Login

Magic in the Stars

by Australian Chaos

Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Sisters and Secrets

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Author's Notes: Welcome to 2012, my readers! I'm glad I was able to get this chapter out relatively quickly. I wouldn't advise getting too used to it, though, my writing muse can be really fickle at times.

Once again, thank you for all the reviews. It's truly heartening to know you're all enjoying this story. A specific mention needs to go to MagicMatchsticks, who pointed out that I had thoroughly butchered Luna's use of Shakespearean English. I'm afraid that, despite reading two Shakespeare plays during my school years, the older style of English was like another language to me, and I have extreme difficulty learning languages beyond my native English.

Thanks to that criticism though, I have worked on improving Luna's unique speech in this chapter. A huge credit must go to DiamondGirl400 for agreeing to beta this chapter. With her help, I believe Luna should have a much improved speech pattern for the chapter, more in line with what she was in the show.

Edit (6th January, 2012): I had uploaded the wrong, unbetaed version of Chapter 4 previously, due to misidentifying the file that had been betaed, and the file that had not. This should now be the correct, revised version.


Chapter 4

Sisters and Secrets

For several moments, both Starfall and Princess Luna looked at Princess Celestia in stunned silence, the regal alicorn princess making her way into the room...the smaller pony by her side ignored in the suddenness of the event.

Finally, the Princess of the Night found her voice. "Sister? Thy visit is unexpected. Why hast thou come?"

Princess Celestia offered her little sister a small, kind smile, but her voice was all business. "My faithful student here witnessed your guards making an arrest...I was curious as to why I wasn't informed of a crime you were clearly aware of?" she explained, giving Starfall a quick glance, the young pegasus still rather terrified of what was about to happen to him.

Princess Luna seemed much calmer, though. "Thou wouldst have been informed, sister, just as soon as we had dealt with this pegasus. We discovered him to be in possession of one of our deepest secrets. Possession of such forbidden knowledge warrants immediate punishment, before he can spill the secret any further."

Starfall was honestly expecting Princess Celestia to agree with her little sister, and as such, was rather surprised when the wise ruler instead shook her head and sighed in what sounded like a distinctly long-suffering way. As though she was dealing with a problem she had been faced with several times before. "This, sister, is just another of the many reasons why I have asked you to start educating yourself in the modern ways. I understand that a thousand years ago, serious crimes against the royal family were treated this way," she added hurriedly, as Princess Luna opened her mouth, clearly about to protest. "But this isn't a thousand years ago, little sister. Times have changed more than you can possibly realise, and you need to catch up on the times before you make a grave error, like you almost did today."

Before Princess Luna could anything in response to what sounded like a gentle scolding to Starfall, her big sister turned to face the yellow pegasus fully for the first time. Despite his fear, Starfall couldn't help but be in awe of the majestic Princess of the Day. It was clear she was a strong, but kind and just ruler, Starfall now understanding with more clarity why pretty much all of Equestria saw her rule so great as to have never challenged it for thousands of years.

But Starfall still knew he was still in deep trouble, so was surprised when Celestia's voice was gentle and patient in it's tone. "Tell me your name, young pegasus, and could you also explain exactly what royal secret it is you know about?"

Starfall went to reply, but Princess Luna interrupted before he could get a word out. "'Tis no use, sister. He will not reveal his sources...we already tried."

Princess Celestia gave her sister a look. "I would like to hear what the young stallion has to say on the matter, sister," she replied patiently, before turning back to Starfall. "Go on,"

Celestia's patient, almost kind line of question helped Starfall find his voice again. "I...my name's Starfall, Your Majesty," he replied, his voice still somewhat shaky, but he managed to keep himself from stammering. "And I honestly don't know what secret it is I'm supposed to have found out about," he added nervously, realising he was going in circles. He flinched when he saw Princess Luna snort impatiently.

Celestia, however, seemed puzzled by his answer, frowning at him, before the sound of somepony clearing their throat drew Starfall's attention to the pony beside her for the first time. The pony was a young unicorn, around Starfall's age, if not slightly younger. Her lavender coat, along with her dark indigo tail and mane, streaked with purple and pink, reminded Starfall of an early evening sky, right as the first stars were showing themselves. Her violet eyes only seemed to complete the thematic colour scheme, as did her cutie mark; a magenta, six-point star surrounded by five smaller white stars of identical design.

Seeing all attention was on her, the unicorn seemed to retreat into herself slightly, apparantly a little shy, before speaking up. "Uhh, Princess? Is it possible that Starfall came upon the knowledge you're accusing him of holding without him even realising it? I know I'm not the best judge of character, but he does seem genuinely confused to me."

Princess Celestia seemed to think about this for a moment, before turning to Princess Luna. "My student does raise a valid point, sister. Exactly what secret is Starfall supposed to have revealed knowledge about?" she asked.

