Author's Notes: Yet another chapter is up...although, I must admit, I should be much further into this story. Ever since watching "A Canterlot Wedding", my writing muse for this story has been like a wildfire, and I've actually written up to the start of Chapter 18 as I post this. The reason I'm delaying in my posts is because my beta-reader, "DiamondGirl400", is still away, and I have no secondary beta-reader to check over Luna's speech, and just check over the story in general. But it's been a few days, and since I'm three chapters ahead, it's not fair on you readers for me to keep this chapter from you any longer.

Due to a couple of complaints I've received about the excessive length of my Author's Notes as I answer your reviews, I'll be shortening them down from now on, answering only those that I deem raise a point important to not be left out. I must admit I have been getting a little over-zealous in that regard. As it stands, though, I still read every single review, and my gratitude for everyone who takes the time to write them up cannot be expressed in words. As it is, I don't think I need to say much in response to any reviews today, so I'll leave it at that for today.

Before I leave you to read this chapter, I'd like to take the time to point out that this story has essentially become the most popular fan fiction I have written! Magic in Stars has more Story Alerts and Favourite Story tags than any other piece of writing I have done to date, and has, on average, more reviews per chapter than any of my other works as well! Considering this is my newest fan fiction, disregarding the one-shot "Night's Fall", as one-shots are kind of a different beast, the attention this story is receiving has blown my mind. So if you are reading this, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, just for that.

And now, before I get too sappy, on with the show!

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Chapter 15

Exposed

Starfall's initial teachings to Princess Luna were simple, rather boring, but critical. He started on teaching her modern laws, morals, ethics, and how they had changed over the last thousand years. He figured the laws of their new world were the most critical for her to understand as rapidly as possible, a thought the Princess did share, even if it was obvious that the topic was less than enthralling.

Starfall tried his best to mix things up a little, find ways of presenting his teachings to her that were a bit more entertaining from the usual textbooks and lectures. It was obvious that, while his attempts were not the best, they were helping the Princess of the Night, and she seemed to be developing a very real interest in learning this, something Starfall was grateful for. He doubted he could continue to subject Luna to the teachings if she did not want any part of them.

Despite the new focus on Luna's studies, Starfall own work on the heavens above was not neglected, either, the young stallion continuing to pour himself into his studies. He was starting to finally get a grasp on the planets, learning more and more about the distant heavenly bodies as time passed, now beginning to study more and more distant planets, learning more and more as he went.

But, as Starfall had feared, the extra workload he was being burdened with had only distracted him for so long. By the end of the first week of Luna's studies, his feelings had resurfaced with a vengeance, and were getting ever stronger. For the next two weeks Starfall gritted his teeth and kept the feelings buried as deeply as he could send them. But even his best efforts were not burying them deep enough, and Starfall knew it was now just a matter of time before Luna picked up on his wavering focus.

Sure enough, close to three weeks after Luna's lesson on modern culture had begun, Starfall found himself once more studying a particularly peculiar and distant planet under Luna's guidance. This time, not only were his feelings distracting him more than ever before, but it was an overcast night, meaning the clouds were blocking his view of the night sky. Even if the clouds parted and gave him an opening to the planet he was supposed to be studying, the light they were reflecting from Canterlot's night-life was making seeing even closer stars and planets a chore, and seeing more distant ones, like the one he was supposed to be studying, nigh on impossible.

The two distractions combined were leaving Starfall incredibly frustrated and flustered, trying to keep his patience as Luna patiently pointed out several mistakes he had already made, not even two hours into the night. He could tell that the Princess was shooting him concerned look when she thought he was not looking, and knew it was only a matter of time before she spoke up.

Hoping he could get a grip on himself before that, though, he put his right eye back to the telescope, trying to get his studies back on track...he was way behind as it was tonight, and had slowly been falling behind in his overall progress over the last two weeks. If he did not pick himself up soon, he doubted Princess Luna's patience would hold out for too much longer.

