Princess Luna has a student. Princess Luna has to leave. Where does she send her student?
When Princess Luna must leave Canterlot for a few weeks, she decides there is only one pony she trusts enough to care for her precious student: Twilight Sparkle. Unfortunately, she forgot to mention a few things. Things such as, 'don't let her near the Cutie Mark Crusaders'. Eh, those are just minor details... Right?
Princess Luna smiled at the prancing filly beside her. Stardust’s mane was held out of her face by a rubber band and her wings were fluttering excitedly. She pulled her wagon, piled high with books, like it had no weight. They turned a corner and Stardust stopped, almost tripping Luna.
“Is that it? Is that where we are going?” she bounced around Luna, pointing at the crystal castle.
“Yes. That is Twilight’s castle. Just wait till you see the library.” Stardust let out a little squee of excitement at the word “library”.
“She really is just like Twilight” Luna turned her head to see her sister, Princess Celestia, Goddess of the Sun beside her. The two stood and watched Stardust run along the path to the castle, her wagon bumping behind her. Luna snuck a sly grin at her sister.
“Should we tell her?” Celestia took a moment to think before shrugging.
“She’s your student. Besides, it might be a good lesson for her.” Luna nodded. With a flash of her horn, a tub of popcorn appeared in the air beside her. She offered some to Celestia who took it without comment.
Luna started counting down from ten under her breath. “9” Stardust had stopped to stare up at the castle in awe. “8” she had started approaching again, at a slightly slower pace. “7” Pinkie Pie appeared beside her. “6” Stardust jumped and ran back a few paces. “5” Pinkie Pie was saying something, gesticulating wildly with her hooves. “4” Stardust ignored Pinkie and started running toward the castle again. “3” Pinkie shrugged and pronked off. “2” Stardust was nearly at the door.
“1” with a flash of purple magic, Stardust was flung into the air. Luna took a bite of popcorn as she watched her student sail above her. Stardust’s scream ended abruptly as she struggled to stay in the air, her small wings buzzing.
“Luna, she is starting to fall. Don’t you think you should… do something?” Luna shrugged.
“I trust Twilight Sparkle. She would not do anything dangerous”. Even as she spoke, another flash of purple magic erupted under the plummeting filly. A large inflatable pool appeared filled with mud. A dank smell came from it and Luna wrinkled her nose in disgust. Stardust shrieked when she saw the mud appeared below her and flung her front legs in front of her face. With a massive SPASH Stardust landed. Mud sprayed in every direction. Another flash of magic vanished the pool, leaving the filly in a puddle of oozing muck. Stardust groaned and wobbled to the edge of the puddle. She caught sight of Luna and glared. Luna winced and vanished the popcorn, drawing and annoyed huff from Celestia.
“Hmm… did something happen? It appears you have found yourself in a… sticky situation”
Celestia stifled a laugh at her sister’s choice of words. The filly stomped up to them. Her wings buzzed, spraying bits of mud over the alicorn sisters.
“You KNEW? You knew that was going to happen? I trusted you Luna!” Stardust’s bottom lip started to quiver and her bright blue eyes filled with tears. Luna seemed to shrink into herself under that gaze.
“I… I’m sorry. Please stop looking at me that way” Stardust did not relent. Her ears drooped and she drew a hoof over the earth, drawing circles in the dust. Luna winced. “I was going to warn you, but you ran off so fast…” her words drifted off as Stardust looked away. A single tear dripped down her muzzle. Luna watched transfixed as, in slow motion, the tear fell through the air and landed on the ground, taking the shape of a shattered heart. Stardust sniffed and, with head hung low, she started trudging back toward the castle, picking up the books she had dropped while being attacked by the loathsome building.
Once Stardust was a reasonable distance away, Celestia let out a loud guffaw. Luna shot her a reproachful look but that only made Celestia laugh harder. “You’ve got to stop falling for that trick Luna”. Luna’s eyes sparked and she turned on her sister.
“I seem to recall quite a few stories of Twilight being allowed free run of the castle kitchens when she was a filly” Celestia at least had the decency to look ashamed.
“That was different. She had Spike with her. Have you ever had to say no to a baby dragon who looks at you like you ate his last ruby?” Luna rolled her eyes. She smiled and started walking toward the castle after her student.
