Faithful Student, Prized Student
“Come on everypony,” said Lightning Dust from behind a table in the mess hall. “Fifteen bits gets you into the pool.”
As soon as Twilight and company left, Lightning had decided to cash in on her little discovery. She had started up a betting pool for when Shadow finally proposed and word spread quickly. Nearly everypony who worked in Dome Zero was placing some large bets. One pony had put in her entire life savings believing that Shadow would pop the question on the planet.
“Hey Lightning,” said a voice besides the speedy Pegasus. Nearly jumping out of her armor, Lightning turned to see Derpy standing next to her with a big smile. “How’s it going?”
“Can’t complain,” replied Lightning as she eyed the jar full of bits. “Care to test your luck?”
Derpy frowned. “No thanks. I’m not risking my muffin money for the week.”
Lightning shrugged. “Suit yourself then,” she replied before raising an eyebrow. “So what brings you down here? You usually eat dinner with your family.”
“Work,” replied Derpy. “Even though the princess is gone I still have to carry out messages in her name. Right now I have a message to you from the LBI.”
Lightning’s eyes narrowed when she heard this. The LBI, or Lunar Bureau of Investigations, was a collection of ponies that investigated any odd behavior in all the high profile areas. Like if a pony was altering test results in the science and research division for whatever reason. Once they had sufficient evidence of some kind of misconduct they would then send word to the Royal Guard to detain the pony/ponies involved until their trial.
“Ok then,” said Lightning as she motioned all the other ponies to leave. “So who am I arresting?”
“Dr. Blue Star,” replied Derpy. “She’s in charge of the Crescent Hope project.” Lightning nodded as she took off into the air. Crescent Moon was the second most important project going on in the Republic. The first was the terraforming project. Crescent Hope was a star ship that would allow ponies to travel to other planets within this star system. Once the project was completed they could just take the water of uninhabited planets. Maybe even set up an outpost station or something like that.
Lightning Dust hoped that it was a mistake or something. Because if not, Dr. Star would be in some serious trouble.
-x-
Cadence walked down the hallways towards her room while levitating a plate of cookies. So far things were moving well with Midnight. As well as one could expect at least. Midnight had completely left her sanctuary from beneath the bed to play some games with her and Shining. However she was very nervous, jumping at any sudden noise or movement. One time, when Shining raised a hoof while they were playing, Midnight got down to the ground and place both of her forelegs over her head as if to protect herself from some kind of an attack.
Cadence let out a sigh. It would take a long time for her to let go of these fears. They were understandable considering the filly’s past. But if Cadence kept working with her new daughter then she would eventually get her to realize that those days were gone. That she was safe now.
As the alicorn of love neared the door to her room, she found Blueblood standing out in the halls. Out of everypony in the castle, he was her least favorite. He cared only for bits and power with no love for anything other than himself. His treatment of the common ponies was horrible but not as horrible as how he treated his servants. Holding back a groan, Cadence walked towards him while hoping that he wouldn’t talk to her.
“Ah Cadence, just the princess I was looking for,” said Blueblood.
“Blueblood, how nice to see you,” lied Cadence. “How can I help you?”
“Well I heard about your recent adoption,” said Blueblood. “I thought it would be best to inform you that somepony has leaked this to the papers. By morning everypony in Equestria will know that there is now a bat pony princess. I don’t think many would be happy to hear that.”
“They will soon realize that there is nothing to worry about,” said Cadence. “She is a sweet little filly who has done nothing to deserve such a hard life.”
“Perhaps,” said Blueblood with a nod of his head. “But if I may be so bold, you are putting that freaks life in even more danger than if she were back on the streets where she belongs.”
“She is not a freak,” snarled Cadence. “And what do you mean by that?”
“I mean that not all of the good ponies in Equestria will feel as comfortable having one of those things living in the center of our government,” said Blueblood in a matter of fact tone. “You can be sure that many ponies will most likely complain non-stop. But there will be others who might try something more…drastic, if you get my meaning. As long as that winged freak is living in this castle there will be a target on its back. So please dear cousin, get rid of it before there is a blood stain on the marble floors.” With that said, Blueblood walked away.
Cadence took several deep breaths as she tried her best to regain control of her emotions. The way he talked about Midnight was both insulting as well as demeaning. He was more concerned about the floor than another pony’s life! How in the wide world of Equestria did he ever become Celestia’s favorite nephew?
As Cadence began to walk again, she felt a twinge of worry. While Blueblood most likely didn’t care about Midnight, there was a hint of truth in his words. Many ponies wouldn’t like the fact that one of their princesses had just adopted what they considered to be a freak. Some may even try to harm the poor filly in some misguided sense that Cadence was being fooled by her. Still, Cadence would not back down from doing what she thought was right. Midnight was now her daughter and she would not throw her back into the streets. She would protect her from as much harm as she could until the ponies of Equestria came to their senses.
