The Child of Sun and Moon

by Darkest Night

Confrontation and Consequence

Starjumper learned that morning that starting school at seven o’clock was going to cause him some problems.

The main problem was that it just didn’t give him very much time. Princess Twilight had raised the sun at 6:21 that morning, which put him on a tight schedule if he wanted to eat breakfast and go over his notes after he changed and make it to school on time. But this problem was going to exacerbate as the school year progressed, since the Princess would raise the sun later and later until Winter Moon, the longest night of the year. In the midwinter months, he wasn't going to be able to make it to school on time unless he got very creative, and it was enough of a concern that he made a note to himself to write a letter to Princess Twilight to bring up the issue. It was going to require him to be up well before dawn so he could eat breakfast and have his school materials all in order, and leave as soon as he changed. At least his apartment was on campus, so he didn’t have to go very far, and that eliminated the possibility that he might be tardy.

The other problem was that he was sleepy and a bit groggy. He usually spent most of the night out flying, and last night he didn’t get back home until well after midnight. He only got a few hours of sleep before dawn, and before he had to come to Canterlot, he usually only woke up long enough to change, clean up the ash, and then go back to bed. He wasn’t used to having to live on a schedule again, not after graduating from school in Baltimare over a year ago. So, he was now awake outside of his usual sleeping pattern, and he was going to suffer a bit until he established a new one.

So, it was a yawning Starjumper that slowly walked into the classroom just bare seconds before the second bell, when everypony else was already at their desks and preparing to start their first full day of classes. He took his desk just as the bell rang, and Professor Frostmane wasted no time. “Today we begin the fundamentals of advanced spellcasting,” she declared. “If everyone would take out their textbooks and turn to page nine, we’ll go over the reading.”

And so started his first full day of being in a school he didn’t want to be in. Frostmane didn’t talk about anything his father hadn’t already taught him, so he spent most of the morning struggling to stay awake, diverting himself by answering Princess Twilight’s letter, and then reading ahead in the textbook as Frostmane went on about magic currents, all the while battling the intense desire to doze off.

It was certainly noticed. About halfway through the morning session, Frostmane realized that Starjumper’s head kept sagging, and her burning gaze in his direction most of the rest of the morning kept him from even so much as closing his eyes. The other students kept glancing back at him when they realized that Frostmane was all but staring somepony down, and there was a bit of whispering in the class whenever Frostmane had her flank to the class, turning to write on the chalkboard. He did his best to stay awake, even if he wasn’t paying all that much attention, and that struggle made the morning seem to drag out to last three days.

But finally, mercifully, the lunch bell rang. As the others started packing their bags to go eat, Starjumper slumped over the desk and put his chin down on it, closing his eyes. He heard Frostmane stalk up to him, her hooves clattering on the wooden floor, but he didn’t react to her presence. “You are at this school to study, Mister Starjumper, not sleep,” she declared, which caused some giggling from the ponies who were filing out.

“Sorry, Professor. I’m trying to stay awake,” he replied without opening his eyes. “I’m not used to having to be up so early. I haven’t been in school in over a year.”

The afternoon session wasn’t much better, but at least he managed to stay awake. Mainly because he got enthralled with a bit of reading further in the textbook, which explained how to learn spells based on mathematical formulas rather than a spell matrix, rendering a spell down to a mathematical expression of the magic used to cast it. It was something his father had never taught him. Starjumper had always had an inclination for mathematics, so the chapter was quite interesting to him. He more or less ignored Frostmane and the class in general as he read the chapter, wrote out quite a few notes about what he was reading, and was making quite good progress…at least until Frostmane used her magic to drop a heavy book on his desk, nearly startling him out of his mane. Laughter erupted from the classroom as he got his composure back, and looked up into the baleful silver eyes of Frostmane. “Perhaps now you can answer the question I asked you, Mister Starjumper?” she asked archly.

“If you repeat it, ma’am,” he replied. “I was preoccupied with something in the textbook.”

“Well, I suppose that’s better than you falling asleep,” she noted dryly, which caused more laughter. “I asked what the difference was between channeling a spell and charging a spell?”

“Channeling is feeding it constant magic, a sustained casting,” he replied. “Charging is a ‘cast and forget’ spell, where you invest enough magic into a spell that it maintains itself after you cast it. How long it lasts depends on how much magic you charge into its matrix.” His horn limned over with golden energy, and his textbook lifted off his desk, surrounded by a golden aura of magic. “This is channeling.” The textbook she banged on his desk also rose off the desk, floating in midair, also surrounded by an aura of golden magical energy. “This is a charged spell,” he said, causing the shroud of golden light to vanish from his horn. He tapped the floating book with his hoof, and it slowly drifted across the room, back to Frostmane.

“Very good, Mister Starjumper. I also see that you’ve learned how to doublecast,” she noted, taking command of her floating book and bringing it down to her desk, where both the golden aura of Starjumper’s magic and the silvery nimbus of her magic faded.

“My father taught me,” he said modestly.

The rest of the class passed in relative peace, since Frostmane seemed to overlook his lack of attention, at least so long as he had his nose in his textbook. He finished his notes on the mathematical formula chapter and considered trying to learn how it worked, to try to learn spells based on the practice, and he only had to struggle through maybe a half an hour of lecture before the afternoon bell rang. He packed up his supplies and books as the other unicorns did the same, but not all of them were quite willing to leave him alone. “I swear, he’s a complete embarrassment. I have no idea why they let him into our school,” he heard one of the young stallions say, more than loudly enough for him to hear it. After all, that was his intention. Starjumper had learned long ago to just ignore things like that, both for his own peace of mind and for the safety of other ponies.

Half the reason the earth ponies from his school left him alone was because they had tasted his temper. Starjumper was half bat pony, and bat ponies could be savage.

The obnoxious stallion didn’t seem satisfied with the fact that Starjumper was ignoring him. As he walked away from his desk, towards the door, the stallion intentionally got in the doorway and stopped, blocking him in. He was a slender young unicorn with a gray coat and silver-white mane, which he kept long and styled almost like a mare, and had blue eyes. “You don’t belong here,” he said arrogantly, looking up at him with a look of malicious disgust.

“You’re right. I don’t,” Starjumper answered him flatly. “I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here, and I’d be overjoyed if you convince them to let me go home. That being said,” he continued, narrowing his eyes, his pupils retracting to narrow black slits, “get out of my way. Now.”

The smaller stallion drew himself up indignantly. “Don’t order me around, you weird-eyed freak,” he snapped.

It took every bit of his restraint not to blast the little punk halfway across the campus. But he also didn’t let that go, either. “Move, or I'll pound you into the floor," he warned in a voice so cold that it left no doubt whatsoever that he meant every word, physically looming over him to further drive home his point.

The silence in the room was almost a heavy weight settled over the entire class. The rest of the class unicorns stared at them in shocked silence. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard in the room. The smaller unicorn stallion’s eyes widened, clearly never even considering that he might be physically threatened, and the sheer size of Starjumper made that threat very real. He was, by far, the largest pony in the class, even larger than Frostmane.

"Mister Starjumper!" Frostmane said in a tightly controlled voice, loud enough to be heard well down the hallway.

Starjumper kept his eyes locked on the smaller stallion, whose eyes were widening with encroaching fear. It was probably the first time in his entire sheltered life that he'd been faced with actual physical harm, and he didn't know how to respond to it. As a result, he was very nearly frozen, looking up at him with both incredulity and more than a little terror. "Either get him out of my way or I'll do it for you, Professor Frostmane," Starjumper announced to the class, glaring down at the smaller stallion.

"Mister Nova, you will get out of the doorway. Immediately!" she shouted.

The smaller unicorn glared up at him with a malicious little smile. "As soon as he gets out of my way, Professor," he replied. "I can't get back to my desk with him taking up the whole room with all his bulk."

"Wrong answer," Starjumper snarled, his horn erupting into brilliant, nearly painfully bright magical light. He very nearly built the matrix of a spell that would deal with the little punk permanently, but he managed to get hold of his more violent thestral tendencies. If the little snot was all about trying to humiliate him in front of the class, make him appear to back down, well...he could have a taste of his own medicine.

The stallion's body limned over with a golden magical aura, and then Starjumper's spell took hold. The class watched in shock as the annoying stallion started to shrink, get smaller and smaller and smaller, until he was the size of a grasshopper. It was then when the golden aura surrounding the now tiny stallion faded away.

