Author's Notes: Okay, and I thought three chapters in three days was above my usual standards...four for four is definitely a personal record.

This chapter's a little on the short side, but there should be enough to keep you amused...and it's basically a big set-up for the next part of the story, which is going to get interesting.

Now, I noticed a couple of comments have been made regarding my inclusion of a planet with a very odd orbital path. I remember reading somewhere about just such a phenomenon (and I know I just sounded like Twilight Sparkle, don't laugh!). Don't hold me to this, because I have not read any astronomy books recently, and don't know if any more up-to-date books include a mention of this, but I did read in an astronomy book that the path Mars takes across our night sky does just head, travelling along the sky, before stopping, backtracking, and then finally turning back around and heading off on it's original path again. I just thought such a strange and unique thing ought to be included, since I haven't given a lot of detail regarding Starfall's lessons up until now.

Now, on to my review answers! Firstly, "trigr", I may yet find some way of incorporating this planet's odd orbital pattern into some later part of the story...but for now, it's just a quirk I remembered about real life astronomy that I thought I'd include.

"Princess Luna of the Night": Thanks once again for your little critiques. I went back and corrected my reference to Derpy as a 'he'. Guess I didn't hit the "s" on my keyboard hard enough. As for your requests of including Vinyl Scratch (aka DJ Pon-3) and a reformed Gilda; our favourite pony DJ is likely to make an appearance some time in the fic, though probably not for a while. As for Gilda...sorry, but that's unlikely. Gilda is a character who's generally associated with Rainbow Dash, and as much as I like Dashie, the rainbow pegasus doesn't have much of a role to play in this fic. I'll see what I can do about at least mentioning Gilda, though. And finally, your idea about a Nightmare Moon-based dream that affects Starfall has helped flesh out some ideas I have. I won't say what ideas, or how much your suggestion will be used, but I will say that you have helped immensely, so thank you!

"Antrxx": If you watch the episode of the show called "Luna Eclipsed" (Season 2, Episode 4). Luna briefly mentions that 'it is tradition to speak using the Royal "we"...' Apparantly royalty used to refer to themselves in plural a thousand years ago, in the time before she was banished to the moon. I don't know whether this is based on real-life medieval royal social customs, but since it was how she spoke in the show, it's how I'm portraying her in my story.

"SilentPony": Starfall's responsibility to teach Luna about modern social customs and such will be appearing soon...I have plans for that, in a sense.

And of course, to everyone else who I haven't mentioned, and all those who have favourited and alerted both this story and my profile, a huge thank you. I may not point you all out personally, but I do read all the reviews I get, and the time you take to leave them is acknowledge and appreciated!

Once again, a huge thanks as always to "DiamondGirl400" for beta-reading! It's great to have a second set of eyes looking over these chapters before they're posted!

Now that I've made these notes almost as long as the chapter, I'll quiet down and let you all get on with the story! See you next chapter!

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Chapter 12

Wild Accusations

With his usual, cynical approach to life, Starfall was having a hard time believing that things could be going so well for him, as they were now. Not even the stares and whispers he continued the receive whenever he went out in public, which were growing more frequent as the word spread of his studies, could dampen his unusually high spirits.

His studies under Princess Luna were going better than either he or the Princess of the Night had predicted. He was learning more about astronomy and the cosmos than he had ever predicted. It was a fascinating and captivating field, and he was learning new things every night. He was also surprising Luna, as she had requested he call her from now on, by how well he was keeping up with the study schedule she had made. He was at this point a few days ahead of where the Princess had initially predicted they would be. Not that it was any significant advantage, though. Starfall understood that his studies under Princess Luna would take years to complete.

All in all, for Starfall, life was at an unusual high point, along with his mood, as he shut the front door of the tower Twilight had let him stay in one early afternoon, intending on relaxing for the rest of the day until it was time for him to make his way to Luna's study to begin another night of planet-study.

In his mouth, he held a sealed scroll, a letter from Twilight Sparkle, according to the writing on the outside. While it brought a smile to his face to know the unicorn had not forgotten him, he did wonder what she was writing to him about. He hopped onto a couch in the living area, before breaking the seal on the scroll and unrolling it, seeing what Twilight wanted to say. A long scroll filled with neat, precise writing greeted him, giving him more than a few smiles as he read.

Hi Starfall!

How have your first few weeks been studying under Princess Luna? I'm sure you're learning all kinds of amazing and wonderful things. I'm actually kind of jealous...I know, it sounds weird, coming from the personal student of Princess Celestia, but it's true. Maybe if you ever come and visit at Ponyville, you can show me a few things you've learned from her!

Speaking of Ponyville, word has spread really fast about you from Canterlot...I do hope all the whispers and rumours aren't getting to you. I know I get them because of my studies under Princess Celestia, and it can get annoying at times. Just ignore them as best you can.

I told all my friends about you, and they all really hope you come down and visit so they can all meet you. Pinkie Pie wants advanced warning of when you'll arrive, so she can throw a big welcome party for you. I just thought I'd warn you ahead of time, since Pinkie's parties can be, well...wild.

Rainbow Dash, another one of my friends, wanted me to add this in, too...she's actually watching me write this. Anyway, she says she was talking to one of her other friends, a pony called Derpy Hooves, who you apparently helped out in Canterlot. Dash wants to pass on her thanks, apparently Derpy doesn't often receive kindness like that. I'm afraid I don't really know Derpy myself, so I'm hoping you understand what she's talking about.