Once Cadence got close to her door she could hear Midnight giggling. Slowly she opened the door to find something she had never seen before. Midnight was on the bed with Shining sitting next to it. The captain of the Shield Corps looked like he had just had a makeover. There was blush on his cheeks, a lot of lipstick, and he was wearing eye liner. The two of them turned to look at her once she began to laugh uncontrollably.
-x-
“So, have you informed your nobles?” asked Luna as she sipped her sparkling cider. Right now she and her sister were in Celestia’s room doing some last minute talks.
“I have,” said Celestia. “They were not too thrilled at the idea, but I gave them little choice. After we make the announcement I will begin the selection process of who goes.” Celestia paused to have a sip of punch. “How did it go on your end?”
“Varied,” answered Luna. “Land Share seems to be all for it. April Showers is a bit more conserved about the water situation. As long as we get that I don’t foresee any real problems from her. Gigawatt, on the other hoof, is completely against this. He-” There was a knocking at the door that silenced the moon’s princess. Slowly, Celestia got up and moved over to the door. When she opened it she allowed a smile to appear on her face.
“Hello there Spike,” said Celestia. “What are you doing here this late?”
“Moon Dancer wanted me to drop some things off before the break ends,” said Spike as he handed Celestia some papers. “She was afraid she would lose them again like last year.”
“What a wonderful assistant you are,” beamed the solar princess as she patted the baby dragon on the head. She then bid him goodnight before closing the doors. When she turned around she saw that Luna was giving her an odd look.
“What was that about?” she asked.
“Oh nothing much,” said Celestia as she set the papers down. “Just something with one of my students.”
Luna nodded. “I see, so you’re still taking on students. Is this Moon Dancer your faithful student?” For as long as Luna could remember, Celestia had always hoof picked one student to be her faithful student. That one would have either the most potential or the greatest dedication to his or her studies. The faithful student would then be given private lessons with Celestia as well as receive some extra benefits.
“No,” said Celestia with a slight sigh. “Right now my faithful student is Trixie. She’s a nice filly, but her magical skills are a bit weak. I can still remember the day I took her on as my student.”
-Flashback-
The air outside the castle was cooling down as fall approached. After such a long, hot summer Celestia found this cool to be refreshing as she stood upon a balcony that overlooked her school. From here she could hear the children laughing as they either returned to their homes or went back to their dorms. Some were leaving from their entrance exams with either good news or pure disappointment.
Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns was her prized creation. It was still relatively new as were most schools in the country. This one served two purposes. The first was to teach those special unicorns that had the most talent when it came to magic. The second was to find that one who would become the bearer of the Element of Magic. Ever since Luna left the harmony between the two of them had been broken causing the Elements to seek out new bearers. Over the years there had been several of each one except for the one who would wield magic.
As her eyes scanned the crowd she noticed that one filly was being dragged away by a stallion that Celestia assumed to be her father. They stopped by a secluded fountain and the filly began to talk while the stallion began to pace back and forth like a drill instructor. As Celestia watched this, she had a growing sense of unease as to what she was watching. So using her magic she used a spell that would allow her to hear what was being said.
“What do you mean you failed?” growled the father as he continued to pace. “Do you realize how many bits I paid for a tutor just for this day? How could you fail so miserably?!”
“Trixie is sorry,” wept Trixie. “But the test was hard. They wanted Trixie to-” She was then interrupted as she father smacked her with his hoof.
“No excuses,” he growled. “I should have expected his much from a failure like you.” He raised his hoof and smacked her again, but harder this time leaving a red bruise. “But you said you could do it!” Another smack. “That I should-”
“Enough,” said Celestia as she appeared behind the stallion along with two of her guards.
“P-Princess Celestia,” said the stallion as he turned to face her. “I was just-”
“Beating and berating a child for failing a test,” said Celestia with none of the usual warmth in her voice. “I saw the whole thing. Guards, take him away.” Within moments, the stallion was dragged away while kicking and screaming. Once he was gone, Celestia looked down at the sobbing filly before her. “It’s ok,” she said as she placed a reassuring hook on her shoulder.
“But Trixie did her best,” cried Trixie. “T-Trixie was a-asked to hatch a-an egg but Trixie didn’t know how. Trixie really wanted to p-pass. Now where will Trixie go?”
“Do you live with just your father?” asked Celestia. Trixie nodded her head causing Celestia to worry about what to do. She had just seen her father taken away and was soon to be sent to an orphanage. She felt bad for the filly since she had been given one of the most difficult tests at the school. Then, Celestia had a thought. Usually she took one of the most promising students as her faithful student. Perhaps it would be more challenging if she took one that wasn’t already the best.
