Part II
"A swirling torrent of emotions"
"Starry!" I called as I trotted into my room at a very late hour. As I looked around, I checked to make sure he was still where I had left him. He was not. In fact, the colt was nowhere to be found.
"Starry, I do not have time for this!" I sighed and hung my head low.
I made my way to my mighty glass windows and pulled back their great blue curtains. I peered up at the night sky, longing for the stars to send me a sign. The sky was empty that night, save for the moon hanging all alone on the horizon.
Returning once again to my routine, I shook my head and moved back inside my room. I did all the things that any normal pony would do, but for some reason, I was still unhappy. Nothing seemed to have caused it, but I was tired of life. I no longer wanted to go through the trouble of waking up just to make other ponies happy.
My body collapsed to the floor and did nothing. The ancient wooden grandfather clock kept ticking, and time kept slipping away. It felt like everything I ever wanted ran away from me.
Soon after my mind started to wander into darker places, I heard a loud crashing noise, and the doors to my closet flew open. Then, a big blue ball of flying fur and flailing limbs came tumbling out of the doors and rolling towards me.
"Starry! Slow down; you might injure yourself!" The tumbling pony then made his way over to me, sliding across the wood floor. As he got close, however, he tripped and fell on his face right in front of me. The young pony sprang to his hooves and straightened the wooden guard helmet that sat atop his head, smiling through the toy sword he gripped in his mouth. I could not help but giggle at the spectacle. He seemed quite proud of his accomplishment.
"Did I do good? Did you like it?" mumbled Starry through the sword.
"Yes, It was wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!" Starry then leaped into the air and squealed with joy.
"I did it! I made Mommy happy! Now she doesn't have to cry anymore!"
What? It hit me like a freight train, a swirling torrent of emotions more powerful than anything I had ever experienced before. At first, I was shocked, but at the same time I was overcome with intense joy and a strange feeling of guilt. Did I really cry that much?
"Oh, Starry, that is very sweet of you, and I am sure you put a lot of thought into it. But you know I am not your mother, correct?"
"No! You are my mommy! I know you are my mommy, and I love you!"
"I... I love you too Starry, but you know I must return you home eventually... right?"
"But you can't give me away! If you give me away, who is gonna cheer you up when you get sad?"
"I suppose I cannot argue with that." I smiled and ruffled Starry's mane. "Now, you must get to bed; it is getting very late!"
"’Kay Mommy, goodnight!" said Starry as he waddled over to his makeshift bed.
A smile was plastered across my face as I lay myself down. The three years since I had found Starry had been full of many things. He had brought me both joy and stress beyond my wildest dreams. I was still content because I knew all that stress was worth it. We all need somepony to live for. However, as I reminisced, I could not help but think that I had made a huge mistake. Starry Night's appearance in my life was helping me get through some tough times, but was it right for me to keep him? Yes, I did look for his parents, but not as hard as I could be, and what if his parents were alive? Who was I to keep a mother from her child? To be honest, I knew nothing about children in the first place. Luck, that is the only thing that was keeping Starry alive. What did I expect was going to happen when life got hard?
***
"Checkmate!" exclaimed Starry.
"Great job!" I said, a stupid grin across my face. Starry was a voracious learner. I may have been going easy on him, but still he picked up chess faster than anypony I had ever seen. I started to reset the board. The pride I felt seeing how skilled he had become was indescribable.
"I love it when you don't have go to and do stupid princess stuff!"
I laughed. "As do I."
We started to play again, but just as I began to move my first pawn, there was a hurried knocking at the door.
"Princess! Princess Luna!" came a worried voice, followed by more knocking. I jumped to my hooves and looked for a place to hide Starry Night. "Princess, I know you're in there! Get over here and open the door right now, or I'll have to come in!"
"I will be right there; please give me some time." All I could think to do was to put Starry in the closet, so I grabbed him and threw him in. I then slammed the door shut, praying I did not hurt the poor colt.
"What are you doing? I'm serious; stop messing around and let me in!" I galloped as fast as I could to get to the door, only stopping for a moment in front of the mirror to make sure that I did not look too ridiculous. The door swung open, and I found myself muzzle to muzzle with the captain of the Royal Guard.
"Salutations!" I squeezed out, forgetting my Royal Canterlot Voice. "Oh, it is you. I am so pleased that you decided to interrupt my personal time once again!”
"Yes, Uh... Hello, Princess. I'm sorry for being so short with you; it's just we have a bit of a problem on our hooves."
Oh good! I thought. How could things get any worse!
"No, it is fine!" I moaned. "What is it this time?"