"Mister Starjumper!" Frostmane blazed. "You do not cast spells on other students against their will in this school!"

"The spell won't hurt him, Professor. Unless someone steps on him, anyway," he added with a dark smile down at the insect-sized stallion, who was quite obviously and quite literally freaking out. "I told him I'd move him if he didn't get out of my way. Now I can just step over him," he added simply, which caused a few of the onlooking ponies to giggle a little bit.

"Return him to his normal size immediately!" Frostmane ordered, rushing over from her desk.

"I cast it as a charged spell, Professor, not the usual permanent spell, and you know how unpredictable charged spells can be when they're prematurely dispelled," he said pointedly, looking down at the stallion with a fanged smile, warning him that he could end up that way permanently..that Starjumper could literally pound him into the floor, just as he promised. "It'll wear off in about ten minutes. Until then, just put him in a teacup or something." He raised a hoof and set it down barely six inches from the now tiny stallion, which caused him to flinch violently and then gallop for the side of the door...getting out of his way. It took him a little while to get there. And with that bit of business concluded, he trotted out of the room before Frostmane could order him to go to the Headmistress' office.

A moment later, one of the young mares in class cantered up to him and slowed to match his pace as other unicorns moved through the halls. “That was a mistake,” she said without greeting or preamble. “You humiliated Nova in front of the entire class, and he’s going to hate you forever. And he’s the kind to try to get back at you.”

“Then I’ll crush him,” he replied bluntly without looking down at the young mare. But the voice told him it was the one that looked like Fleur de Lis.

“And no matter how much the rest of us think Nova’s a jerk, that’s not the best way to make friends in Canterlot. We don’t do things like that,” she told him. “Now everypony’s gonna think you’re a crude, low society barbarian.”

He looked down at her. “So what?”

She looked honestly at a loss. “What do you mean, so what? Your reputation could be ruined! No pony will want to talk to you, and you’ll never get invited to any parties!”

He laughed scornfully, which made her glare at him a little. “Do you think I care if nopony invites me to a party? Or if nopony wants to talk to me? As far as I’m concerned, that’s just fine with me. I’m not here to be friends. I’m not here to pretend to be some fancy high society unicorn. I’m here because I was forced to come here,” he told her flatly. “And I just want to get this year overwith and get back to the life that was disrupted when Pr—when they came knocking at my door.” He almost said Princess Twilight. “So excuse me if I don’t give a tarnished bit over how many parties I’m not invited to, or that prissy primadonnas who believe that the fact that they’re Canterlot unicorns and I’m not gives them the right to talk down to me, won’t talk to me when they’re not insulting me matters to me in any way whatsoever.”

That completely threw her, he could see. She absolutely could not fathom the very idea that a pony wouldn’t care about how other ponies thought about them. She was no doubt born in high society and never knew anything different, so for her entire life, she’d been told by her parents and family and friends that nothing mattered more to a unicorn than how other unicorns regarded them. She was so confused, she just looked up at him blankly as they walked, unable to come up with any response at all to his direct challenge to everything she knew and believed.

He picked up his pace without another word, leaving her behind.

The incident with the stallion wasn’t forgotten, however, in the form of Headmistress Roseglass showing up at his apartment door barely a minute after he got back. She almost stalked in with an icy expression, her eyes almost boring into him as he backed up to give her room to come in. “Did you use magic against another student and threaten violence against him, Mister Starjumper?” she said in a voice of complete command.

“You bet I did,” he answered immediately and forcefully. “He insulted my family and my heritage. And he refused to allow me to pass when I tried to walk around him.”

“That is completely unacceptable behavior!”

“So is him saying to my face that I don’t belong in this school,” he retorted.

“I could expel you!”

“Fine. Go ahead,” he snapped back. “I’ll pack my bags right here and now and be on the next train back to Baltimare, because I am not going to put up with an entire year of being treated like a peasant by your stuck-up students. I don’t care how good of an education I can get here, it’s not worth it if I have to endure arrogant jackwagons who believe that I don’t belong here just because I’m not a society unicorn. I thought this was a school for learning, not an exclusive members only club for Canterlot society foals.”

That scattered her. Clearly, she thought he’d fall all over himself apologizing the moment she threatened to expel him from her cherished school. Her eyes flashed, her mouth opened and then closed, then opened again. “You are not in Baltimare any longer, Mister Starjumper. You are attending the most prestigious school in all of Equestria, and we have strict rules of behavior and decorum that must be followed! And in this school, no matter what may be said, you do not ever use magic against another student! And you do not threaten to use violence! We do not brawl like common, low-brow ruffians in this school! There is nothing that can be said to you that justifies such a barbaric response!"

He gave her a long look. “Then so be it. Don’t bother expelling me, Headmistress. I quit.”

“I will write out your letter of withdrawal,” she declared, a bit haughtily. “Right here, right now. I will not tolerate my students threatening violence against one another. It has no place in our school.”

“No, you won’t tolerate some low-brow Baltimare unicorn having the temerity to defend himself against one of your high society darlings, even if he had every right to do so,” he corrected her as he picked up a piece of parchment and a quill from the writing desk across the room with his magic and brought them over. “And if that’s what your school stands for, Headmistress, I want no part of it.”

Her eyes flashed at his insult of her school, but she said nothing. She took command of the parchment and quill with her own magic, a pale red, and hastily wrote as Starjumper quickly and efficiently packed up what few possessions he brought with him. He was ready to leave by the time she finished her letter, and he was more than happy to sign it where she indicated.

Two days. He lasted two days…but, he supposed, he shouldn’t have been all that surprised. He was going to lament losing access to their library, but he was honest about it. It wasn’t worth it if this was the way he was going to be treated in this school, by both the students and the faculty.

It was too close to sunset for him to get on a train, and he didn’t feel like exhausting himself by teleporting home, but then again, he only needed to wait until sunset before he could get home much less tiring than teleporting, much faster than the train could, and much more enjoyable than both. He’d just go back to his original plan of studying at home, working in the family shop and doing the kinds of odd jobs around Baltimare that only a unicorn could do easily to earn the money to buy the spells he wanted to learn, then moving out once he finished his studies. His parents wouldn’t mind giving him back his room…though he wasn’t going to do that to Songbird, he’d given her his room when he left. He’d take Songbird’s old room, which was much smaller. He waited for sunset in Donut Joe’s diner, enjoying some good donuts and coffee as he kept a close eye on the clock. He already knew where he could go to change where he couldn’t be seen, and as soon as he had his wings, he’d be back in Baltimare before the moon was at its zenith.

But, he didn’t take into account that a certain princess was going to put her hoof in. He didn’t notice how quiet the diner got as he sat at the counter, at least until a pony sat beside him. He glanced over and saw Princess Twilight Sparkle, her mane flowing and waving as if it was swaying in a strong breeze, the visible symbol of her responsibility for raising the sun. “Two with extra sprinkles,” she said casually to the aged unicorn behind the counter.

“Sure thing, your Highness. Good to see you,” he replied in his gravelly voice.

“I’m not changing my mind, your Highness,” Starjumper declared before she could even turn to him. “I won’t set hoof in that school again. It’s a cesspool of arrogant superiority.”

“From what I heard, you did sort of threaten beat up another student, Starjumper,” she said mildly. "And you did attack him with magic."

“And did anypony bother to ask what happened before I did that? Why I did that? Or was what I did automatically a crime just because of who I am?” he challenged.

“I’m sure you had a good reason,” she said easily.

“I can forgive the stupidity of some arrogant little colt, your Highness, but the way your Headmistress treated me was absolutely inexcusable, and I will not go back. I was tried and convicted by her before I was even given a chance to defend myself. I’m not going to suffer through an entire year of being the villain, of being in the wrong no matter what I do or what others do to me.”

“Even if I give you a Royal command?”

“Not even that. And if that means you have to throw me in the dungeon, so be it. As far as I’m concerned, that’s better than one more day in that school, because I will never feel or believe that I will be treated fairly. It’s that simple.”

She was silent, nibbling at one of the donuts that Donut Joe set in front of her, suspended in an aura of lavender magic. “I am going to give you a Royal Command, Starjumper, but not over that. You will return to the apartment and stay in Canterlot while I get to the bottom of this. That way I don’t have to recall you from Baltimare if I find out your actions were justified.”

