We're the Foals Who Lived

by Maddie Koester

Chapter 9

Morning Shine never believed she would meet a colt she would hate, but that was before she met Draco Malfoal. Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn’t have to put up with Malfoal much. Or at least, they didn’t until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday - and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

“Typical,” Morning Shine said darkly. “Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoal,”

She had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.

“You don’t know that you’ll make a fool of yourself,” said Eclipse reasonably. “Anyway, I know Malfoal’s always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I think he’s all talk,”

Malfoal certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping helicopters. He wasn’t the only one though: Mystic Flier told it, he’d spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Everypony from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Nettle has never had a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother never let him near one. Privately, Morning Shine felt she’d had good reason, because Nettle managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with all four hooves on the ground. Sparkling Radiance was almost as nervous about flying as Nettle was. This was different from flying on your parents' backs as a young filly, and was something you couldn’t learn by heart out of a book – not that she hadn’t tried. At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all with flying tips she’d got out of a library book called Quidditch through the Ages. Nettle was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Radiance’s lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the post.

Morning Shine hadn’t had a single letter since Spike’s note, something that Malfoal had been quick to notice, of course. Malfoal’s eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table. A barn owl brought Nettle a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

“It’s a Remembrall!” he explained. “Gran knows I forget things – this tells you if there’s something you’ve forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red – oh …” His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, “... you’ve forgotten something …”

Nettle was trying to remember what he’d forgotten when Draco Malfoal, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hooves. Morning Shine and Eclipse jumped to their hooves.They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoal, but a very tired Princess Luna, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, even in her tired state, was there in a flash.

“What’s going on?” Princess Luna asked.

“Malfoal’s got my Remembrall, Princess,” Nettle explained.

Scowling, Malfoal quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.

“Just looking,” he said, and he sloped away with Crab and Gargoyle behind him.

At three-thirty that afternoon, Morning Shine, Eclipse, Sparkling Radiance, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps into the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day and the grass rippled under their hooves as they marched down the sloping lawns towards a smooth lawn on the opposite side of the grounds. The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Morning Shine had heard Farrier and Gallop Weasel complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left. Their teacher, Madam Hoops, arrived. She had a short, grey mane and yellow eyes like a hawk.

“Well, what are you all waiting for?” she barked. “Everypony stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up,”

Morning Shine glanced down at her broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

“Stick out your right forehoof over your broom,” called Madam Hoops at the front, ‘and say, ‘Up!’ ”

“Up!” everyone shouted.

Morning Shine’s broom jumped into her hoof at once, but it was one of the few that did. Sparkling Radiance’s had simply rolled over on the ground and Nettle’s hadn’t moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like animals, could tell when you were afraid, thought Morning Shine; there was a quaver in Nettle’s voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his hooves on the ground. Madam Hoops then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows, correcting their grips. Morning Shine and Eclipse were delighted when she told Malfoal he’d been doing it wrong for years.

“Now, when I blow my whistle, you kickoff from the ground, hard,” said Madam Hoops. “Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle – three – two –”

But Nettle, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hoops’s lips.

“Come back, colt!’” she shouted, but Nettle was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle – twelve feet – twenty feet.

Morning Shine saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and – WHAM – a thud and a nasty crack and Nettle lay, face down, on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher and started to drift lazily towards off the grounds and out of sight. Madam Hoops was bending over Nettle, her face as white as his.

“Broken hoof,” Morning Shine heard her mutter. “Come on, colt – it’s all right, up you get,”

She turned to the rest of the class.

“None of you is to move while I take this colt to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you’ll be out of CSFGU before you can say ‘Quidditch’. Come on, dear,”

Nettle, his face tear-streaked, clutching his forehoof to his chest, hobbled off with Madam Hoops, who had her hoof around him. No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoal burst into laughter.

“Did you see his face, the great lump?”

The other Slytherins joined in.

“Shut up, Malfoal,” snapped Gypsy Firefly.

“Ooh, sticking up for Longflank?” said Mystral Aura , a hard-faced Slytherin filly. “Never thought you’d like fat little cry babies, Gypsy,”

“Look!” said Malfoal, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. “It’s that stupid thing Longflank’s gran sent him,”

The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.

“Give that here, Malfoal,” said Morning Shine quietly.

Everypony stopped talking to watch. Malfoal smiled nastily.

“I think I’ll leave it somewhere for Longflank to collect – how about – up a tree?” Malfoal sneered.

“Give it here!” Morning Shine yelled, but Malfoal had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off.

He hadn’t been lying, he could fly well – hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, “Come and get it, Glimmer!” Morning Shine grabbed her broom.