"Well, your sister was to meet with King Orion from the pegasi city of Timbucktu today, but when we went to go look for her, neither her nor Star Swirl were anywhere to be found."
"What!?" I screamed. "You are telling me Celestia has gone missing?"
"Yes, but—"
I interrupted him. "No buts! Tell Orion the meeting is canceled! We have a national emergency on our hooves! Sound the alarms, send out a search party! We must find her!" What happened? I thought. Did somebody foalnap her?
"Princess!" he stopped me. "Celestia is fine; she's just busy."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you see…" The captain then proceeded to take a small piece of paper out of his armor. "She left a note." I snached the note away from him and begin to look it over.
"Dear Princess Luna," I read aloud. "I apologize for the inconvenience, but I will not be able to attend the meeting with King Orion. I am quite sorry for pushing this onto you so last minute, but Star Swirl and I are so close to making breakthrough on the mirror project, I can almost taste it. I just can't risk losing all of our progress this late into our work. I love you, and I hope you understand. Your sister, Princess Celestia." I dropped the note onto the ground and took a deep breath. "CELESTIA!" I screamed and slammed my hoof against the door. "What were you thinking!?" The thought of her blatant abandonment made me grind my teeth together. "I have never even heard of such a meeting!" I looked over at the captain as he shifted from leg to leg.
"Uh, Princess..."
"WHAT?!"
"What should I tell the king? He has made it quite clear that this meeting is an important one, and I fear that canceling it could be very bad for foreign relations."
"You know what? I am so furious that I do not even care at the moment! Tell him whatever you wish." I tore the letter to shreds. I could not stand it taunting me anymore.
"Princess! Think about this rationally; you have a responsibility to—"
"I do not have a responsibility to anypony!" I cut him off. "Why should I be responsible for cleaning up after her?"
"Don't be foalish, Princess!” The captain stomped his hoof against the tile floor. “Making sure we are on good terms with other nations is of utmost importance."
"You know, maybe YOU should not be making demands of ME!" I snapped.
"No, I shouldn't, but it looks like I have to! You should know how to take responsibility without me telling you, Princess!"
My head drooped to look down at my hooves, a sight that was becoming very familiar to me. "You are right," I whimpered. " I should not have let my anger cloud my judgment. Tell him I am... getting ready."
"Yes, Princess." He then smiled and slicked back his light purple mane "Good luck."
I trotted back into my room at a snail's pace. It took all of me just to stay together. I pushed my muzzle against my window and watched as a few drops of rain splattered on the glass.
"Why were you yelling, Mommy?" called a familiar voice.
"Nothing, young one.” I peeled my face from the glass. “I have much going on right now; that is all."
"It's okay; we can play more of the games, and then you will be all better!"
"No. I cannot. I am sorry, but mama is busy. She must do her work."
"But you said you didn't have to do any of that work stuff today!" Starry sniffled.
"I know I did, but I—"
"You promised!" Starry wailed.
"Things change!" I shouted.
Starry recoiled in fear and backed away.
What had come over me? "I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." Starry then started to howl; tears rolled down his little face. I tried to go and comfort him, but he hid under the bed and went silent.
***
"Princess Luna!" fumed King Orion. "Are you even listening to me!?" I pulled my head off the table and wiped the drool from my chin. What I saw were the outstretched tables of the royal dining hall. Only now did I remember the meeting.
"Oh yes! I have totally been listening to you!" I forced.
"Princess Luna! I find your tone to be highly unprofessional!" moaned the king. "What I am telling you is of dire importance! Strange creatures have been sighted in Timbucktu's air space and are stealing from our ponies!"
"I am sorry. What have they been stealing, King?" I inquired.
"They have been stealing our love," he stated.
“Have they?" I furrowed my brow. "And what do these 'love stealers' look like?"
"That's the thing!" he jabbered. "They can look like anypony!" I took a sip of my tea and raised an eyebrow.
"Sure they can," I said, closing my eyes so they wouldn't roll out of my head. "And what exactly do you want me to do about this problem?"
"Probably nothing. To be honest, I was hoping I would get to talk to your sister," he cooed, a smirk stretched across his face.
"My sister?" I replied, trying my best to stay still.
"Of course! At least she wouldn't have mocked me like a schoolpony."
My mouth opened and prepared to say something I would regret, but as I began to speak, the captain of the Royal Guard came bursting through the door.
"Princess Luna!" he cried in-between catching his breath. "There is an intruder in the castle!"
"What?!" screamed Orion. "An intruder!?"
"Calm yourself. I am sure it is nothing to worry about. You!" I said, turning to the captain. "What sort of monstrosity had the gall to breach the sanctity of our castle?" I shouted as royal as possible.