“Yes ma’am,” he answered.

“And if you don’t return to the school, we’ll work something out. You have too much talent for it not to be developed to its full potential, Starjumper. That would be a crime against you and a disservice to Equestria.”

“How about a compromise, your Highness?” he countered. “I’ll stay in Canterlot and study as hard as you want me to, as long as you let me do it on my own. Give me access to the school library and make it clear to everypony that I’m not to be bothered, and I’ll do my best.”

She glanced over at him. “No promises, but I will promise that I’ll think about it.”

“I can’t ask for more than that, your Highness.”

“Well, I suppose if that doesn’t work, I can always throw you in the dungeon and give you books to study,” she said with an impish little smile as she looked over at him.

He had to laugh. “I’d be a captive audience, that’s for sure.”

She laughed in return, then took another bite of her donut. “So, tell me what happened,” she prompted.

He felt strangely vindicated to be able to give his side of the story, and to the Princess no less, something that the Headmistress was unwilling to do, or even consider that he might be telling the truth if he did. She listened attentively as he told her what happened, without embellishment and with very little emotion, and he didn’t shy away from the fact that he did in fact threaten the smaller colt with violence should he ever insult him like that again. He was careful to be a descriptive as possible, taking advantage of his self-training in observation and memory to accurately recant the entire story to her, to the point where he could tell her exactly where both of them were standing within the room. She seemed impressed with the level of detail and the attention to it in his accounting, but then again, she knew his little secret, so she should have expected him to be able to recall things with such exacting detail.

Teleportation was an art as much as a spell, and part of that artistry was the ability to exactly envision his destination from memory. And that required a keen and precise awareness of one’s surroundings.

He then told her about his confrontation with the Headmistress in the apartment after he got home, repeating her statements word for word. “It was clear she made up her mind before she even talked to me, your Highness,” he said after he finished. “And I’m not putting up with it. I’m not going to deal with a hostile Headmistress for the entire year, not when I’m not here by choice.”

“I thought I made the situation clear to her. I guess I didn’t,” the Princess said, mainly to herself.

“Oh, I think she fully understands the circumstances around me being here, your Highness, but she doesn’t care. Or more to the point, she’s not willing to give me a fair chance in a situation like this, where it’s my word against one of her students,” he stressed. “I’m the outsider, the invader, the disruptor of her perfect system. It made her hostile to me the moment I set hoof on her campus.”

“I don’t think it’s quite that bad, Starjumper. You’re showing a little bias yourself.”

“Do you blame me?” he countered. “How would you feel if Princess Celestia stormed into your room and accused you of wrongdoing without even giving you a chance to explain what happened?”

“I’d feel like I was treated unfairly,” she admitted. “But I’d forgive her and move on.”

“That’s because you know and trust her. I don’t know the Headmistress. And after this, now I don’t trust her,” he answered. “She took sides without getting both sides of the story, and I won’t trust her to be fair and impartial if anything else happens, especially after this.”

She was silent as she finished her other donut, then took a sip of her coffee. “I’ve heard what I need to hear, Starjumper. I’ll try to have a decision for you by tomorrow. So stay close to the apartment, I may have to summon you to the palace or to the Headmistress’ office. Just do me a favor and don’t turn her into a radish.”

He had to laugh. “No promises, your Highness,” he said lightly. “And for what it’s worth, thank you for at least listening to me. That’s more than I got from the Headmistress.”

“You’re welcome.”

There was definitely something big going on.

Word had gotten all over Canterlot late last evening that Starjumper had been thrown out of school for threatening Nova, but then, somehow, Princess Twilight got involved in it. A few ponies had overheard her talking to Starjumper in the donut shop last night, and then he returned to the campus, seen going into the Princess’ old apartment in the tower near the palace, where he’d apparently been living.

That was the first indication to Summer Dawn that there was a lot more going on here than anypony suspected. If he was living there, then the Princess had to know about him, and had some kind of personal involvement to approve him living in her old apartment. It got out just before class started that it was the Princess that had put Starjumper in their school, Shimmer had found out from her father who worked in the palace that the Princess was talking about with Princess Starlight last night.

She found it a bit hard to believe that the big, grumpy stallion was put in the school because he had a lot of magical talent, so much that there was no real way he could learn in Baltimare about the kind of magic the Princess thought he could use...but then again, there was that spell he used on Nova. That was a shrinking spell, and that was seriously advanced magic, so advanced that they didn't even teach it in class.

And she remembered that he said that he didn’t want to come here, that he was forced to come, and now she knew it was the Princess that made him. That also got out, that the Princess was complaining to the other Princess that him not wanting to be here was causing way more problems than she expected.

Why would anypony not want to attend the best magic school in all of Equestria?

Nova was almost insufferably smug before school, bragging to anypony that would listen how he got Starjumper expelled, how he was so big and so important that he could get any pony tossed out of school he wanted, and it was so bad that Summer Dawn very nearly complained to a teacher. He sat in the front of the class once it started almost laughing to himself, whispering to his friends and generally being a jerk…until the Headmistress herself came to the room and pulled him out, and she looked mad. After that, everpony in class was paying more attention to the door than they were Professor Frostmane, waiting to see when he came back.

But he never did.

When they broke for lunch, she heard all about it as Blue Buttons all but galloped through the school spreading the word.

Both Nova and Starjumper had been suspended from school, Starjumper for the rest of the week and Nova for two weeks. Nova was suspended for bullying and inciting the confrontation and put on probation, and Starjumper was suspended for threatening to beat Nova up and using magic against another student, both a violation of school rules. But it was clear whose punishment was more severe, because of the probation. When Nova returned in two weeks, he would be on the most severe form of probation the school had. If Nova had just one more incident of misbehavior, no matter how minor, he would be expelled. But, to be fair, that was because of Nova's long and established track record of bullying behavior, so he did sort of deserve it, where this was Starjumper's first violation of school rules.

Both Starjumper and Nova were punished severely for the confrontation yesterday, which sent a powerful and chilling message to the entire student body that any kind of foolishness like that was absolutely not going to be tolerated by the Headmistress. She didn’t seem to care who started it or who was at fault, she threw the book at both of them. And while there was quite a bit of gloating around school that the most hated pony in the entire school was suspended, it did also create some hushed, nervous whispers about how some innocent pony that did nothing wrong might get expelled just for getting into a spat.

It was all anypony could talk about during lunch, and there was a lot of speculation about what was going to happen to Nova. The shame of getting suspended from school and put on severe probation was going to absolutely crush his reputation in Canterlot, and may permanently damage his future. Ponies were going to snub him, reject him, and he’d be a pariah for moons because of his uncouth behavior. And Nova being Nova, Summer Dawn didn’t think he’d make it a whole year without getting into trouble, which would mean he would eventually be expelled. And without a diploma from the school, it was going to lock him out of the more prestigious jobs in the city. He couldn’t work for the palace without a degree, and he’d have to further endure the shame of having to enroll in one of the other schools in Canterlot to get that degree…which wouldn’t be from this school, and that would mean that he’d lose out if a pony with a degree from the school was competing for the same job. It was also going to heavily impact the reputation of his parents, who were prominent members of Canterlot society. There was no doubt that he’d endure the additional humiliation of being read the riot act by his parents for getting suspended, and no doubt severely punished for his besmirching of the family reputation.

His father North Star was well known to be quite severe, who had exceptionally high expectations of all his foals to carry the honor of the family name. For Nova to bring shame to the family name was going to exact a heavy toll.

At the end of lunch, there was another bombshell rocking the campus, because High Horse had seen Starjumper in the library, sitting at a table filled with books, clearly studying.

That caused a firestorm of rumors to fly. Why was he in the library if he was suspended? Why wasn’t he in class if he wasn’t? Nopony knew what was going on, and that made everypony delve into wild speculation. Clearly, though, the Princess had to have a hoof in this somewhere. Had the Princess intervened on Starjumper’s behalf? Had she forced the Headmistress to let Starjumper back in, and made her punish Nova? That would be the fair thing in her opinion, Nova had started the whole thing trying to be a jerk to Starjumper, so if anypony deserved to be punished, it was him…but suspending both of them for what was basically just a staring contest between two stallions seemed a bit overboard.