-End Flashback-
“Has it been a challenge?” asked Luna once Celestia had finished talking. To be honest, she was surprised that Celestia put her hoof down like that. If only she did that a bit more often.
“It has,” admitted Celestia. “I know that Trixie tries her best. Everyday she comes in, ready to work and give it her all. But we have been moving so slowly compared to the rest of my past faithful students. Then there is her high and mighty act. She does this to hide her fears as well as her insecurity, but it has resulted in her having few friends.” Celestia took a deep breath, wishing to redirect the conversation. “So, what about you Luna? Do you have a student of your own?”
“I do indeed sister,” said Luna with a confident smile. “Twilight Sparkle is my prized student. I have never before seen a unicorn with such talent, such a desire to learn everything that she can.” Then Luna’s smiled dropped as she looked up at the moon that she had just raised in the sky. “I just wish I could have found her under better circumstances.”
-Flashback-
Luna watched the planet from one of the windows of her palace. There was much going on today and she needed a bit of time to unwind. Looking at the planet they had left behind brought an odd sense of peace. No matter how much time had passed, she could not forget the days she had sent down there.
As she continued to stare she noticed something odd. It looked like a rainbow colored shockwave. But before she could wonder what it was the palace began to shake!
“Guards!” Luna called out. “What is happening?” Her eyes darted towards the shockwave, fearing that her sister or, more likely, her nobles might have found a way to attack them.
“There is nothing to worry about princess,” said one of the guards. “We received a report a few days ago that a meteor would strike soon. I guess today was the day.”
“Where any of the Domes hit?” asked Luna as she began to walk out of the court chambers. The guards flanking both sides as they walked with her.
“No your majesty,” said the second guard. “It was predicted that the meteor would miss all of the Domes as well as the tubes. Everypony is safe.” As Luna let out a sigh of relief, another guard came running towards them with a horrified expression on his face.
“We just lost contact with the Deep Tunnel,” the new guard cried out. “The meteor that just hit landed right above the tunnel causing a cave in!”
Luna’s eyes widened in shock as she took off. The Deep Tunnel project had been set up by a unicorn named Night Light. He had suggested that there should be a series of underground tunnels linking each Dome together in case of back up in the tubes. He also suggested having small businesses in the tunnels as well. The way he explained it, ponies would be able to walk between the Domes while doing some light shopping. Luna liked the idea of having an alternative method of travel between the Domes as well as allowing more business to grow. However, she had never thought what could happen if a meteor were to strike above one of the tunnels as it was being made!
Within an hour, Luna arrived at the entrance to what was going to be the first tunnel. Guards as well as civilians were already hard at work trying to move the rubble that blocked their advance. One of the rescue ponies moved towards her.
“Princess,” she said with a quick bow. “This is bad. Our scans have revealed that the atmosphere in the tunnels is being depleted. There…there are most likely no survivors.”
Luna gave a sad nod before looking out of the Dome. Outside she could see where the meteor had crashed as well as where the tunnel had collapsed. She knew that there were at least three hundred ponies down there. Three hundred dead.
“Continue the work as quickly as possible,” said Luna. “Maybe if we are lucky we may find one or two under a shield spell. The rest we will collect so they may have a proper burial. Once this over, a memorial shall be set up for those who died.” The rescue pony nodded and bowed as she took her leave. Yet, as she did, the ground began to tremble once more. Fearing the worse, Luna quickly cast a shield spell to protect all of those in the area. She looked out of the Dome only to see something she never expected.
Erupting from the ground was a purple blob of magic. Powerful magic that was almost on par with hers. Squinting her eyes, Luna saw three children in the blob. The one in the middle was a young purple unicorn whose eyes were glowing white. The other two were a bat pony and a white unicorn colt.
Luna reacted instantly, dropping her shield before teleporting to the children. Once there she cast another shield spell and filled it with an atmosphere. The lunar princess then reached out a hoof, gently touching the filly on the shoulder to not only help calm her down but to disrupt the magic. It worked like a charm as the three fell to the ground.
The purple filly then looked up at Luna with teary eyes. “Did mommy and daddy make it?” she asked. “Are they ok?” Luna could not bring herself to lie to the poor girl. Slowly she shook her head causing the filly to begin crying as she did.
-End Flashback-
“I later found out that she was Night Light’s daughter, Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna as she looked at her glass. “The other two were her brother, Shining Armor, and a friend named Shadow Blade. Sadly they were the only survivors. After that I took them to the castle and looked after them. I had been the one who had failed to realize something like this might happen so I felt it was my responsibility to look after them. Twilight, it seemed, was a bit of a genius absorbing all kinds of knowledge. Both magical and scientific alike. So in the end it was only natural that I made her my prized student.” Luna paused and sighed. “Now, let us continue with these talks.”