"Well..." he mumbled. "I think you should see for yourself."
The great halls of the castle rushed by as I followed the stoic guardspony to where he had found the intruder. Who could have gotten past the castle's heavy security, and why did the captain not want to tell me who the intruder was in the first place?
"I apologize again for interrupting your meeting, ma'am; I hope King Orion doesn't take it too personally."
"Are you kidding?!" I scoffed. "That meeting was abysmal! I would have done ANYTHING to get out of that place!"
"Uh... Well, I guess you're welcome then.” He turned back and gave me a cold stare. “We're almost to where I saw the intruder; it should be just around this bend." We then both came to a skidding stop in front of a wall of more guards.
"What are they for?" I asked.
"I stationed ponies on either side of this hallway to make sure IT didn't escape."
"Oh, yes. Can I see 'it' now?"
He nodded and took a deep breath. "Ponies!" he shouted. "Stand aside!" The guards then moved apart, making an opening large enough for us to move through. I looked through the hole, but when I saw the dark blue figure standing before me, I almost had a heart attack.
"Princess, what's wrong!?" shouted the captain, grabbing me as I fell to the floor.
"N-nothing," I stammered; pulling myself from the ground. "I was just surprised to see that the intruder was a child! Are you sure it does not belong to one of the castle residents? Maybe one of the servants?"
"We checked; nopony in the entire castle was able to claim it. The weirdest part is, nopony has any idea where it came from! Do you have any ideas?"
"Oh, he must be from the, uh… school field trip that visited a week or so ago.”
"Well, wherever it came from, it's becoming a big problem." The captain sighed as he watched his fellow guards try to subdue Starry.
"Got it!" shouted one guard triumphantly holding Starry above his head. Starry then kicked the guard in the muzzle and blew a raspberry as he galloped away. "Never mind!"
"For Celestia's sake, really!? Sometimes I feel like I'm surrounded by idiots. Anyway, could you help us out here? Maybe you could use the ‘Royal Canterlot Voice’ to scare it or something?” he pleaded.
"Oh, of course I can," I said stepping forward. My voice sputtered as I cleared my throat. "Child!" I shouted. Starry Night then whirled around to face me, his eyes growing wide. "Thou must stop your shenanigans at once!"
Starry stared at me for a minute and burst out into a great gaffaw. "Mommy!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.
All the guards gasped and started to murmur.
"We think you are mistaken little one," I said, on the brink of hyperventilating.
"No, I know my mommy!" he squealed as he galloped toward me.
"Halt!" I shouted, but before I could stop him, Starry Night jumped onto me.
"I knew I would find you!" he peeped as he stretched his front legs not quite all the way around my body.
"Princess, are you sure you don't know this thing?"
"For clarifications sake it is not a 'thing’; it is a colt." I turned to the other guards. "All of you!" I barked. "You will forget everything you saw here on this day! Do you understand?" The guards nodded, their bodies still in strict formation. "I do not want you telling anypony about this, not even Princess Celestia herself! If anypony asks, the only thing you know of this event is a colt on a field trip went missing in the castle. He was then found and returned to his parents." I furrowed my brow. "If I find out that a single one of you has talked, then you will ALL be punished, harshly. Now, do you understand?"
"YES, PRINCESS!" they shouted in unison.
"Good," I purred. "You may go." I then waved my hoof, and the guards scrambled back to their posts. However as soon as they were all gone, I collapsed to the ground and heaved a sigh of relief.
"What, may I ask, was that!?" snapped the captain of Royal Guard.
I jumped at the stallion's presence. "What are you still doing here? I told everypony to leave."
"No! I want answers!" demanded the guard. "You're not going to put on a show like that and expect me to keep quiet. My job is to ensure the safety of all, and if I feel like anypony is in danger, unidentified colts included, I need to know!"
"Fine," I grumbled. "Meet me in my chambers in one hour, and I will tell you everything."
"Alright, I'll see you there," he said and stormed away.
Suddenly, I remembered that Starry Night was still clinging to my neck. I pulled him off and sat him down in front of me.
"Starry Night!" I yelled. "What were you thinking!?"
Starry frowned and looked at the floor. "I just wanted to see you Mommy... I... I'm sorry," he said, his eyes welling up with tears.
"Oh, Starry, do not cry; you just can not be galloping out of our room like that."
"But it's so boring alone! I wish I had somepony else to talk to," he whimpered.
"I know, little one," I said picking Starry up and holding him to my chest again. As I held him, I was struck with an idea.
***
"So, that is the whole story." I said, sipping tea from an ornate cup.