Anyway, I'd better wrap this letter up. I really hope you can find some time to come to Ponyville soon, and if not, I at least hope you can find time to reply to this!

Hope your studies continue to go well!

Twilight Sparkle

Starfall smiled as he reached the bottom of the letter. It seemed Twilight wanted to keep in touch with had a nagging suspicion that the chances of their friendship being long-term were slim at best, but he had difficulty admitting to himself the reason for that, let alone admitting it to anypony else.

The quick part about a friend of Twilight's called Pinkie Pie wanting to throw him a big welcome party left him feeling nervous already. Twilight had previously mentioned in passing that Pinkie Pie seemed to be friends with the entire town, and based on what Twilight was suggesting about her friend, she would probably invite the whole town to the party as well...not something Starfall's anti-social tendencies really wanted to deal with, even in the future.

The mention that the way he offered a helping hoof to Derpy Hooves had gotten back to one of Twilight's friends had his self-consciousness make itself heard, even though he was currently alone. He had just wanted to help a pony who was obviously too used to being pushed around, thanks to whatever condition she suffered from, and didn't expect, or want the praise. Even so, it was rapidly becoming apparent that he was gaining a lot of attention from Twilight's friendship circle for his actions, and even though he knew he would have to visit Ponyville at some point. He was not sure how his social inability would take having so many ponies trying to get to know him.

On top of that, the whispers and rumours about him were spreading far beyond Canterlot now. Ponyville was now talking about him, and he wouldn't be surprised if places like Manehatten and Las Pegasus were full of rumours about him and the Princess.

Starfall could feel himself blushing as he was reminded about the rumour of him attempting to get cosy with Luna. The rumour had taken hold, apparently, and the details were starting to grow wilder, as some whispers had recently accused him and the Princess of using the study sessions as a cover, when they were actually secretly dating.

The trouble for Starfall was, try as he might, that particular rumour was one he could not stop thinking about. The rumours about him possibly trying to get close to the Princesses because he was an assassin attempting to take down the Royal Family were so ridiculously outlandish he could easily ignore them, and even laugh about them in private. But the various romantic rumours kept invading his thoughts.

He just could not understand the rumours. She was a Princess for Celestia's sake! Sure, she was pretty; Starfall knew most stallions preferred the elegant beauty of Princess Celestia, but there was something to be said about Luna's simpler, but no less majestic looks. There was enough in her slim physique and glittering, flowing mane to show she was royalty, but she did not appear to make an overly huge effort to beautify herself for the public, going with a simpler approach that Starfall had to admit he liked.

Many of the whispering ponies seemed to think Starfall must like something about Princess Luna's more blunt personality, and while Starfall could say that Princess Celestia's all-around kindness and tolerance was sweet, there was something about Princess Luna. She could be very temperamental and judgemental at times, and it seemed that this side of her personality was what most of the public knew her for, but Starfall was seeing more and more of the true alicorn underneath Princess Luna's hard exterior. Her temper seemed to be born from a sensitivity, one she tried to cover up, and Starfall had the feeling that she tended to judge ponies quickly because a lot of the public was very quick to judge her. But underneath it all, she could be a kind and honest pony, even if she was worse than even Starfall himself was when it came to social skills.

Some ponies had combined rumours of his attempts to woo Princess Luna with the rumours of him attempting to overthrow the Royal Family, suggesting that he might actually be trying to bring back Princess Luna's frightening powerful and dark alter-ego, Nightmare Moon. While many ponies still remember the night on the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration that Nightmare Moon escaped her thousand-year exile on the moon, only to revert back to the good Princess Luna under circumstances which had been labelled a Royal Secret, and therefore classified to the general public, Starfall felt like he had little to fear from Nightmare Moon.

Despite the legends asserting that Nightmare Moon had come about as a result of Princess Luna's jealousy and hatred of her sister's popularity, Starfall got the sense that the rise of Princess Luna's alter-ego had not entirely been her own doing. For all her blunt, temperamental ways, Starfall could tell that she was a pony who, even if consumed by jealousy over something, would never resort to such a dark attempt at petty revenge, especially on the scale that Nightmare Moon had attempted. What Starfall remained unsure about was how Nightmare Moon had manifested herself. Had Princess Luna stumbled across some kind of dark magic she had been unable to control...or had some evil pony done it to her, pulling the strings from the shadows?

Realising he was getting off topic, Starfall reigned in his thoughts, and got back to the issue at hoof. The point was, that for all of Princess Luna's attractive qualities, at least in Starfall's mind, he was in no way at all thinking about her that way. She was a thousand years older than him, and co-ruler of Equestria, not a pony who would ever consider somepony as common and simple as him in that sense.

But even as he thought about it, he froze, blushing hard...realising that, in his attempts to refute the accusations of him being after the Princess' affections, he had just proven to himself that she had many qualities Starfall knew he liked in a mare. "Oh, Celestia..." he groaned to himself, realising what he had just done.

In his attempts at denial, he had just found confirmation. Even if the rumours were based entirely of some random pony's funny bar tale, Starfall realised he could no longer lie to himself. As much as he knew nothing would ever come of it, he was forced to admit, if only to himself, that he now had a crush on the mare least likely to ever return any kind of affection to him. He had a crush on Princess Luna herself.