“No!” shouted Sparkling Radiance. “Madam Hoops told us not to move – you’ll get us all into trouble,”

Morning Shine ignored her. Blood was pounding in her ears. She mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up she soared, air rushed through her mane and her robes whipped out behind her – and in a rush of fierce joy she realised she’d found something she could do without being taught – this was easy, this was wonderful. She pulled her broomstick up a little to take it even higher and heard screams and gasps of the foals back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Eclipse. She turned her broomstick sharply to face Malfoal in mid-air. Malfoal looked stunned.

“Give it here,” Morning Shine called, “or I’ll knock you off that broom!”

“Oh, yeah?” said Malfoal, trying to sneer, but looking worried.

Morning Shine knew, somehow, what to do. She leant forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hooves and it shot towards Malfoal’s like a javelin. Malfoal’s only just got out of the way in time; Morning Shine made a sharp about turn and held the broom steady. A few ponies below were clapping.

“No Crab and Gargoyle up here to save your neck, Malfoal,” Morning Shine called. The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoal.

“Catch it if you can, then!” he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back towards the ground.

Morning Shine saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall. She leant forward and pointed her broom handle down – next second she was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball – wind whistled in her ears, mingled with the screams of ponies watching – she ignited her horn – a foot from the ground she caught it, just in time to pull her broom straight, and she toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in her aura.

“MORNING SHINE GLIMMER!”

Her heart sank faster than she’d just dived. Princess Luna was running towards them. She got to her hooves, trembling.

“Never – in all mine own timeth at CSFGU –” Princess was almost speechless with shock, “ – how dareth thee – might have broken thy neck –”

“It wasn’t her fault, Princess –”

“Beest quiet, Miss Firefly –”

“But Malfoal –”

“That’s enow Mr. Glimmer, Ms. Glimmer followeth me, now,”

Shine caught sight of Malfoal, Crab and Gargoyle’s triumphant faces as she left, walking numbly in Princess Luna’s wake as she strode towards the castle. She was going to be expelled, she just knew it. She wanted to say something to defend herself, but there seemed to be something wrong with her voice. Princess Luna was sweeping along without even looking at her; she had to jog to keep up. Now she’d done it. She hadn’t even lasted two weeks. She’d be packing his bags in ten minutes. What would Aunt Twilight and Uncle Flash - oh right, they’re gone… Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still Princess Luna didn’t say a word to her. She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Morning Shine trotting miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking her to Princess Celestia. Princess Luna stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.

“Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, couldst I borrow Wood for a moment?”

Wood? thought Morning Shine, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on her? But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth-year colt who came out of Flitwick’s class looking confused.

“Followeth me, thee two,” said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Morning Shine. “In here,”

Princess Luna pointed them into a classroom which was empty.

“Glimmer, this is Oak Wood. Wood – I hath found thee a Seeker,”

Wood’s expression changed from puzzlement to delight.

“Are you serious, Princess?”

“Absolutely,” said Princess Luna crisply. “The filly’s a natural. I’ve never seen aught liketh it. Wast yond thy first timeth on a broomstick, Glimmer?”

Morning Shine nodded silently. She didn’t have a clue what was going on, but she didn’t seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to her legs.

“She hath caught yond thing in her hoof after a fifty-foot diveth,” Princess Luna told Wood. “Didn’t even scratcheth herself. Canter Weasel couldn’t hast done it,”

Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once.

“Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Glimmer?” he asked excitedly.

“Wood’s captain of the Gryffindor team,” Princess Luna explained.

“She’s just the build for a Seeker, too,” said Wood, now walking around Morning Shine and staring at her. “Light – speedy – we’ll have to get her a decent broom, Princess – a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I’d say,”

“I shall speaketh to Princess Celestia and see if we can’t bendeth the first-year rule. Faust knoweth, we needeth a better team than last year. Flattened in yond last match by Slytherin, I couldn’t behold Trixie Lulamoon in the visage for weeks…” Princess Luna peered sternly over at Morning Shine. “I wanteth to heareth you’re training hard, Glimmer, or I may changeth mine own mind about punishing thee,”

Then she suddenly smiled. “Your father would have been proud,’ she said. ‘He was an excellent Quidditch player himself, at least that’s what I’ve heard from mine dearest sister,”

“You’re joking,” Eclipse stated in disbelief.

It was dinner time. Morning Shine had just finished telling Eclipse and Sparkling Radiance what had happened when she’d left the grounds with Princess Luna. Eclipse had a piece of baked potato pie halfway to his mouth, but he’d forgotten all about it.