But as he turned his telescope back towards the heavens, fiddling with the focus to try and see through the incessant glare of the light reflecting off the clouds, his thoughts could not stay off the Princess. He was privy to a side of the mysterious Princess of the Night only a select few before him had witnessed. At first, Starfall had thought his crush was just the usual phase most adolescent colts go through where they crush on one Princess or another, only his was later in life than normal.

But now, Starfall was forced to admit to himself that his feelings had nothing to do with attraction to her as a royal figure. He was not falling for the Princess of the Night...he was falling for Luna, the serious, socially awkward, moody alicorn who's hard outer shell kept an honest, kind, sensitive and lonely pony hidden underneath. A pony he was slowly seeing more and more of as she slowly let her guard drop around him. The more Luna dropped her outer mask and let her true self show, the more Starfall fell for her, and the more said feelings distracted him, leaving him in his current predicament, as he shook his head to clear his thoughts, and pressed his eye back to the telescope with enough force to leave a small mark that would take a few minutes to fade away.

After a solid minute, Starfall could not suppress a frustrated groan as a cloud passed over his view of the planet he was studying, leaving him with nothing to note down...again. Forcing his growing frustration down, lest he unintentionally lash out verbally at Luna should she choose that moment to say something, he took a few deep breaths before heading over to the desk he always did his theoretical studies on. Since the clouds were out, he might as well make some progress on the theory he could work on for now.

But even the theory was not coming to him easily, his thoughts all over the place. His frustration had him seeking something to calm himself down, but doing that only turned his thoughts back towards Luna, and that in turn, kept him distracted, which made his frustration bubble up once more. It was an endless cycle that Starfall was finding himself powerless to stop, and one that kept distracting him from his work.

"Starfall?" Luna's simple, questioning call made Starfall look up, though he did so reluctantly. He knew it, he was being too obvious, and now the Princess wanted to know what was going on. "Thou hast been tense and distracted all night. This is not like thy usual self at all."

Starfall inwardly grimaced, but tried to wave off Luna's concern with an air of fake calm. "It's nothing, Luna," he replied as casually as he could...which was not very casual-sounding at all. "Just frustrated at the overcast night, is all," he added, hoping an explanation would make his indifference sound more convincing.

Even before Luna opened her mouth, though, Starfall knew she was not buying his story for a millisecond. "Starfall, please, do not make excuses. Thou hast not been thyself for some days now. We have seen this, we know something is troubling thee. Perhaps we can help, as you helped us when we started our lessons on today's world."

Starfall sighed, turning away and shielding his face with his mane, which he had not cut in some time, and was now growing out, as he tried to hide the grimace. Luna's words were not helping his attempts to take his mind off his feelings for her. The care she had started displaying for him in recent weeks had only strengthened his crush further...and now, unless he thought of something, and fast, his secret may end up spilling out, which Starfall was certain would be the end of everything; his studies, his access to the Royal Wing of Canterlot, and his friendship with Luna.

That last one, to him, was the most important part. Luna had become a solid friend...he did not know if he could survive going back to being the lonely pegasus he had been before coming to Canterlot. His life had been in a pretty bad place before he had tried his luck with the Cosmic Exam, and now that it had turned around, could he go back to the way it had been without simply giving up?

Realising the Princess was still waiting on an answer from him, he quickly tried to bluff his way out of trouble. "It's nothing, Luna. Really, don't worry yourself over it. I can handle it on my own." His words sounded hollow and insincere, even to his own ears, though. Princess Luna would never believe him.

And she did not. "Starfall, this is clearly more than just nothing. Thy focus is clearly elsewhere, and thou art falling behind in your studies. Thou clearly art not handling it on thy own, surely we can help in some way? We are the Princess of the Night, after all."

Starfall looked up, blinking in surprise at the Princess' last words, noting with some curiosity that Luna herself seemed a little baffled by what she had just said. Was she really implying that she would use her status as a High Princess of Equestria to help Starfall if she could? But Starfall shook his head. "It doesn't matter, Luna. It's my problem, and I have to work it out on my own. I don't think there's much you can do to help, no offence," he added quickly. "It's not that you're not good enough to help or anything...it's just..." he trailed off, trying to figure out how to explain his situation without revealing too much. "It's complicated," he finally said softly.