Princess Luna gave Starfall a hard look, and even gave the other pony, apparantly Celestia's 'student', a wary look too. One her sister appeared to notice. "Twilight Sparkle is an advanced student of mine, Luna. If she doesn't already know the secret, she can be trusted with it."

The Princess of the Night still looked wary, though, and seemed to decide it wasn't worth risking, despite Princess Celestia's assertions that the pony beside her could be trusted. Her horn flared to life as she strode up to her big sister, a scroll floating along beside her. She did not speak, merely making the paper hover in front of Princess Celestia as she pointed out a particular passage on the scroll.

The elder sister seemed to study the scroll in curious puzzlement for a few seconds, Starfall waiting nervously for any kind of reaction. Then he saw the co-ruler of Equestria gasp softly, her eyes widening, making the pegasus cringe. For Celestia to react like that meant he was in trouble...there was no escaping it now.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity to the young pegasus, Celestia looked at him, speaking once more. "Starfall..." her tone, while still gentle, was now deadly serious, about as angry as anypony had ever seen her. Even Twilight Sparkle seemed to cringe slightly. "I need a perfectly honest answer to this: Where did you get the knowledge to answer this question?" she asked, turning the scroll around so Starfall could see it.

Starfall was only mildly surprised to find the scroll was one of the pages from his Astronomy Exam last night...what did surprise him was the particular part Princess Celestia was pointing out.

Q15: What significance lies behind the organisation of the stars into constellations?

A: The constellations are a way of organising stars into familiar shapes and patterns, such as a dragon or crown. This can help us identify collections of stars quickly and easily, and paint a clearer map of the skies. Some constellations also hold cultural significance, having stories and legends that accompany them. Furthermore, all stars carry magical potential, but whole constellations seem to provide more power than the combined power of the individual stars that make them up, especially if the magic being used relates to the symbol or meaning of the constellation in question.

Starfall was still left puzzled. The sound of Princess Luna clearing her throat reminded him that Princess Celestia wanted to know who or what had supplied the information that gave him that answer. "I just...know," he answered, not really sure how to explain it. "No-one told me, and no book taught me. From the first time I looked at the stars, I've always known they contain some deep, ancient, and powerful magic."

As he finished speaking, though, Starfall's mind finally put all the pieces together. The reason he had never been taught about this knowledge from a book was because, no matter how hard he had looked, no astronomy book had ever mentioned the stars containing a magical power far beyond the potential of most unicorns. And no fellow astronomy hobbyist had ever mentioned it, either. Starfall finally came to the heart-wrenching conclusion that his instinctive ability had caused him to accidentally discover what appeared to be one of the Royal Family's most closely-guarded secrets. He was going to be jailed, or executed, because his abilities were simply too good.

Princess Luna, however, snorted in disbelief. "Nopony has such a sensitivity to magic, especially a pegasus with no magical talent of their own. Thou art full of lies, Starfall."

Starfall cringed at her aggressive dismissal of his assertions, his hope fading as Princess Celestia's face seemed to agree with Luna's words, even if she may have been a little kinder in expressing her opinion.

It was Princess Celestia's student, Twilight Sparkle, that came to his rescue once again. "Actually, I think Starfall may be telling the truth," she said warily, pausing nervously as three sets of eyes turned to her, before continuing. "I mean, during my studies in Canterlot, I must have read just about every book in the Canterlot Library. And I'm positive I've read all the books in Ponyville's library, too. Not once do I recall ever seeing a reference to magic hiding in the stars, and I read some obscure and detailed books on astronomy, too." The purple unicorn proceeded to grab the astronomy test with her magic, looking over his exam with a note of curiosity. "I'm no examiner, but from my own knowledge in astronomy, Starfall appears to be incredibly gifted in the profession," she commented, giving Starfall a flare of pride even in the hopeless situation. "Maybe he's being honest, maybe he can just instinctively 'see' the magic in the stars?"

Princess Luna still seemed disbelieving, but Princess Celestia seemed to be listening hard to her student, thinking about it. For the first time since he had been dragged into this room, Starfall felt a spark of hope reignite inside him, that maybe this wasn't the end of his life outside a cell in Canterlot Prison.

Princess Luna surprised Starfall, however, by being the one to speak up first in response to Twilight Sparkle's suggestions. "Very well, then. If Starfall can indeed read the power of the stars by pure instinct, then we shall test these instincts of his!" she declared, leaving Starfall's hope to replace by pained nervousness...he was going to be tested again, this time, in a test that would decided whether he would continue to live as a free pony or not.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5: Lunar Fate Estimated time remaining: 0 Minutes
Return to Story Description

Login

Facebook
Login with
Facebook:
FiMFetch