The end of lunch brought some clarification, as a nearly pinch-nostriled Frostmane got them back in order after they returned and read from a parchment. “I’m sure there are rumors going around about what happened yesterday and this morning,” she said. “And this class deserves to know what’s going on, since it involves your classmates. This morning, both Starjumper and Nova were removed from class for nearly starting a fight,” she announced, but that was old news by now. “However, both were given…special consideration,” she continued. “Contrary to rumor, neither of them were expelled. Mister Nova has been suspended for two weeks, and when he returns, he will be on probation. Mister Starjumper, however, has been suspended for the rest of the week, and will be restricted to the library and doing remedial lessons during his suspension. So, you may see him in the school library during our library study periods on Wednesday and Thursday,” she added dryly, which caused a bit of hushed giggling. “The Headmistress sends down this warning to everypony, and I quote. This school will not tolerate either bullying or threats of physical violence in any form or manner, and that the use of magic against a fellow student is strictly forbidden,” she read from the parchment. “The next instance of any of these violations that is brought to the attention of the staff or the Headmistress will be met with immediate expulsion, with no special consideration and no prior warning. So it behooves all of you to act with decorum and proper consideration of your classmates at all times,” she said strongly. And it was clear from her expression that she was furious, probably because it happened in her classroom, and no doubt she got chewed out by the Headmistress for not stopping it before it got to that point. That look of barely contained fury on her face made every single one of them as quiet as a drifting feather the rest of the day, and made all of them look very attentive as she continued the morning’s lesson.

It wasn’t the humiliation of being expelled, but it was still a pretty damaging position to be in, at least socially. Everypony in Canterlot would know that Nova was suspended from school for bullying his classmates, and even if he did manage to get through the entire year without getting expelled and earn his diploma, it would always be treated with some suspicion…and maybe a little bit of scorn. To act like that, to be suspended for bullying, that was a heavy mark against him in polite Canterlot society. Sure, there was plenty of insulting and remarks made against other ponies, but they were never, ever done so to that pony’s face. That was the ultimate in rudeness, in uncivilized, uncouth behavior. Some ponies would think that the only reason he managed to get his diploma at all was because of the connections of his parents, saving his rump by talking the Headmistress into at least allowing him to get his diploma. But it would always be a tainted accomplishment in the eyes of many in Canterlot, that he was so ill-mannered and boorish that he was very nearly expelled from school, and it was a shame that Nova may never live down.

It wasn’t until after class that the real rumors started flying, as well as quite a bit of ghoulish anticipation. The annual Harvest Ball was tonight, and it would usually be an event attended by all of Canterlot society. Everypony was wondering if Nova would be there, or his parents, and what they would say if they did attend.

She was going to rush home like the others to get ready for the ball, but she spotted Starjumper walking out of the library, a large stack of books floating beside him, suspended in his magic. She noticed that everypony was watching him, but not one was willing to go up and talk to him. Well, Summer Dawn wasn’t quite as afraid of him as everypony else. She trotted up to him and slowed down, looking over at him as he walked in resolute silence. “It’s all over school what happened,” she said. “And for what it’s worth, I think it’s not really fair they suspended you too. Nova started it.”

“It worked out perfectly for me,” he told her without looking over at her. “I’m being allowed to study on my own in the library, and when I come back to class, I'll be allowed to self-study while the rest of you work on that freezing spell. I'm hoping I can convince them to make me staying in the library permanent. I'll do much better studying on my own than being in that classroom. I get the feeling that Frostmane doesn’t like me.”

“She doesn’t like anypony,” Summer Dawn said lightly, which made the big, grumpy stallion glance over at her. “How do you know the Princess? Word is she intervened on your behalf.”

“I don’t,” he replied. “But she’s the one that ordered me to attend school here, so I guess she had to make sure I didn’t just go back home after all the work she had to do to get me here. I didn’t want to come, she had to resort to giving me a Royal command to get me here.”

“Wow, you must be really good at magic.”

“Not really,” he said modestly. “My father and sister are better magicians than me. I think I’m here because I’ve learned a few tricks my father taught me that just make it look like I’m really good at magic.”

"Well, that shrinking spell was pretty awesome," she complimented. "After seeing you cast that, quite a few ponies think that's why you're here. None of us know that spell."

"None of you grew up in a shop where your father needed your help, either," he replied mildly. "The magic I know is magic my father taught me to help out in the shop. I'm sure you know lots of magic I don't."

“Oh really? What other magic did your father teach you?” she asked in sudden interest. Summer Dawn loved magic, and despite her bad grades, she wanted to be a good magician. "Better than the shrinking spell you used on Nova? That was so cool!"

“Tricks I’m sure they’ve already taught you in that fancy school of yours,” he replied mildly.

“Oh, come on. Show me one of your tricks!” she said eagerly.

Starjumper’s eyes narrowed, and when Summer Dawn looked in the direction he was looking, he saw why. Nova was almost trotting towards him, with three of his friends in tow. And he looked livid. “I guess you’re going to see one now,” he said. “Princess Twilight told me if I got into it with Nova again, she’d throw both of us in the dungeon.”

The big stallion’s horn flared even brighter with golden magic, and that magic limned over his body. And then his hooves came up off the ground! He was levitating himself!

That was a seriously amazing trick! Levitation put the weight of the object on the caster of the spell, so if a pony tried to levitate herself, it just canceled itself out. The more magic she put into it, the more force it put on her, which kept her from getting off the ground. It was basic physics. The equal and opposite reaction of using magic to counter gravity was putting the force required to counter that gravity on the caster of the spell. So, trying to levitate one’s self just tired out a unicorn without her hooves ever leaving the ground. How did he learn how to get around that? And even more, if he had the strength to lift his own body weight, and that was a lot of weight given how big he was, then he had to have really strong magic!

“You can fly!” Summer Dawn blurted as he rose high up over the campus green. “Wow, that’s an awesome trick, Starjumper!” She gave a squeak of surprise when she was lifted up off the ground as well, and that surprised her even more. He was strong enough to pick up both of them? And the books he was carrying? Wow, he really was a powerful magician! No wonder the Princess made him come here, so he could learn really advanced magic! He pulled her up to where he was, nearly thirty feet over the campus green, and they started moving towards the small tower where his apartment was, so fast that a pony on the ground would have to gallop to keep up with them. “Celestia’s flowing mane, this is amazing!” she said brightly. “Teach me how to do this!”

“It’s not that hard,” he said mildly. “My father taught me. And you don’t even have to be strong enough to pick up your own weight. It’s basic levitation, just applied in a different way.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “I’m not picking us up so much as I’m pushing us away from the ground,” he explained. “Trying to pick yourself up won’t work, the force you’re applying just gets pushed down on you, so it cancels out. So instead of trying to pick yourself up, you instead push yourself off the ground, like if you’re jumping. It’s really a simple trick. I don’t understand why you haven’t learned it already.”

“Awesome! Can you teach me?”

“I just did,” he replied mildly. “That’s all there is to it. Well, outside of me using levitation to stabilize myself, so in a way, I am sorta levitating in the traditional sense. But I’m just using it to propel us forward while I use the other trick to get us off the ground. It’s a simple doublecast.”

Most of the ponies on the campus were staring up at them, and Nova and his three friends were trotting after them, clearly intending to confront them when they landed, but they were falling behind steadily since they didn't want to look like they were chasing him. Starjumper was taking them to his apartment, she could see, and she was almost disappointed when he landed them on the balcony attached to the side of the tower, which opened into his apartment. There was no way up there from the ground without coming through the apartment. “That was amazing!” Summer Dawn said excitedly after they landed, and then her horn limned over with pale pink magical energy. “Okay, so I push myself off the ground while I use levitation to steady myself?”

“More or less, yeah, that’s all there is to it,” he replied. “But it takes a little getting used to.”

“Alright, let’s try this.”

“Slowly. The first time I got it, I rocketed myself up and put a hole in the ceiling, on top of giving myself a concussion. My mom was not impressed,” he warned.

She laughed. “I can imagine. Okay, I push away from the ground.”

“Just like if you were levitating something and you want it to go higher, just apply it directly under yourself. Apply the force equally across your entire body, or you’re going to careen off in at an angle instead of going straight up. Once you’re off the ground, you can use basic levitation to direct your movements, or if you’re adventurous or want to go really fast, you can propel yourself forwards the same way you’re propelling yourself off the ground. But that’s really unstable and takes a lot of practice before you can do it without crashing. So use basic levitation at first.”