As they neared the castle they began to hear shouting coming from inside, along with the occasional sound of an object hitting a wall.
“SPIKE! Is library room #4 clean? Do we have enough eggs and haycakes? Where are the girls? They said they would be here. It is WHAT TIME? No no no no no. They’ll be here any minute. It’s the PRINCESSES! The castle has to be perfect!”
Luna raised an eyebrow at Celestia. Celestia blushed. Stardust cautiously walked up to the door. She raised a hoof. She knocked. All sound stopped. The dead silence lasted for 4.72 seconds. The door opened. Twilight Sparkle, bearer of the Element of Magic, Princess of Friendship, student of Celestia, was a mess. Her mane looked like she hadn’t brushed it in a week, her left eye twitched, and her hoof was stuck in a bucket of soapy water. She looked at them, yelped, and fled. The princess sisters sighed in unison. It was going to be one of those visits.
“Uhh…. was that Twilight? She looked a bit… stressed?” Stardust’s young voice held a vein of worry for the purple alicorn.
“Yep. She’s been worrying about this visit for days, hasn’t listened to any of us.” a small, purple and green dragon wearing an apron and with a dripping mop swung over his shoulder walked up to them. “Hi. I’m Spike. You’re Stardust, right? Luna talks about you all the time.” He looked past her at the two princesses. “I’ll show her around the castle. You can take care of… that” he gestured behind him in the direction loud crashes and muttered words were coming from.
Spike took the wagon handle from Stardust and led her into the castle. Luna gulped and glanced in the direction Spike had indicated. She looked at her sister. “Did you bring the ropes?” Celestia nodded.
“Yep. You’ve got blindfold?” it was Luna’s turn to nod. Steeling their nerves, the two walked into the library where Princess Twilight Sparkle awaited them.
Spike followed the bouncing filly, occasionally calling out to tell her where to turn. As they walked, he took in certain aspects of her appearance. She wore her mane in a ponytail. From the back, it looked like waterfalls of silver and light blue were cascading from the back of her head. Her coat was a dark blue, gradually growing lighter closer to her hooves. What caught his attention, however, was not her mane or her coat. It was her wings. Pegasis wings normally grew faster than the rest of the body when foals hit the age of 10, but her wings still looked small, despite the fact that she was obviously at least 12. Spike stared at her wings for a few more minutes before he realized. They looked just like Scootaloo’s.
“Spike. Spike? Hey! Little Dragon?” Spike shook himself out of his thoughts. He looked at Stardust. She was staring at him and standing completely still. Spike felt a momentary rush of panic. Had she seen him staring? Was she upset? Would she tell Luna she didn’t want to stay after all? Oh, what would Twilight say if he scared off Luna’s student? This was the first time Luna EVER asked Twilight to do something and he might have blown it already. He fought to keep a smile on his face as thoughts clouded up his mind.
“Yeah?”
“Which way now?” Spike sighed in relief. She hadn’t noticed. He pointed down a corridor and started walking. Stardust fell in beside him, oddly calm. Just moments ago she had looked like Pinkie Pie with all her excitement.
“Spike? Do you think Twilight will like me?”
Spike shot her a surprised look. “Of course. Why wouldn’t she?”
“Well, when we first got here… she didn’t look very happy”
“Oh, that? That wasn’t you. Well, not completely. She was just worried about Princess Celestia visiting. She has this odd idea that she has to do crazy things and impress the Princess. It’s almost like she thinks if Celestia sees a speck of dust anywhere, she will send Twilight back to magic kindergarten.”
Stardust shuddered, a movement Spike did not miss. He looked thoughtfully at her before pointing at a door. “Here we are. LIbrary Bedroom #4” he put a claw beside his mouth and, in a stage whisper, said, “there are 9 of them.” Stardust giggled and Spike pushed the door open. He flipped the light on and waited.
A slow grin grew on Stardust’s face. She walked to the center of the room and slowly rotated. Three of the four walls were covered from floor to ceiling with bookcases all crammed with books. Against the last wall was a simple wardrobe with a full-length mirror beside it. Along the same wall, there were four different desks. Between the desks were sets of draws, each carefully labeled. There were drawers for quills, paper, drawing supplies, paint, bookmarks, experiment plans, even a drawer labeled ‘chocolate’. Scattered around the room were giant bean bags and soft carpets. As if as an afterthought, a small bed had been shoved in a corner.