Luna peered at him intently for a few seconds, long enough to make Starfall avert his gaze, lest the Princess see something in his eyes that gave his problem up. It did not stop him from hearing her, though, feeling her presence as she sat down next to him, clearly not about to give up. "Then explain it to us. Perhaps there is a way we can help, like the way thou helped us when we thought thou could not."

Starfall simply shook his head, not looking up at her. "Please, Luna...I don't want to talk about it..." he said. He hated using that excuse. There was a lot in his life he did not want to talk about, and all giving that excuse ever did was make ponies more curious, though it was sometimes successful in making them back off a little.

He knew Princess Luna could be stubborn at times, though...and this appeared to be one of those times. "Starfall, thou art tense. Thou art stressed. Thou cannot afford to keep doing this to thyself. Thou may not want to talk about it, Starfall, but we believe thy need to far outweighs thy want not to," she said, Starfall cringing at the undeniable truth to her words, even if we wished he was talking to somepony, anypony else right now. "By the looks we keep seeing on thy face during these distractions, we believe that this may be about a mare who has taken thy fancy?" the Princess suddenly asked out of the blue.

Starfall had not expected it, the way his whole body suddenly tensed, his head snapping up, gave Luna the answer before he even opened his mouth. As it was, he did not even answer, silently cursing Luna's keen observation skills as he tried to think of some way he could talk his way out of this.

Princess Luna kept speaking, though; either oblivious to Starfall's growing discomfort, or else figuring he needed to get this behind him as soon as possible, whether he suffered some personal discomfort or not. "We thought it might be that. Young love does seem to be incredibly distracting. Is this...love interest a recent thing?" she asked, clearly determined to get to the bottom of Starfall's problems.

Starfall sighed, but realised he was not going to get her to give up, nodding silently. All he could do now was feed her half-truths and pray she didn't find out the whole truth before her curiosity was sated. "It only happened after I came to Canterlot," he admitted.

Luna nodded, clearly not about to let it go, though. "Is this mare a Canterlot local?" she asked, Starfall on the verge of responding when Luna paused, clearly having come up with somepony, making Starfall freeze, waiting for the explosion. "Wait. I think we understand now..."

Starfall blinked, perplexed. Surely she wasn't taking his crush in her stride, right? "What?" he asked stupidly, his surprise stopping him from simply letting the matter drop.

Luna turned to face him when she realised he had raised his head again, giving him a small smile. "We should have realised this days ago. And if thou art worried about whether there is another stallion in her life, I can assure you there is not. Just remember, she is very dear to both me and my sister," she added in, giving Starfall a warning look.

But Starfall ignored, his confusion even higher now. "Wait wait, slow down...who are you talking about?" he asked, more baffled than ever.

Now it was Luna's turn to put on a confused expression. "Twilight Sparkle. That is where thy affections lie, is it not?" she asked, her puzzled expression apparent in her tone as well, clearly realising there had been some kind of miscommunication.

"What?" Starfall blurted. "Twilight? No, no, it's not her. I mean she's a good friend and all, but I..." he stopped, snapping his mouth shut and inwardly cursing his stupidity. That had been the perfect chance to get Luna off his back, and deflect the situation away from the truth of the matter. But he had blown his chance to get off the hook, and Starfall feared that may have been his last hope.

Sure enough, Luna's curiosity remained although, though she did seem slightly relieved that Starfall had no romantic interest in Twilight. "Then who holds thy affections?" she asked. "Twilight is the only young mare who could..." she trailed off slowly, gazing more intently at Starfall.

The look in her eyes said it all, as they widened in stunned understanding, making Starfall cringe and lower his head. He did not have to say anything. She knew. Princess Luna knew that the mare Starfall was slowly falling for...was her.