“Got it.” She directed her magic under her hooves, making sure to do what he said, exert that force equally across the entire aura of magic that surrounded her. She applied more magic, and more magic, and more magic, and then she felt herself shiver a little bit. Then, to her delight, her hooves came off the floor of his balcony! “I’m doing it!” she squealed in delight. “I’m doing it! I’m levitating myself!”

“Not bad,” he said calmly, giving a nod of approval. “And on your first try. You have some talent.”

“Thanks!” she said with a bright smile at him. “Okay, now how do I move forward?”

“Just pretend you’re an object you’re levitating and move it where you want it to go, but only use lateral motion, don't try to support yourself or you'll apply force against yourself and it will push you down. Remember to maintain your push off the ground at the same time. So it’s a doublecast,” he replied as he opened the balcony door and floated his books inside. “Just be careful. Since you’re not on the ground, you’re not anchored, so it’s going to make your levitation a bit erratic. And remember that since you’re not anchored, you have to work around equal and opposite reaction. If you try to push yourself forward, the force you apply also tries to push you back, so push from a fixed point rather than trying to push yourself."

“Okay, I think I can handle that,” she said, biting her lip a little bit as she divided her attention to doublecast. While maintaining the spell pushing her off the ground, she cast a simple spell of levitation over herself and tried to move herself forward, making sure that she didn’t try to push herself away from herself as if she were levitating an object. She instead pushed from a fixed point of reference behind her, which canceled out the equal and opposite reaction, an advanced technique of levitation she learned in school four years ago. She did so, far faster than she expected. “Whoaaooo!” she cried, careening across the deck and nearly crashing into the rail. But the pale pink magic around her was suddenly smothered by a golden aura, and she stabilized. Starjumper’s horn was glowing with golden energy when she looked over at him, and she gave a nervous laugh. “You did say it was erratic.”

“You’re not anchored, so just the barest nudge can send you flying, like trying to walk across wet ice,” he nodded. “It takes practice to get the hang of it. You have to be very subtle.”

“Subtle. Got it,” she said, his golden sheath of magic disappearing around her, leaving her pale rose-colored magic around her body. She started moving forward, much more slowly this time, then she came to a stop. She then slowly moved to the left, then to the right, and her smile grew wider and wider with every movement.

“Very good,” he said approvingly. “You’re a natural.”

“This is so awesome!” she gushed as she slowly crept backwards, then she rose up higher over the balcony…and then she lost it. She nearly fell off the balcony when she pushed too hard going forward, and that made her lose her concentration on the force keeping her aloft, causing her to suddenly drop. Her legs kicked and windmilled as she saw herself going over the railing, which would mean a long fall to the ground below, but she was again caught in his magic and brought to a stop.

“I think you’d better stay low enough to be inside the railing,” he said dryly.

“I think that’s a good idea,” she laughed ruefully in agreement.

For nearly an hour, he let her stay on his balcony and practice this new trick, until she got to the point where she felt comfortable with it...as long as she was going slow. She found that the faster she went, the more unstable it became, and that it would take hours of practice to get to where she could safely control herself going any faster than a brisk walk. He spent most of that time watching her, ready to intervene if she lost control, but eventually he gave over on his vigil and laid down on the balcony’s stone floor and read a book while she slowly and carefully flitted around. She practiced long enough to get a little tired, and put her hooves back on the balcony and nearly pranced up to him. “That was pretty amazing, Starjumper!” she said brightly. “Thank you so much for teaching me that trick!”

“It was nothing,” he shrugged without looking up at her. “Practice an hour or two a day for the next couple of weeks or so, and you’ll have it mastered.”

“Awesome! But I really need to thank you properly. Do you like parties? The Harvest Ball is tonight,” she offered. “How would you like to come?”

“I don’t do parties,” he told her evenly. “But thank you for the offer.”

“Well…how about I take you out to dinner tomorrow to thank you? There are a couple of really good restaurants in town. My treat,” she prompted.

He looked up at her. “Are you asking me out?”

“No! Not like that!” she retorted immediately, then she blushed. That made him chuckle, and she reacted by giving him an affronted glare.

“As long as it’s very clear that it’s just us going to go eat without any of that either implied or expected, then I accept,” he told her with a slight smile. “I don’t have the budget to eat out very much, so it’ll be nice to eat something I didn’t cook.”

“Then it’s an appointment. Not a date,” she said precisely, which made him look up at her lightly. “We’ll go to the Tasty Treat. It’s one of the best restaurants in Canterlot.”

“On one condition,” he added. “We have to go as soon as you get out of school. I have some important things to do tomorrow evening, so I have to be back home before sunset.”

“Not a problem,” she nodded. She walked over to the side of the rail and looked down. “Guess I can get down this way now,” she grinned, then her smile faded. “Uh oh.”

“Uh oh what?”

“Nova and his friends are still down there,” she said. “And now they know where you live.”

He got up and came over to the rail and looked down, his eyes narrowing. “He’s as dumb as he is petty,” he said darkly. “He was warned that he’d be expelled if he came anywhere near me.”

“I don’t think he cares. You don’t realize what you did to him.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, his reputation in Canterlot is in tatters right now,” she replied. “Now his father will punish him, severely, and given who he is, I don’t think he’s going to be able to go a whole year without getting in trouble. That means he’s going to eventually get expelled, I just know it. And that’s going to affect his entire life after school. He may not get a prestigious job in the palace after this, because what happened is always going to be there. The entire direction of his life was changed when he got suspended and put on probation. So, yeah, he’s probably mad enough not to care.”

“He cares that much about what other ponies think of him?" Starjumper snorted.

“In this town, Starjumper, you’d better care what other ponies think of you, because it can ruin your life,” she told him seriously. “Here, what other ponies think of you dictates almost everything you can do. If you have a bad reputation, you’re not getting a good job. You’re not getting a nice place to live, unless you can afford to buy it…and whoever’s selling it may not even offer to sell it to you. You’re not welcome in the better clubs and restaurants. And you’re not getting invited to any parties or other social engagements, and those are important if you want to get anywhere in this town. If your reputation is bad enough, you might all but be run out of town. Nova will have to live that down, and it may take years. It’s just a good thing that he has a very wealthy and powerful father, so he at least has a chance to get back in the good graces of the rest of Canterlot society. In the meantime, though, his reputation and social standing are ruined. He’ll spend the next few moons being denied the chance to go to parties, and most of his friends and social acquaintances will have nothing to do with him. Right now, he’s toxic. If that happened to me, I’d probably leave Canterlot altogether. I wouldn’t be able to bear the humiliation.”

“I knew there was a good reason to dread coming here,” he snorted. “Well, I’ll save him the further shame of being expelled.” His horn suddenly blazed with golden light, and to Summer Dawn’s amazement, a spherical shield of shimmering golden magic formed around the tower! It flared with light, a ripple of magical power flowing over its surface, and then it slowly dimmed until it was gone. The four stallions on the ground skittered backwards when the shield formed, and then Nova advanced up and was immediately rebuffed, staggering back when he walked into the shield. A pulse of visible golden magic skittered over the invisible shield from the contact, and then faded away. “There. Now he can’t get anywhere near the tower. And neither can anypony else.”

“Luna’s moon, you can cast a force field spell?” she asked in awe, looking up at him.

“Can’t you? Don’t they teach you anything in that school?” he replied sincerely. “My father taught me that spell last year, to make sure I could protect myself while I was out on my own.”

She gave him a surprised look. “You know way more magic than we do,” she admitted.

“Then I have even more reason to try to talk them into allowing me to study on my own in the library,” he snorted.

She gave him a speculative look. “Can you teach me how to do that spell?” she ventured.

“That’s an advanced spell. It would take time.”

“Well, I’ll pay you,” she offered. “You said you’re on a tight budget. I’ll pay you thirty gems a week if you teach me how to cast that spell. And I’ll pay for your dinner at a good restaurant twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday, so you’re not eating soup all the time.”

“You’re serious,” he said, looking down at her.