Spike watched her run around the room, opening every drawer and reading every book spine. He could have sworn he saw her eyes take the shape of books when she reached the section on magic for beginners.
“I take it you like it? Do you want to stay and put your things away or would you rather explore Ponyville? I know a very nice ice cream shop”
Stardust bounded over to Spike. “Thank you thank you thank you. This is amazing. So many books….” her mouth dropped open as her eyes drank in the books. She shook her head violently. “Hehe… sorry. Actually, could you introduce me to some ponies? I heard Luna talk about some fillies called the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’ and they sound really awesome. Can I meet them?”
Spike shrugged. “I don’t see why not. C’mon. I’ll show you their clubhouse.”
(meanwhile, downstairs in the library)
“Twilight. Twilight calm down. It’s ok. Just breath. Like Cadence taught you. Can you do that?”
Twilight continued to randomly teleport around the room, shoving books onto shelves then eeping as a page bent. Celestia sighed. She waited for Twilight to come in range and with a flash of magic, she grabbed the blindfold from Luna. Luna watched as, with the speed of lighting, Celestia tied Twilight to a chair and wrapped the blindfold around her eyes. Twilight, shocked that her teacher would do this, sat in the chair, waiting for Celestia to talk.
“Twilight, I know you are worried, I know we surprised you, but you don’t have to be afraid. Nothing is wrong. Now, care to tell us what is worrying you?”
Twilight slumped in the chair. Luna looked over at Celestia worriedly. A soft sniffling came from Twilight. Celestia plopped down and started stroking her student’s hair.
“I.. I didn’t want to disappoint you. This is the first thing Luna has ever asked me to do and it is already falling apart. I didn’t plan in enough time to reorganize the library and was only halfway through it when you arrived, Pinkie was supposed to bring over cupcakes but she got sick yesterday and the Cakes were too busy to fill in for her. Rarity promised to make a new set of bedding just for Stardust, but she got a massive order for dresses and didn’t tell me. She thought she could get everything done and still have time to sew the sheets. Spike has been trying so hard to help, but he’s still so young and his idea of a perfect bedroom is a dungeon from Ogres and Oubliettes. Everything was supposed to be perfect and - and… and it’s all falling apart” at this point, Twilight burst into tears and flung her unbound wings around Celestia.
“Twilight, it’s fine. Nothing is perfect. All that matters is you tried. We shouldn’t have dropped this on you so fast. I’m sorry. It’s just, Luna and I-” she stopped as Twilight teleported out of the chair and perched atop a bookcase, staring down at the princesses.
“I completely forgot about Princess Luna. If I mess this up, she’ll never trust me again! And if she doesn’t trust me, you won’t trust me. If you don’t trust me, you might decide I’m a danger to Equestria. Then you and Luna will banish me to the moon. I’m too young to be banished!”
Luna sighed. It looked like it would be up to her to calm Twilight down. She walked over to the bookcase and peered up at Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle. Dost thou truly believe that we would banish you to the moon for a few misplaced books? Did thou truly believe that we would leave our student with you if we were not confident in your abilities? You defeated Sombra, Discord, even Nightmare Moon. You saved the Tree of Harmony, you face the Everfree Forest every day. You and your friends care for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the fillies who have an entire disaster relief fund being paid monthly to Ponyville. Art thou saying that we are mistaken? Art thou so weak and timid that you cannot care for one small pegasus filly? Truly, Twilight. We thought better of you.” With a stomp of her hooves, Luna turned and left the library, the door slamming behind her.
After a few moments, the door opened and Celestia walked out. She looked at Luna with a small frown. “Was that really necessary?” Luna shrugged.
“It served its purpose. Considering you are not smoking, it calmed her down.”
“I suppose. Just, warn me next time. She has agreed to care for Stardust and apologizes for her behavior. When I left she was alphabetizing the library. We should go. We don’t want to be late.”
“But… I wanted to say goodbye to Stardust…”
“Luna, she will be fine. Besides, you asked Spike to keep an eye on her the first few days. Just send him a letter if it’s that urgent”.
Luna sighed. Celestia was right, she was worrying over nothing, but she couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that she had forgotten something. With a shake of her head, she teleported out of the library. She would be back in a few weeks. Stardust was surrounded by 6 of the most powerful ponies after her sister and her. What could possibly go wrong?
