learning today!”
At that moment, Princess Celestia returned, smiling, though when she saw the chaos, she quickly ordered, “Somepony tell me what happened! Is everpony alright?”
“That was awesome!” Hot Streak shouted, his eyes wide from all of the adrenaline pumping through his system. He started gesturing with his forelegs as he continued, “First the ground was all like ‘I’m gonna shake all around and eat you alive!’ and then mister was all like ‘It’s an earthquake!’ and the adults were all like ‘Aughhhhhh!’ and we were all like ‘This is totally wicked!’ and then the light thingy started to fall, and we were all like ‘Augh, it’s going to fall and we’re all gonna die!’ and then mister was all like ‘Ragh, I can float the light thingy all by myself!’ and then the adults were all like ‘We can do better than you,’ and called mister names, and then when mister let go the light thingy collapsed again, and then the adults were like ‘Augh, we can’t carry this thing, it’s too heavy!’ and then it fell, and we were all like ‘Augh, we’re gonna die AGAIN!’ and them mister was all like ‘Not today, because I’m freaking epic,’ and then this bubble thingy appeared, and the light thingy just stopped when it hit, and then mister put it back into the roof, and the adults were all like ‘Woah, how did he do all of that,’ and then you showed up and asked us what happened, and then I told you!”
He took a much needed deep breath, before exploding, “That was totally wicked! ”
Princess Celestia blinked as the colt melted onto the floor, exhausted from his non-stop outburst. “O-okay... Luna, what happened in here?”
While Luna explained what happened to her sister, Milky Way rushed from her father’s embrace to see her sister, who was still somewhat shocked from nearly dying, having covered several of the fillies with her wings, not really expecting to shield them from harm so much as shield them from seeing how they were going to die. “Sona!”
Sonata was still recovering from the surprise that she was still alive when she was tackled by her younger sister. She fell to her side, shocked, before she recovered, wrapping her wings happily around her sister, nuzzling her.
“Is everypony alright?” Moonstone asked, still on high alert for potential disasters, though he was sagging to the ground some.
Sonata looked around, before answering, “They all look fine to me... You saved us, thank you. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Moonstone replied heavily, taking deep breaths. “I just need a minute to regenerate my magic, and then I’ll be fine.” He slowly stood back up, his breathing a little lighter as he continued, “I’ve never had to stop that much mass with such a large shield before... I’ve trained mostly for endurance and gaining my magic back as swiftly as possible, not burst magic like this took.”
“Oh good...” she answered, looking away, not sure what else to say.
The hall was strangely quiet, as the adults were still exhausted from using all of their magic, the foals were still slightly traumatized, though Hot Streak’s enthusiasm about what happened was starting to cheer everypony back up, looking on the bright side of things. “So mister, when are you going to teach us more about magic, huh, because that was awesome!”
“Oh! Tomorrow!” Milky Way exclaimed, jumping up and down quickly. “He has to come tomorrow, it’s my birthday! He has to come!” She turned to him, turning on the fabled ability of fillies all the worldwide, making her eyes huge as she started to beg, her eyes watering, “R-right? I-I mean, it’s my birthday... Y-you’ll come and tell us more stories, won’t you?”
Moonstone blinked, before his eyes widened in horror ever so slightly. ‘Oh, not the eyes, please not the big, soulful, Filly eyes...’
“Y-yeah, o-of course,” he stammered, looking away. “J-just stop looking at me like that!”
“Yes! Thank you,” Milky Way responded, turning off the waterworks and beaming happily at the white stallion. She rushed up to him, hugging one of his forelegs tightly, before rushing back to her father.
Moonstone watched as the parents were escorted out of the hall with the help of the guards, as they were still recovering. He yawned widely, bleary eyed as Digit Pi walked up to him, saying, “Thank you again, Mister?”
“Moonstone,” the white unicorn replied, barely suppressing another yawn. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not like I did anything special. So what’s happening tomorrow?”
“It appears that I’m hosting the Foals Forray tomorrow,” he replied, slightly uneasy. “You aren’t going to teach them anything dangerous, are you?”
Moonstone blinked tiredly, before laughing, shaking his head as he answered, “I don’t know anything inherently dangerous, no. Just levitation and shield spells, that’s about all I know.”
“Really? That’s it? I would have thought with how easily you handled the situation that you had a vast range of spells,” Digit Pi pondered, confused.
“Nope, just the two. I would have only had the Levitation spell if it wasn’t for a traveling couple that took pity on me when I was younger, teaching me the basics of the shield spell. I’ve made variations on the spell, of course, but it still has the same base. Anyway, don’t worry about that. Besides, they won’t be able to practice for more than an hour or two anyway, so I’ll just tell some stories.”
“Very well then. What time shall we expect you tomorrow?”
“I dunno. Whenever, I guess,” Moonstone dismissed, waving a hoof. “I don’t really care, since my sleep schedule is never the same.”
“I see... Well then, shall we get going? I shall need to show you to my house, if you’re going to find it tomorrow,” Digit Pi suggested.
Moonstone yawned again, looking around tiredly, when he saw Galexia preening herself atop of Starlight Sonata, who was observing her carefully. He walked over slowly, stopping several feet away from Sonata, trying to keep her from getting uncomfortable as he stared his familiar in the eye. “Lex, I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, but if I find out that you’re bothering anypony in any way, I will take away your earring, got it?”
Galexia’s eyes widened slightly, before nodding in agreement. “Okay, now that we’re on the same level, am I to assume that you’re going to play with them today?” Another nod. “Pay attention to the route there, and come back to get me in time to come over, got it?” An additional nod. “Alright then. Play nice, mind your manners, and don’t cause them trouble, got it?! You’re reflecting me, and the last thing I need is for you to do something to get me thrown out, got it?” A final nod.
“Alright then,” Moonstone finished, holding back another yawn. “Ladies, I’ll see you tomorrow, and please let me know if that black furball does anything bad, alright? She normally behaves herself, but she’s been acting odd lately. She doesn’t take to other ponies, so watch out.”
Satisfied that he had taken care of the problem, Moonstone left the hall, looking around for somewhere to get some sleep.
.o.O.o.