“Completely,” she replied. “If I can cast a shield spell for the final, that extra credit might be what keeps me from flunking. They award bonus points for displaying mastery of advanced spells we learn on our own, and if I can cast a shield spell, that’s a lot of bonus points. And I’m gonna need every bonus point I can get.”

She watched as a few emotions played over his face, from speculation to…to fear, and then he looked down at her with intense eyes. “Three conditions,” he said.

“Well?”

“First. I teach you here, at the apartment,” he said, pointing a hoof at the balcony floor. “I don’t want an audience while I do this.”

“I can live with that.”

“Second. I teach you immediately after your classes, and when I say we’re done, we’re done. Some days we’ll work for several hours, some days we’ll only work for maybe one hour. I have a lot of my own work to do, and how much time I have to tutor you depends on how much of my own work I have.”

“That’s entirely fair.”

“Third. You never, ever, show up at my door uninvited,” he said intensely. “I’m a pony that values my privacy above all else, and nothing annoys me more than being interrupted when I’m studying. If for some reason you need to tell me something, you write a note and put it in the mailbox down at the base of the stairs. I’ll check the box every morning, and I’ll answer whatever questions you have when I see you in class.”

“Alright,” she said, a bit less enthusiastically. “When can we start?”

“Tomorrow,” he replied. “At least we start on the basics.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I have to see what you already know so I know where to begin,” he answered. “I have no idea what they teach in that school. Shield spells are fairly advanced, so I have to see if you know the casting techniques to make sure you can properly cast the spell. I’m fairly sure you have the strength to do it, given how fast you were zipping around,” he said, giving her an assessing, speculative look. “Shield spells aren’t as demanding as you might think. It doesn’t take as much energy as you might expect to put a force field over this entire tower. The energy comes in making it last,” he said dryly. “The shield I set will only last about another half an hour, long enough to convince Nova to go away. Given the size of the tower, I doubt I could make one that would last more than three hours. I’d pass out trying to charge it any more than that.”

“Alright, but remember, we’re going to go out to eat tomorrow too,” she reminded him.

“Then we’ll make tomorrow a short session,” he replied. “I have to be back home before sunset. I have a lot of work to do.”

“That’s not a problem,” she said. “And I’m gonna have to go, I have to get ready for the Harvest Ball. My mom’s already gonna chew me out for being this late.”

“That’s fine, I have a lot of my own work to do,” he said. “You want to go out the door, or get down on your own?”

“I’ll get down on my own,” she said with an eager smile, her body limning over with pale pink magic, and then her hooves lifted up off the floor. “Tomorrow after my classes. Where will we meet?”

“I’ll be in the library, come get me there.”

“Alright then,” she said with a smile, rising higher up. “Uh, I can get out, right?”

He nodded. “The shield is directional. It only stops things coming in, it won’t stop you going out. Remember, subtle.”

“Subtle. Got it.” she nodded. “See you tomorrow, Starjumper. And thank you, you just may be what saves me from failing finals.”

“You’re welcome.”

She floated out over the railing, then lowered herself carefully to the ground, making sure to be very delicate and subtle in the direction of her magic. She managed to set her hooves down on the sidewalk leading to the stairs of his tower gently, then walked through the shield, which flared to visibility as she came through it. Nova and his three bully friends were still down there, and they came up to her as she walked down the sidewalk. “Don’t even talk to me, Nova,” she declared as she trotted along.

“Why were you up there? What were you doing with him?” he demanded.

“I told you not to talk to me,” she said, staring at him coolly. She was about to really let him have it, but Headmistress Roseglass was suddenly on the scene. There was a circular burst of red magic, and she was suddenly there. Roseglass could teleport, had mastered that powerful and highly coveted magic, and used it to get there in a heartbeat. And were so many students in school jealous of her accomplishment. Teleportation was the royal crown of magic, for only the strongest magicians could cast the spell. If a unicorn could teleport, then she was considered among the most respected unicorn magicians in Canterlot. Nova’s three stallion friends suddenly decided that they had better things to do and quickly scattered, leaving Nova alone to face the Headmistress.

“What is this?” she demanded. “Why are you here, Nova? You were specifically told to stay away from Starjumper!”

“I was talking to Summer Dawn,” he replied.

“He followed us here all the way from the Golden Dome, with his three friends,” Summer Dawn declared, using the name of the building where they had their classroom. “And Starjumper had to put a force field around his tower to keep Nova out. He didn’t want Nova to get expelled, so he put up the shield to keep him down here.”

“Is that so?” she asked, giving Nova a withering look. “You can’t even go a single day without breaking your word?”

“I just wanted to talk to Summer Dawn,” he said again, looking much more nervous now. “I wasn’t doing anything.”

“In my office. Now,” Roseglass said, glaring at Nova, pointing towards Old Main with her hoof. Shaken, his face almost ashen, Nova turned and stumbled towards Old Main.

“Please don’t expel him, Headmistress. Starjumper himself said he didn’t want it to happen,” Summer Dawn said, a tiny bit of compassion in her voice. "He was protecting Nova from himself."

She looked back at her, then gave a slight nod. “I’ll honor that, but I do think that Mister Nova could do with being banned from campus during his suspension, to give him time to cool off,” she said.

“That sounds fair to me,” she agreed.

Roseglass looked at her, then gave her a slightly approving look. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I made a deal with Starjumper. He’s going to tutor me in magic,” she answered. “He’s already taught me a new trick!” She then showed off a little bit by shrouding over her body in her pink magic, then her hooves lifted off the ground. “He taught me how to use levitation on myself! It’s a lot easier than I thought it would be!”

“An alternate use of levitation magic,” she nodded. “An advanced application of the spell. We don’t usually teach it to our students because it’s hard to control, and might result in injury.”

“Is it!” she laughed. “He used it after we left the library, and he taught me how to do it when I asked. It’s like trying to walk across wet ice once you get moving. But I’m getting the hang of it.”

“Just be careful learning how to control yourself, Miss Summer Dawn. It can be potentially dangerous,” she warned.

“Starjumper explained all that to me, and warned me to do all my practicing very close to the ground. I’ll be careful, Headmistress,” she nodded.

“But, I would suggest that you do master the technique. It will count as bonus points on your final,” she added with a slight smile.

“I won’t complain one bit, Headmistress. I can use all the bonus points I can get. That’s why I hired Starjumper to tutor me. He’s going to teach me how to cast a shield spell. I’m hoping that’s enough bonus points to make sure I don’t fail.”

“Depending on how much mastery you show over the spell, it just might,” she said speculatively. “Shield spells are very advanced, Miss Summer Dawn. It’s going to be very difficult for you to learn.”

“Starjumper said it may take a couple of moons,” she answered, lowering back down to the ground.

“Well, I wish you luck, Miss Summer Dawn,” she said with a slight nod. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to take care of Mister Nova.”

“Yeah, I need to go get ready for the Harvest Ball,” she agreed.

She left Roseglass and campus, and she felt…hopeful. Weirdly hopeful. If Starjumper really could teach her how to do shield spells, it would all but lock her graduation, which was definitely not a given. Just two days into the term, and she was already completely lost in class. If she could scrape out at least a few points in the written test, do well in the practicals, and earn enough bonus points with both her self-levitation and shield spells, then she would graduate. She wouldn’t embarrass herself, she wouldn’t embarrass her parents, she wouldn’t embarrass her family name.

And for her, who had struggled so much through school since seventh grade, the idea of not having a complete panic attack with finals looming on the horizon made her feel better than she had all summer.

She might even enjoy herself at the ball tonight.

He wasn’t so sure this was a good idea.

On silent wings, Starjumper ghosted over the city of Canterlot, the stars a blanket laid across the sky above and with the moon not far over the horizon behind him. Flying always let him clear his head, think things over…and he wasn’t so sure that he’d made the right decision today.

It was all about the money. Starjumper would have rejected that mare’s offer outright if not for the enticement of being paid, and paid a lot. He was living on a very tight budget, barely able to afford any luxuries or amenities, and the allure of having money to buy extra books, of being able to eat two restaurant meals a week, it had been too much. He’d just have to make sure that having that filly around him in the afternoons didn’t cause him any problems.

The fact that that little white-coated filly was cute had absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.

Nope. Not a single thing.

He was still fairly convinced that she was a relative of the retired supermodel, Fleur de Lis. She had the same muzzle, the same eyes, the same long legs and slender, long body, and if her mane was a darker shade of pink, she’d be the mirror image of the mare.