“Hey Sweetie Belle! Applebloom! Scootaloo! You there?” Spike pushed aside a branch and led Stardust over to a treehouse. He walked over and stood next to the ramp, staring up at the door. The door opened and three fillies walked out. A yellow filly wearing a massive pink bow walked down the ramp.
“Hiya Spike. What’s up?”
“Hi Applebloom. I wanted you to meet somepony” he stepped aside to reveal Stardust. “This is Stardust. She’s- hey!” he whipped his tail around and stared at the red tip where Stardust had stomped on it. He glared at her and started to speak but she interrupted him.
“Hi! I’m Twilight’s cousin. My parents had to go away for a few weeks so they said I could stay with her. It’s nice to meet you.”
Applebloom’s eyes narrowed. This ‘Stardust’ was lying. She glanced over at Spike. He was staring at Stardust, obviously surprised. She watched as he tilted his head then shrugged at her from behind Stardust’s back. “Well, c’mon in. I’ll introduce you to the girls”. She walked up the ramp. Scootaloo and Sweetie bell looked at her curiously. She pursed her lips and gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. She would talk to them later.
“Wow. This is amazing.” Stardust looked around the clubhouse. Light streamed in through the windows and a light breeze fluttered the curtains. She walked over and looked at the hoof drawn map of Ponyville and the posters that littered the walls. “Are those the Wonderbolts?”
The orange pegasus bounded over to her. “Yeah! Rainbow Dash got them for me. Look!” she pointed her hoof at the corner of a poster displaying Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot. “They even signed it!”
“Oh my gosh! That is awesome. How did you get it? And you know Rainbow Dash? Also, what’s your name? I’m Stardust.”
“Name’s Scootaloo. And duh. Of COURSE I know Rainbow Dash. I’m her biggest fan! She’s practically my big sister!” This latest exclamation brought forth an amazed gasp from Stardust.
Sweetie Belle walked over to Applebloom. “She seems nice. And wow. She sounds like Pinkie. How does she even talk that fast?” Applebloom shrugged. She was still staring at Stardust through narrowed eyes. She looked around to ask Spike what she had been lying about, but the purple dragon had disappeared. Applebloom sighed. She walked over to the two pegasus fillies fangirling over the Wonderbolts.
“Ah hate to interrupt, but ah was wondering. You said you are Twilight’s cousin? She’s never said anything about a cousin” Stardust shrank back under her gaze and shuffled her hooves nervously.
“Uh… yeah. I actually just found out about her a few weeks ago. Until today, I had never met her.” the last statement was not a lie. Applebloom wasn’t sure about the first one though.
“Well, nice to meet you. Ah see you’ve met Scootaloo. Ah’m Applebloom, an this here is Sweetie bell. We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders?”
“Yeah!” Scootaloo jumped in. “None of us have our cutie marks yet, so we go on adventures to try to find them. You could join us if you want, seeing as you don’t have one either.”
Applebloom discreetly kicked Scootaloo, a movement that was caught by Sweetie Belle. She didn’t want Stardust joining them without telling them the truth. Applebloom was certain she was lying about being Twilight’s cousin, she just couldn’t think of WHY Stardust would lie. It was possible she was doing it to make herself look better, being related to royalty, but Applebloom wasn’t sure. She was knocked out of her thought process when Scootaloo delivered a jarring jab to her side in retaliation.
“If you’ll excuse us, ah think the three of us need to talk.” Applebloom grabbed Sweetie and Scootaloo and dragged them over to a corner, putting their heads close together. “Ah don’t trust her. She’s lying about being Twilight’s cousin. Are we sure we want her to become a CMC when she is lying about something like that?”
Scootaloo glanced over her shoulder. Stardust had started looking over their plans for future crusades. “I don’t know Applebloom. She seems nice. And she looks like she needs some friends.”
“I agree” Sweetie Belle stated. “We should give her a chance. Remember Babs Seed?” Applebloom looked away uncomfortably. “Maybe there is more to Stardust’s story too. We should get to know her first.”
Applebloom sighed. “You’re right. I just… I don’t like ponies who lie as soon as I meet them.”