“Seeker?” Sparkling Radiance said. “But first-years never – you must be the youngest house player in about –”

“– a century,” said Morning Shine, shovelling pie into her mouth. She felt particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon. “Wood told me,”

Eclipse was so amazed, he just sat and gaped at Morning Shine.

“I start training next week,” said Morning Shine. “Only don’t tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret,”

Farrier and Gallop Weasel now came into the hall, spotted Morning Shine and hurried over.

“Well done,” said Gallop in a low voice. “Wood told us. We’re on the team too – Beaters,”

“I tell you, we’re going to win that Quidditch Cup for sure this year,” said Farrier. “We haven’t won since Canter left, but this year’s team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Morning Shine, Wood was almost skipping when he told us,”

“Anyway, we’ve got to go, Leaf Shoot reckons he’s found a new secret passageway out of the school,” Gallop said.

“Bet it’s that one behind the statue of Starswirl the Bearded that we found in our first week. See you,” said Farrier.

Farrier and Gallop had hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoal, flanked by Crab and Gargoyle.

“Having a last meal, Glimmer? When are you getting the train back to the Princess of Friendship?” Malfoal smirked.

“You’re a lot braver now you’re back on the ground and you’ve got your little friends with you,” said Morning Shine coolly.

There was of course nothing at all little about Crab and Gargoyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.

“I’d take you on any time on my own,” said Malfoal. “Tonight, if you want. Wizard’s duel. Horns only – no contact. What’s the matter? Never heard of a wizard’s duel before, I suppose?”

“Of course she has,” said Eclipse, bluffing, wheeling round. “I’m her second, who’s yours?”

Malfoal looked at Crab and Gargoyle, sizing them up.

“Crab,” he said. ‘Midnight all right? We’ll meet you in the trophy room, that’s always unlocked,”

When Malfoal had gone, Morning Shine and Eclipse looked at each other.

“What is a wizard’s duel?” asked Morning Shine. “And what do you mean, you’re my second?”

“Well, a second’s there to take over if you die,” said Sparkling Radiance, catching the look on her siblings’ faces, she added quickly, “but people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoal’ll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway,”

“And what if I ignite my horn and nothing happens?” Morning Shine questioned.

“Punch him in the face,” Eclipse suggested.

“Excuse me,” Sparkling Radiance interjected. “You can’t be serious about this duel right? You mustn’t go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you’ll lose Gryffindor if you’re caught, and you’re bound to be. What if Shine gets removed from the Quidditch team?”

“But, what about all the times Malfoal has insulted us, our family, and our friends?” asked Shine.

“We just want a little justice,” said Eclipse.

All the same, it wasn’t what you’d call the perfect end to the day, Morning Shine thought, as she lay awake much later listening to Gypsy and Peachy falling asleep. Eclipse had spent all evening giving her advice such as “If he tries to curse you, you’d better dodge it, because I can’t remember how to block them,”

There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Leach or Mrs. Porgy, and Morning Shine felt she was pushing her luck, breaking another school rule today. On the other hand, Malfoal’s sneering face kept looming up out of the darkness – this was her big chance to beat Malfoal, face to face. She couldn’t miss it.

“Half past eleven,” Eclipse muttered. “Better meet Shine in the common room,”

Eclipse crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase and into the Gryffindor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. Morning Shine was there waiting for him.

They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them: “I can’t believe you’re going to do this, Morning Shine,”

A lamp flickered on. It was Sparkling Radiance.

“Radiance!” Eclipse hissed. “Go back to bed! You’re going to get a us caught!”

“I’m going to get you caught? You are going to get yourselves caught!” Sparkling Radiance snapped.

Morning Shine couldn’t believe anyone could be so interfering.

“Come on,” she said to Eclipse.

She pushed open the portrait of the Fat Mare and climbed through the hole. Radiance wasn’t going to give up that easily. She followed Eclipse through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.

“Don’t you care about Gryffindor, do you only care about yourselves, I don’t want Slytherin to win the House Cup and you’ll lose more points than you did in Potions class! What if they send us back home? We’ll have nopony to go to!"

“We understand your concern Radiance,” Eclipse said. “But, you are not changing our minds. Now, please, go away,”

“All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you’re on the train home tomorrow, you’re so –” Radiance started.

But what they were, they didn’t find out. Radiance had turned to the portrait of the Fat Mare to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Mare had gone on a night-time visit and Radiance was locked out of Gryffindor Tower.

“Now what am I going to do?” she asked shrilly.

“That’s your problem,” said Eclipse. “We’ve got to go, we’re going to be late,”

They hadn’t even reached the end of the corridor when Radiance caught up with them.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.