Still, having her around him was going to cause some problems, problems he’d have to deal with if he wanted those gems. He’d have to keep a very tight control of when she was in his apartment, and he’d have to keep his private journals out of view when she was around. And he’d have to keep very close track of time, to make sure she was out of the apartment well before sunset.

That was one side of it. The other side was her magical abilities. He was fairly sure she had the magical strength to cast a shield spell, they actually didn’t take as much magic as most unicorns thought, but the trick was going to be teaching her how to cast the spell. It was advanced magic, it wasn’t as easy as casting a levitation spell or a light spell. It required a strong grasp of magic and magical theory, to understand how magic worked on a fundamental level so she could harness it and shape it into its desired effect. Granted, she was in the most prestigious magic school in Equestria, so there was a fairly good chance that she either already knew what she needed to know, or would be able to pick it up quickly with her prior education.

Banking on his large wings, he followed the edge of the city, curling around the outer edge and back towards the mountainside. Below, quite a few well-dressed ponies were converging on what the largest house in the city that wasn’t the palace, a huge mansion set on a large lawn enclosed by an ornate iron fence, which set in the corner of Canterlot. The grounds were against the mountainside at the back of the city, and one of the streams that fell from the mountain above cascaded down into a pool of water inside the fence, then meandered across the grounds with several bridges crossing it and then flowed under the fence, heading for the other end of the city to drop from the edge down into the abyss below. That, he’d learned from Donut Joe, was a mansion known as the Waterfalls, one of the oldest manors in the city, and owned by the richest pony in Canterlot, Fancy Pants. At least the richest non-royal pony, anyway The wealth of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna defied all rational terms, given they’d had thousands of years to amass it. The Harvest Ball was an annual event, he’d learned, one of three events held in the Waterfalls each year and considered one of the most prestigious social events of the year. Only the Garden Party and the Grand Galloping Gala were bigger events in Canterlot than the Harvest Ball.

Curious at the silliness of Canterlot unicorns, he swooped down and landed on the side of the wall of a large rowhouse across the street from the fence, clinging sideways to the bricks just under the lip of the roofline, then he put the end of his tail up against the underhang of the lip and let go with his hooves, dangling with his back nearly against the wall by his tail. He wrapped his wings around himself to keep them out of mischief and hung upside down, watching the elite of Canterlot file through the open gates and onto the grounds. Most of them were unicorns, but there were earth ponies and pegasi among them as well, all of them dressed in expensive tuxedo coats and gowns. He spied the stallion himself standing at the door to his manor, the unicorn Fancy Pants. He was a light-coated unicorn with a dark, styled mane and wearing a formal tuxedo coat and with a monacle over one eye. Beside him stood Fleur de Lis in a yellow gown with a long train, and he realized after watching them a moment that she was his wife.

Wait a minute.

He nearly gasped when he made the connection. And as if to prove it, Summer Dawn stepped out of the mansion and greeted one of the younger fillies that was coming up the steps, wearing a soft pale pink gown that nearly matched the color of her mane. So she was Fancy Pants’ daughter? Good Celestia, no wonder she was willing to pay him so much for tutoring, she could certainly afford it! She was the daughter of the richest pony in Canterlot! There was no doubt, watching her interact with her parents, exactly who she was.

What a world. He, the stallion that hated high society nonsense, was going to be tutoring the most socially connected filly in school.

But, he had to give her some credit. He’d had no idea who she was until that moment, when he saw her with her parents. She hadn’t bragged about her social standing, nor had she bragged about her wealth. She’d acted quite, well, quite normal that afternoon, coming across more as an exuberant, energetic, curious young mare more than some snooty high society debutante. And her worry over failing her finals certainly didn’t make her come across as some smug primadonna who thought she was better than everypony else. That admission, that worry, made her seem much more, well, real, like he was seeing the real her, not some aire that she put on when around other ponies. So, he could at least give her points for that. He’d just have to make it abundantly clear that she was there to talk about magic, and nothing else.

He watched for a moment, until Summer Dawn looked almost directly at him, and her gaze didn’t shift. He was pretty far away from her, and his dark coat and mane blended in with the darkness to the point where he was very hard to see unless he moved, but she was clearly looking right at him. He could give a few more points for seeing him, for noticing him, but he wasn’t concerned at all that she might recognize him. He was over a block away from her and he was shrouded in darkness, from that distance he was nothing but a small smudge of discolored night to a pony’s day-sighted eyes.

His eyes. She was seeing the reflection of the streetlights below him in his eyes. Much like a cat’s eyes, his eyes would take on a glowing quality if a pony looked at them in certain light conditions and at the right angle. Since his eyes didn’t change when he was either a unicorn or a thestral, his eyes could see in all but total darkness as well as a pony could see in broad daylight, even in the daylight hours. The light of the stars above was more than enough to paint the city if Canterlot in brilliant light and vibrant colors to his nocturnal eyes. His other senses were just as sharp, just as sensitive, with ears that could hear the scratching of a mouse in a field twenty feet away, and a nose so sensitive that he could identify animals, plants, and other objects by their smell alone.

His were the senses of a nocturnal predator…because that was exactly what he was.

It was one of the greatest secrets of the thestrals, the one truth they kept hidden from the ponies of Equestria. Thestrals were omnivores. They ate both plants and animals, and while his mother had taught him how to hunt when he was younger, she had forbidden them from eating any animals in Equestria due to the special bond between the wildlife of the realm and the ponies that lived in it. After going so long since eating meat, Starjumper had honestly lost his taste for it…though he did like fish.

The fangs in his mouth were not vestigial.

He spread his wings and put his hooves on the wall, then pushed off from it and vaulted up into the air. A single stroke propelled him up over the roofs of the rowhouses as he banked away from the Waterfalls, which would make him all but invisible to the ponies on the manor. Best not to tempt fate. Besides, he had a lot of reading to do tonight, an assignment to finish for both the school and for Princess Twilight, so he’d best get back to the apartment and get started. There was a lot he needed to learn over the next year, before he lost access to the school library and had to pay for spells once again. He already had the formula for the gemfinding spell copied out of one of the library spellbooks, and he needed to get that spell learned.

Though…he didn’t have the same urgency now as he did this morning. With the thirty gems a week coming in from Little Miss Rich Filly, he could learn the gemfinding spell at his leisure. With proper budgeting, he could live comfortably off that tutoring income and still put back quite a reserve fund and live off of that after he left Canterlot. That would buy him a house full of furniture, quite a few books he could put in his private library, when he found a place to settle down.

Maybe...maybe this was a good idea after all.

It was a warm, glorious night in the Everfree Forest. The untamed animals of that wild region were calling into the night, frogs croaking, crickets chirping, and the night-dwelling ones were slipping through the darkness with practiced quiet, mere shadows shimmering in the darkness as they went about their nightly business.

There was light in that wild darkness, however. The ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters had uncharacteristic light emanating from several windows up on the second floor of the ruins, the windows long ago having lost their glass, which allowed the cool night breeze to filter into the broken building. The light was coming from the old library, and the light shining through those gaping holes in the stone wall flickered and shimmered as two ponies within moved around, casting shadows showing through the portals.

With a flick of her tail, Princess Luna paced back and forth in front of a reading table as her sister, Princess Celestia, sat at it, a globe of glowing magic providing light as she read from an ancient, musty tome. A bookshelf behind her had been pulled to the side to reveal a hidden chamber, and a stand within showed from where that book had been taken. It was clear to anypony who looked at her that Princess Luna was unsettled, even nervous, and the look of concentration on Princess Celestia’s lovely face showed that she too was not quite as calm and sedate as she appeared.

“Calmly, sister,” she called reassuringly as Luna passed her yet again. “This isn’t easy to read as you may think. I must admit, my Old High Ponish is quite rusty.”

“I know, sister. I—you know.”

“I do know,” she nodded, her long multicolored mane shivering. She still hadn’t gotten used to the fact that magic no longer kept it suspended, and its weight on her head and neck was surprisingly uncomfortable sometimes. “Here. Here it is,” she said, which made Luna hurry over to the table and look down at the book, standing where Celestia was sitting, and that fact put their heads at the same level. “In the darkness of a curse of ages past brought forth into the present will the Child of Sun and Moon be revealed. In the golden glow of the eyes of the Child of Sun and Moon will the Morning Rose bloom and grow. In the heat of battle between the Child of Sun and Moon and the Dusk Violet will she join with him and the Morning Rose and form the Trinity. In the shadow of the past cast across eons will the sun and moon call upon the Trinity to protect them from the King of Darkness.”