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So we finally see Spike. I'm surprised he isn't with Trixie. Though I like how your doing something new with him. We also find out Trixie past, and why she's the way she is.
Informative, good flashback points, parallel for both sisters. I'm waiting now on when mane 6 becomes mane 6 in this other universe.
Sloth love Chunk!
And then you used Voyager as an example, and I shot myself in the face.
2318121
I am guessing that you don't like Voyager.
2318168 Yes, Kingtiger am love Voyager!
2318172
Hey, i fixed that mistake.
2318179 Kingtiger am forgive Darthvalgaav immediately.
Back stories revealed! Tragedy has been had and threats are made!
What next? TUNE IN NEXT TIME.
(College all-nighter. Fun times with Red Bull.)
~Skeeter The Lurker
This chapters title reminds me of the Soft Kitty song from The Big Bang Theory
Just finished reading what you've got so far from beginning to end, and I absolutely love it. I'm a fan of any story that looks deeper into the mechanics of how fairy tale Equestria actually works, and your version of the Lunar Republic is awesome.
very true; history is written by the victors. along same line of thinking you have "you're only a war criminal if your side lost (I'm looking at you George Bush and Tony Blair)."
Yay backstories!
I can see it already, Alt Twilight and Shadow are in the library at night working on finding more information when suddenly wind starts up in the library and sparks start shooting out of the center on the mini tornado. (Like the timetravel spell but more intense) So Shadow grabs Twilight who's frozen in curiosity and they dive into the kitchen just as what sounds like a bomb explodes in the library leaving smoke. The Mane 6 do a quick checking of themselves to make sure their all ok and then they begin walking about the library. Rainbow Dash decides to go into the kitchen gaining odd looks from Alt Twilight and Shadow, which RD doesn't notice because she believes she's invisable. Shadow thinking RD caused it yells at her which startles Dash as she looks about to find who he's yelling at only to be shocked that he seems to see her. In response RD yells to Twilight who opens the door to find Dash pointing at her alt self and Shadow to which she shrugs.
Enjoying this a lot. The setting is great, and I think your characters are good. There hasn't been a lot of conflict yet so the pacing seems kind of slow, but I'm looking forward to it picking up. Keep up the good work.
YAY
spike has been seen now I'm happy
History is written by the winner. Whole human history is like that. If you go dig into so called heroes and heroic nations you find that they were the same as enemy or just the same. Good example is Christian Church and its actions trough whole human history, not gonna go into that and wont even read mindless fanatics bashing me. More recent is Allies in WW2, while all the things are blamed on Axis, Allies were just as bad (remember russians were Allies and their behavior in the war is well known). Even oh so great America had similar concentration camps as Germany and dont forget their abomb bombing on 2 jp CIVILIAN citys (there are more events but this is good example), but due to them being victors, not much is talked about it cus noone wants to make enemy with the winner. Its always easier to blame the losers because they cant fight back.
2328746 it is said when any means are allowed to defeat evil that we are selfs become the very evil we tryed to destroy.
being good is inpossible if you want to cause change because there is no good way to defeat evil.
just slow it down.
in order to defeat evil you need to become evil and trick the masses that what your doing is good.
in order to bring peace we must destroy everything that makes us human.
holy crap rainbow dash invertily killed twi's parents
if twi finds out
This has a great premise and a great plot, but there is one thing you could work on- you seem to tell us rather than show us the scenes, particularly the flashbacks. This is common throughout the story. Fix this, and you'll have something truly great on your hands, rather than just great.
"History is writen by the victor. But how can you tell if it's true, when all you know are a bunch of lies." - Call of Duty:Black Opps commercial
4295331
This is for the record.
History is written by the victor,
History is filled with liars.
4295331 Truth isn't real its all opinions.If i went to a parallel universe where they ate their dead you would see it as wrong that is not truth that is option.
If Newton told the world that An apple fell because of magic we would have obtained such power for reality is simply the image of the mind.
3836855 I could be blind but where dose it even hint that rainbow was involved either indirectly or directly? NEIGH I SAY!
5845012 I believe they thought that because the meteor hit at the exact same time Rainbow Dash achieved her first Sonic Rainboom.
4295331 "Someone told me once that there's no right and wrong, and punishment was saved for those who dared to cross a line." ~Tool, album Opiate, song Jerk-Off
4150959 I actually have to agree with this. It WOULD be better to get a more in depth view of the flashbacks to really flesh out the history of these important events.
It seems like what happened to Night Light is a perfect example of how Luna's style of Governing can sometimes have negative unintended consequences.
Still, the overall system is working a lot better under Luna's reign than not, as far as we've been able to see. Unfortunately, the same isn't so true with Celestia, as goes too far into trusting in people's so called innate goodness, to take the actions necessary for true progress an change to come about.