“You are not,” Eclipse replied.

“D’you think I’m going to stand out here and wait for Leach to catch me? If he finds all three of us I’ll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you and you can back me up,” Radiance shot back.

“You’ve got some nerve –” said Eclipse loudly.

“Shut up, both of you!” said Morning Shine sharply. “I heard something,”

“Mrs. Porgy?” breathed Eclipse, squinting through the dark.

It wasn’t Mrs. Porgy. It was Nettle. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.

“Thank goodness you found me! I’ve been out here for hours. I couldn’t remember the new password to get in to bed,” Nettle explained.

“Keep your voice down, Nettle. The password’s ‘pig snout’ but it won’t help you now, the Fat Mare’s gone off somewhere. How’s your forehoof?” said Morning Shine.

“Fine,” said Nettle, showing them. “Madam Petal mended it in about a minute,”

“Good – well, look, Nettle, we’ve got to be somewhere, we’ll see you later –” Eclipse started.

“Don’t leave me!” said Neville, scrambling to his hooves.

Eclipse conjured up a watch and then glared furiously at Radiance and Nettle.

“If either of you get us caught, I’ll never rest until I’ve learnt that Curse of the Bogies Mistral told us about and used it on you,” Eclipse spat.

Radiance opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Eclipse exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Morning shine hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward. They flitted along corridors striped with bars of Luna’s moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Morning Shine expected to run into Leach or Mrs. Porgy, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed towards the trophy room. Malfoal and Crab weren’t there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Morning Shine ignited her horn in case Malfoal leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by.

“He’s late, maybe he’s chickened out,” Eclipse whispered.

Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Morning had only just created a spark when she heard a voice – and it wasn’t Malfoal.

“Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner,” It was Leech speaking to Mrs. Porgy.

Horror-struck, Shine waved madly at the other three to follow her as quickly as possible; they scurried silently towards the door away from Leech’s voice. Nettle’s robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Leech enter the trophy room.

“They’re in here somewhere,” they heard him mutter, “probably hiding,”

“This way!” Morning Shine mouthed to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armour. They could hear Leach getting nearer. Nettle suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run – he tripped, grabbed Eclipse around the waist and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armour. The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.

“RUN!” Morning Shine yelled and the four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Leach was following – they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Morning Shine in the lead without any idea where they were or where they were going. They ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.

“I think we’ve lost him,” Morning Shine panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping her forehead.

Nettle was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.

“I – told – you,” Radiance gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest. “I – told – you,”

“We’ve got to get back to Gryffindor Tower,” said Eclipse, “quickly as possible,”

“Malfoal tricked you,” Radiance said to Morning Shine. “You realize that, don’t you? He was never going to meet you – Leach knew somepony was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoal must have tipped him off,”

Morning Shine thought she was probably right, but she wasn’t going to tell her that.

“Let’s go,” said Shine.

It wasn’t going to be that simple. They hadn’t gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and Leech came bursting in.

“I’ve got you now!” Leach said triumphantly. “STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS IN THE CORRIDOR!”

“This is it!” Eclipse moaned, as he pushed helplessly up against the wall. “We’re done for! This is the end!”

“Oh, move over,” Radiance snarled. She ignitated her horn, and shouted, “Stupify!”

Leach went stiff, as did Mrs. Porgy. Their frozen forms doppled over as the group of foals ran out towards the Gryffindor Tower. They didn’t stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Mare on the seventh floor.

“Where on earth have you all been?” she asked, looking at their dressing-gowns hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.

“Never mind that – pig snout, pig snout,” panted Morning Shine, and the portrait swung forward.

They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling into armchairs. It was a while before any of them said anything. Nettle, indeed, looked as if he’d never speak again. Radiance stood up, glaring at them.

“I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. We could all have been expelled. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed,” Sparkling Radiance fumed.

Morning Shine and Eclipse looked at each other, the looks on their faces were for the other to understand what they were thinking.

“Do you think Leach will remember which foals snuck out of bed? And do you think he knows what house we’re in?” Eclipse asked.

“Yep. And if he remembers what we look like, he can figure out which house we’re in,” Morning Shine sighed.

“We’re doomed…” Eclipse moaned as he buried his face into his hooves.

Author's Note:

This chapter has been in the works for some time now. I'm just glad I could finish it for you all, especially with how busy I've been! Hope, you enjoyed, more coming soon!

Comments

[Hearts warming gamer]

“Punch him in the face,” Ron suggested.

The universe is imploding aaaaaaaaawhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Maddie Koester]

9338000
Oops! I must gotten so carried away that I forgot to change it to Eclipse!