“And that’s the entire prophecy?” Luna asked.

“Unfortunately so, sister,” she sighed. “As I feared, the copy we have is a faithful reproduction of the original. There is nothing new here for us to learn. I fear that the exact meaning of the passages won’t become clear until after what the prophecy predicts come to pass.”

“I still do not believe we allowed Twilight and Starlight talk us into this!” Luna said, moving away from the table and pacing again. “We should be the ones in the palace, facing this danger!”

“We all agreed that it was best if you and I were in a position to act swiftly and without other responsibilities once the King of Darkness reveals himself, sister,” Celestia soothed. “And we both know who that must be.”

“Sombra,” Luna declared, to which Celestia nodded.

“It says much of Twilight and Starlight’s courage that they would stand in our stead and risk themselves this way.”

“They are bait. Let us not call them anything but what they are,” Luna nearly seethed.

“And yet they entered into this willingly, fully understanding the danger posed to them,” Celestia reasoned. “And was it not Twilight that proposed this plan? We did not force them, sister. We all agreed that her plan was the best course of action, and in her plan, Twilight and Starlight are taking our places and facing a danger meant for us while we stay in the background, ready to move swiftly when the danger reveals itself. And believe me, sister, I will do whatever it takes to make sure she and Starlight are safe,” she said firmly.

“Well said, sister,” Luna agreed strongly. “And what of Twilight's letter?”

“My suspicions were correct,” Celestia answered, picking up the letter from the table with her magic. “I suspected the meaning of the first passage and sent her to Baltimare, to investigate Starjumper Astra. He is a Lykan, sister. It is the most convincing argument that could be made that he is the Child of Sun and Moon. Twilight's letter confirms my suspicion. She is convinced that he is the one.”

Luna looked over at her, her eyes sober. "The Curse."

"The Curse," she nodded. "Twilight had arranged to have Starjumper stay in her old school apartment, and has taken him on as a student of sorts to gauge his skill with magic, just not doing so directly, so as not to alert him. It is quite clever, how she has arranged this,” Celestia said with approval in her voice. “She is certain that he is the one. And the prophecy states that he will lead us to the Morning Rose and the Dusk Violet, so now that we have found him, we need only wait and he will find the others for us. We must bring them together as quickly as we can,” she said evenly. “They must be ready to stop Sombra before whatever plan he is hatching comes to fruition.”

“Well, it is something,” Luna grunted, turning and walking back the other way. “A Lykan. There hasn't been a Lykan since before Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon."

"The darkness of a curse of ages past brought into the present," Celestia nodded, repeating the first line of the prophecy as she gave her sister a slightly pained look. Even now, over three decades since Luna was freed from the moon and purged of the darkness of Nightmare Moon by Twilight and her friends, that was a painful subject for Celestia. "And that has the thestrals very, very nervous. They see him as a dire threat to everything they are."

"I know the old myth, sister. I'm surprised you intervened. I'm even more surprised they agreed to the treaty."

"I was not about to let them murder a newborn foal in our realm, sister," she said sternly. "And it took quite a bit of doing to wrangle an agreement out of the Night King. I had to make some very extravagant promises to keep Starjumper within the borders of Equestria. And he knows he cannot leave Equestria, or the treaty will be voided. Nightsong was quite diligent in teaching him the reality of his situation when it comes to the thestrals."

"What will we do when we find the others?”

“Nothing,” she replied. “The prophecy states that only in the golden glow of the eyes of the Child of Sun and Moon will the Morning Rose bloom and grow, and we must not interfere in the conflict that brings Starjumper and the Dusk Violet together. We step back and allow things to happen naturally. Twilight agrees, and I for one am inclined to agree with someone that agrees with me.”

Luna gave a slightly irked glance, then gave a low chuckle, seeing the subtle joke for what it was. “Did the letter mention any leads in that regard?”

“Only one. Twilight learned just hours ago that Starjumper has agreed to tutor a young mare named Summer Dawn in magic. Twilight has looked into this young mare, but is not sure if she is the one. She writes that she will investigate further.”

“I remember her from last year’s Grand Galloping Gala, Fancy Pants introduced her,” Luna mused. “And her name does hint that she may be the Morning Rose.”

“Twilight is not certain that she is. Her grades in school are lackluster, at best, and the young mare’s teachers have informed her that Summer Dawn is simply not very good at magic. It seems that her parents called in quite a few favors to place her in my school,” she said, clucking her tongue in disapproval. “I will have a long talk with the headmistress about entry requirements when I return to my duties, of that you can be certain.”

“This is not the time for vanity, sister,” Luna joked, giving her a weak but encouraging smile. “And what of the Dusk Violet?”

She sighed. “Twilight has no idea,” she replied. “The prophecy states that the first meeting between the Dusk Violet and Starjumper will be a battle…but a battle over what? It might not be an actual battle, it might refer to a game, or a competition of some sort. The Dusk Violet may be a school rival, or they very well may actually fight the first time they meet. Thus far, Starjumper has run into conflict with another unicorn in the school, a young stallion named Nova. But the prophecy is clear in that regard, the Dusk Violet is a mare, so it cannot be him.”

“A cryptic passage,” Luna complained. “It could mean nearly anything.”

“I know. Either way, Twilight will be there to keep a close eye on things,” Celestia said calmly, closing the book, turning, and lifting it with her magic and setting it back on the stand in the secret room. The bookshelf rotated back into place, concealing it from view, then she turned to regard her sister. “There is nothing more we can learn here, sister,” she declared. “Do you intend to return to your vigil?”

“Yes, sister,” she replied. “If Sombra approaches, I may be able to sense it, either here or in the realm of dreams.”

Celestia gave a single nod. “Then I will return to my task as well,” she announced. “Perhaps the Oracle of The Ebon Peak will be able to find out more about how Sombra has managed to return, and where he is hiding. Sombra should be gone, but somehow, some way, he has returned. If we can learn how, perhaps we can put a stop to this before he becomes a threat. After all, the prophecies in that tome are of the possible, not the destined. They are warnings of possible trouble in the future. It would not be the first time we have thwarted one of the prophecies by deciphering its meaning and acting swiftly before it can come about.”

“That is a long journey, sister.”

“I know,” she replied, ruffling her wings. “With luck, I can be back in Equestria by the beginning of the next moon.” She stepped up and put a hoof over Luna’s neck, then gave her a gentle, warm hug. “Warn Twilight and Starlight I will be away for some time. And be careful in your vigil, my sister.”

“Good journey and good luck, my sister,” Luna returned. “Be careful as well.”

“I will,” she promised. She turned away, and then in a golden flash of magical energy, Celestia vanished from the ancient library. Luna sighed, then turned and walked away as the magical globe of light Celestia conjured with her magic began to fade. The wavering shadows played across Luna’s slender frame, and in the blink of an eye between one waver and the next, Luna melted away into the night.

Back in the library, behind the hidden bookcase, upon its crumbling pedestal, the book from which the Royal Sisters were reading suddenly glowed with bright magical light. It opened of its own volition, the pages turning, turning, turning past the page holding the prophecy they had come to read, turning, turning, until the book came to rest on the final page of the book. On the lone blank page opposite the back cover, magical runes burned themselves into the page.

In the darkness of a curse of ages past brought forth into the present will the Child of Sun and Moon be revealed.

In the golden glow of the eyes of the Child of Sun and Moon will the Morning Rose bloom and grow.

In the heat of battle between the Child of Sun and Moon and the Dusk Violet will she join with him and the Morning Rose and form the Trinity.

In the breaking of an innocent heart will the Child of Sun and Moon succumb to the darkness of his curse and rise as the Unmaker.

The book flared with brilliant light, and then closed of its own volition and returned the hidden alcove into silent darkness.

Comments

[FireheartThePone]

...Well... ...Then...

[Conspire]

Dun dun duuuuuun

[Flod]

How can i say anything that dosent spoil this for other readers?

Oh, i know. This book is AMAZING.

There. No spoilers. :3

Merry Christmas, and Happy holidays.