"I see," muttered the captain, running his hoof through his mane. "So, this thing—" I gave him a piercing glare. "Sorry, this child is an orphan?"
"That is just it; I do not know. No matter how hard I look, I cannot find a single thing on his parents."
"That is strange," he said, rubbing his pure white chin. "So, what are you going to do about it?"
"I do not know." I frowned. "I suppose I will have to keep living with him like I have been."
"Why not tell Princess Celestia? I'm sure she could find—"
"No!" I yelled, slamming my hooves on the coffee table. The captain jumped back. "I... I am sorry, I... You have seen how she has been acting! She is so obsessed over her 'projects' that she is ignoring everything else. Even If I told Celestia, she would probably abandon the poor child in an orphanage!"
"Princess, maybe an orphanage is where it... He, belongs."
"No! I cannot take that risk."
"What risk?" scoffed the captain.
"I do not know. They might treat him poorly. Or... or they might give him to a family who will not love him!"
"I think—" he lay his hoof on mine and stared at me with his piercing dark blue eyes. "—you may have become a bit too attached to the kid." I flinched; his words cut deep into my heart.
"You are right," I said, beginning to sob. "I know I should give him up, but he told me he loved me, and I love him too!" Tears rolled down my muzzle and showered the floor like rain. "You saw! He even calls me mommy. I want to keep him, but what I really want is for him to be happy, and right now, I am not sure what that means."
The captain nodded and stroked his chin. "I get it, and I'm sorry. But what do you want me to do about it?"
"Help me!" I cried. "I am scared and confused, and I do not know what to do. I have been doing this alone for more than three years; all I want is support."
"Okay," he agreed.
"What!?" I stammered.
"I'll help you take care of him."
"But you said it yourself, maybe It would be best if I gave him away!"
"Well I changed my mind. If it's true that you couldn't find anything about his parents in three years, then it's obvious that they're either dead or do not want him back. Besides, why give him up for adoption if he's perfectly happy with you?"
I wiped my muzzle and smiled. "Thank you. I am in your debt."
"Not a problem.” The Guard waved his hoof at me. “Now, what do you need?"
***
"So, all I have to do is keep him busy while you're at work?"
"That is it," I said, preparing to leave.
"That can't be too hard. Can it?"
"I do not know; you saw him the other day."
He whipped his head up and looked at me, eyes wide. "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"
I laughed and opened the door. "Oh, wait one more thing?"
"Yes, Princess?" replied the captain.
"I never caught your name."
"Oh, my name? It's Midnight Legacy."
"Midnight Legacy, that is a nice name.” I said, nodding. “ And by the way, you may call me Luna. No more of that 'Yes, Princess' nonsense; do you understand?"
The Captain blinked a few times. "Oh. Of course, Luna.”
"There you go! that is so much better!" I said, bursting out into giggles as I eased the door shut and began trotting down the stairs. However, before long, I heard a cacophonous crashing sound and the familiar laughter of a tiny blue pegasus.
***
After that, we were able to find a semblance of normalcy. Midnight Legacy took care of Starry during the day, and I came home to him at night. Nopony suspected anything. After rumors of an intruder, it simply seemed like Midnight was staying in my room to protect me. Also, to my relief, Starry warmed up to his new protector far quicker than expected, even having fun and playing with him. A little bit of help was going a long way; just having somepony else to cover for me had relieved a massive amount of stress from my shoulders. However, by far the best part of the new arrangement was that Starry seemed happier than ever, and that meant everything to me.
Two whole years passed with little trouble. We had found our rhythm, and nothing could throw us off, at least for a while.
***
I was in the library that day, filling out some sort of pointless paperwork when the door blew open.
"Luna!" came a frantic shouting.
"What?" I whirled around, causing my ink well to fall over and stain my work.
"You have to see this!" exclaimed Midnight Legacy.
"Alright, alright, I am coming! And for goodness sake, do not scare me like that!" I replied, jumping from my desk and galloping up the stairs. "You know, some of us have important work to do! Not all of us have the luxury of being able to drop everything and fool about."
"Oh, and taking care of your little monster isn't important?" asked Midnight, smirking back at me.
"Just show me what ever it is you wanted to show me, okay?"
"Alright, but be prepared, because you're going to flip!" Midnight led me through the castle and back to the my room. We stopped in front of my door.
"Okay, get on with it; I've things to do!" I nagged.
"Wait," he said peeking inside. "I have to make sure he's still doing it."
"Doing what!?"
"Okay, you can look now," he said as he eased the door open. I pushed past Midnight and looked into the open room, but when I saw what was inside, I was speechless.
"Mommy, look! I'm flying!" squealed Starry Night as he stumbled through the sky.