“WHOOHOO!” Scootaloo leaped into the air, did a 180 turn in midair, and ran over to Stardust. “You’re in! C’mon! You can help us brainstorm. So, what do you like to do? Scuba diving? Hang gliding? Tiger taming?” she dragged Stardust over to a desk and thrust a stack of paper toward her.
“Um… I like... reading?”
Scootaloo froze. Slowly, she turned toward Stardust. Surely she had heard wrong. There was no way somepony as cool as Stardust could be an egghead. “That’s… cool. What type of reading? Daring Do? Daring Adventures of Rainbow Dash? Journey to Mt. Eris?”
Stardust shrugged. “Those are nice. But I prefer calmer books. Those are a bit too fast-paced. There are a few history books in the Royal Canterlot Library that are really interesting.”
Scootaloo flinched. She struggled to keep her voice steady. “Cool… um… how about I show you around Ponyville?” Without waiting for a response, she grabbed Stardust, plopped her in the wagon outside, and set off, her wings buzzing.
“Hey! Wait for us!” Sweetie Belle shouted. She turned a stricken gaze on Applebloom. “What just happened?”
“Scootaloo found a new friend” her voice was like ice and her eyes were blazing. “C’mon. We’re getting our friend back.”
Twilight smiled at the filly across the table from her. Stardust had come in an hour ago and had not stopped talking since.
“Scootaloo is so cool!” she said for what felt like the hundredth time. “The tricks she can do on her scooter are incredible. Half of them should be impossible but she does them with no problem. She invited me to go crusading with them tomorrow if you say I can. Can I? Please?”
Twilight simply nodded, taking a bite of her pasta. Stardust was so talkative she didn’t even realize Spike had made her dinner.
“You’ve talked a lot about Scootaloo, but what do you think of the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders?” Stardust fell silent and stared at her plate.
“Um… they were nice. Sweetie Belle seems very sweet but…” she fell silent again. Twilight looked up, surprised.
“It’s probably nothing. Her older sister Rarity almost strangled me when I told her I was Celestia’s student. They probably just don’t know how to act around you.”
Stardust picked up her fork and nudged her food around the plate. She tried to appear casual but Twilight could see she was hiding something. She sighed, stood up, and walked around the table and sat down next to Stardust.
“Ok. What happened?”
Stardust’s ears flicked and her wings froze. “I… I kinda didn’t tell them I was Luna’s student? And I may have told them I was your cousin?”
With some effort, Twilight held back a gasp. “May have or did?”
“Did? I… I didn’t want them to know.” Stardust bit her lip and her eyes watered. Twilight started to wrap a wing around her but she shrugged it off her.
“Why?”
Stardust gulped. “Foals… ponies don’t like Princess Luna very much. When she first started talking to me, I was so excited and told everyone. But they all thought she was a monster and I… and I was also one for liking her.” Stardust sat up and stared at Twilight. Twilight flinched back from the ice in the filly’s eyes. “It’s not true though. Luna is amazing. She was there when… nevermind.”
Twilight was going to ask what Luna was there for but decided not to push it. Instead, she said “ok. That doesn’t explain why you lied to Scootaloo and her friends though.” Twilight was alarmed and slightly surprised to see Stardust smile.
“Oh, that. You see, ponies are more willing to believe someone they like than a stranger. If they get to know me and trust that I am a nice pony, they will believe me when I say Luna is good. It’s like this, if a random stranger came up and said Tirek was kind, caring, loving, and simply misunderstood, would you believe them?” she paused for a moment to let Twilight think. “But if Pinkie or Applejack told you, you would be more likely to believe them right?”
Twilight had to admit, it did make logical sense. “Did you check to see what they thought of Luna before you lied?”
Stardust frowned. “They were the main fillies running and screaming on Nightmare Night. I know it was all fake, but it really hurt Luna and they never apologized.”
Twilight groaned. It was too late for this. “Ok. Stardust, tomorrow I want you to go to the CMC clubhouse and tell them the truth and apologize. Don’t try to explain, just apologize. You may have had a good reason, but that doesn’t excuse lying. Understand?”
Stardust pouted but she nodded. Twilight stood up. “Come on. I’ll walk you back to your room. I’ll also get you a map of the castle, I forgot to give you one earlier.”
Stardust chuckled. “Thanks. It took me almost 15 minutes to find you. The castle looks a lot smaller from the outside.”