"That is amazing!" I cried, a wave of emotion washing over the beaches of my mind.
"Yeah, it's crazy; isn't it?" Midnight grinned and shook his head. "I can see why you like this stuff."
"What stuff?" I said, mocking his speech.
"You know! Raising a child. It's, I don't know... exciting."
"Do not tell me you are getting attached to him too," I said, trying to keep in the giggles.
"What!? No, he's just... Cute,"
"I must agree with you on that one.”
As if on cue, Starry crashed into the wall.
***
Things soon became more complicated. Midnight Legacy was an earth pony, so the duty of teaching Starry how to fly fell square on me. Once again, I had to find time to escape work so I could give Starry his lessons. That was made worse by the fact that I could not take him outside, leaving me with the uncomfortable space of my room for practice.
After a few more crashes and a lot of broken things, I made up my mind that it was time to take Starry outside. It would have to be at night because there would be less chance of being seen, so I picked the night of the full moon. That way, we would get in some practice, and while we were out, I could show him what my job was all about.
***
"Alright. Tonight is the night," I said, plucking Starry from the bed and hoisting him onto my back.
"Are we going outside tonight?" asked Starry as he bounced up and down.
"Most certainly!" I chimed. "As long as nopony sees us... Now," I said turning to Midnight. "if anypony asks, where am I?"
"You are visiting a zebra tribe at the edge of The Everfree Forest," recited Midnight.
"Good," I purred. "And what am I doing?"
"You are discussing a dispute over the forest border," replied Midnight, pacing back and forth.
"Perfect! Now, I'd better be on my way before the sun goes down."
"Why? I thought you wanted to do it at night?"
"Yes of course; I thought while we were out, perhaps I could show him what I do."
He frowned.
"You know, the moon and the stars!"
"Oooh!” He threw his head back and sighed. “Why didn't you say so?"
"Regardless, I must go," I said as I opened my gigantic window.
"Be careful!" yelled Midnight as I flew out into The Everfree.
I flew for a while, looking for a good, unforested, spot for us to fly. After a careful search, I settled on a small grassy field with no trees and a good view of the sky.
"Are we going to fly now, Mommy?" beamed Starry as I landed on a soft patch of grass.
"Not yet. We will get to it,” I reassured him. "First I have to show you something." I pointed to the sky just as the sun started to dip below the horizon. "Do you see that?"
Starry looked out, his eyes squinting. He didn’t react much at first, but his face began to glow as and the sky exploded into a dazzling ballet of reds, oranges, and blues.
"That," I said, smiling, "Is a sunset." The sky then went pitch black; the moon and stars were nowhere to be seen. Starry squealed and grabbed hold of my leg. "What is wrong?"
"I'm scared of the dark," he moaned.
"It is okay my precious; I am right here. Besides, it is only going to be dark for a few moments." I took a deep breath and began to warm up my magic. “Since I first took you home, you have been asking me about my job and what I do. Tonight, I am going to show you."
"What do you mean, Mommy?" asked Starry, cocking his head.
"Well, you know that every morning the sun rises, and every night it sets?"
"Yeah."
"Well, my older sister does that; she makes the sun rise and set."
"Really?" asked Starry, his body bouncing up and down.
"She certainly does! But there cannot be sun all the time; things would get too hot and dry out. That is where I come in. You see, I control the moon and the stars, so that way even in the dark there will always be light!"
"Woah! Really?!"
"Yes, really!" I said, chuckling. "Do you want to see me do it?"
"Well duh! Of course I wanna to see!" Starry demanded.
"Alright, alright! Patience!" I exclaimed, beginning to cast the spell. My horn then started to glow bright blue as I gathered all the magic power I could muster. "Alright, make sure you are watching, because I can only do this once!" I said with a loud grunt. Then, a strange purple aura began to flow around me in elegant shimmering strands, and a small sliver of white light began to appear above the horizon. Starry watched, mouth agape, as the silver moon flew up into the darkness, shimmering in the clear sky.
"Awesome!" shouted Starry, clacking his hooves together.
"If you liked that, get ready for the next part!" I beamed as I got ready to form the stars. Starry then looked right at the sky, leaning so far forward I was sure he would fall. My horn then made a loud cracking noise, and the stars began to burst into existence like popcorn on a hot stove. Starry jumped from my lap and pranced through the clearing. Above him, the stars danced across the sky to form complex shapes and designs, finally settling in their appropriate constellations.
"How did you like that?" I asked.
"Are you kidding me? It was awesome!" Starry blurted out.
"I am so glad to hear that," I cooed, satisfied with my own performance. "Now, let's get to those flight lessons."