Author's Note: Yet another relatively quick update. (Relatively quick? What am I saying, anything less than a week is blistering by my standards!) I Hope I can keep this pace going, as it keeps both you readers and me happy.

I am glad to see the response to my assurances that Starfall and Princess Luna's relationship will be a slow, long process was positive. Short, love-at-first-sight like relationship, particularly involving a character like Princess Luna, are impossible for me to believe, hence why this will progress at a slower pace. Don't worry, I have plans to keep things interesting, though!

Now, in the last chapter I gave little shout-outs to two background ponies from the show itself. No real reason to it, just seemed like fun to involve more of the amazing show which this story is set in. As such, I have plans for future cameos in the future. If any of you kind enough to leave a review have a request for a specific background pony you would like to see, just let me know and I'll see what I can do! And before you all overwhelm me with requests for our favourite cross-eyed pegasus, I already have plans for her, so don't worry.

Also, I have written a brief MLP one-shot called "Night's Fall", which you can find by checking my profile. It's another Luna-centric fic, and a small part of a grand, epic idea I've had swirling in my head for some time now. I would be eternally grateful if readers of this fic could go have a look at Night's Fall, and let me know if they want to see the idea expanded upon or not.

Anyways, those requests and little notes aside, I've babbled on long enough. On with the show!

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Chapter 8

First Lesson

It was like deja-vu to Starfall, as he once more approached the Royal Guards standing watch over the entryway the Royal District of Canterlot, where the Royal Family all lived...and where the Princess' Study resided. It was just prior to sundown, and Starfall was on his way to meet Princess Luna for his first lesson in advanced astronomy. He felt much the same as he had when he first came to Canterlot to take the exam, only now his nervousness was for slightly different reasons. One, this time he was fully aware that he would spending the evening in the presence of the Princess of the Night herself, and two, he was going to be learning from her exclusively, and really hoped he could prove himself to her. It was very obvious yesterday that the Princess did not think too highly of him.

All he could do as he approached the guards though, was keep himself calm and collected, and do his best. He doubted that the Princess would ever come to like him, but maybe he could at least get her to stop hating him. If he could prove to her that he was no criminal, that his knowledge of their royal secret was a complete accident, and a secret he intended to take to his grave, then maybe he could at least get the suspicious and wary looks to stop. He would be happy with that much.

He cleared his throat nervously as he approached the guards. "Uhh, I'm Starfall," he said softly. "I should have permission to access the Royal District." He suppressed the urge to grimaced and fidget nervously...by the stars, he hated asking anything of authority figures.

The guard stared at him intently for a few seconds, before nodding to himself. "Starfall...Princess Luna's new student," he stated, Starfall nodding in response. "The Princess' Quarters are that way," he said, pointing with a hoof. "Up the spiral staircase two levels, first door on the left. Don't go anywhere else in the Royal District without prior permission if you want to stay out of trouble," he added, giving Starfall a hard look.

Starfall nodded nervously. "Don't worry, I won't," he said as he walked past them slowly, almost expecting them to stop him anyway. "Thank you," he said, before heading off in the direction they had pointed out, remembering this was the way the guards had taken him to see Princess Luna yesterday, as well. At least this time he was coming here of his own free will, without being accused of some horrible crime he was not aware of at the time.

Still, as he ascended the spiral staircase, his nervousness grew. He wanted to prove himself to Princess Luna, but from yesterday, knew that her knowledge of the world was at least a few centuries out of date. Not only did that explain her rather archaic language tendencies, but it also meant that her view on society was very different from most ponies. He knew that back then, royalty tended to consider the common pony beneath them, and their attention, which would not help Princess Luna's opinion of him at all. It made him wonder how Princess Celestia expected him to teach her, a Princess, anything, when she saw him as a second class citizen.

All the same, as Starfall approached the door he recognised from yesterday, once more getting permission from the guards outside, he tried to bat aside his gloomy thoughts. For now, he would focus on showing Princess Luna that he was going to take his studies seriously. If he could gain a little more of her trust, then he would start considering teaching her about modern Equestria.

Nudging the door open, he looked around, the room looking much the same as it had yesterday, a quick glance out the window showing that it was still pre-dusk, making him slightly early...which had been his intention the whole time. As he wandered into the room and shut the door behind him, though, he saw that despite his timely arrival, the Princess of the Night was sitting on a cushion off to one corner, clearly waiting for him.

"Starfall," the Princess greeted in a near-monotone, getting to her hooves as Starfall gave her a small bow. "Thou art early," she pointed out, her voice giving away sign of being either impressed or reprimanding...something which didn't help Starfall's nervousness at being around her one bit.

Starfall stood up straight again, managing to nod in recognition of the Princess' observation. "I thought I would give myself some time, in case I got lost on the way, and since I wasn't sure how long I would take to travel here," he explained.

The Princess gave a small nod, though did not say anything to Starfall about his forethought, instead turning back to the window. "We still have a short while before our Sister lowers the sun so we can send the moon on it's journey across the sky," she commented, before turning back around, seeming to think for a few moments before speaking up again. "We trust Twilight Sparkle has assisted thou in making yourself comfortable?" she asked, though her voice sounded forced...as if she was just making conversation for the sake of passing the time...or because it had been requested of her.

Starfall swallowed, not really sure what to make of Princess' Luna's rather awkward attempts to be civil to him. "Yes, uhh..." he started awkwardly, the words seeming to catch in his throat. He cleared his throat, before trying again. "Yes, Your Highness, Twilight was very helpful."

While Twilight Sparkle had made the journey back to Ponyville earlier that afternoon, she had spent the morning helping Starfall out one last time. She gave him a slightly more detailed tour of the tower he was staying in, pointing out all the important features, as well as the locations of essential tools and things. After that, she had shown him around the district of Canterlot her tower resided in, pointing out where the nearest shops were, along with the best places to eat if he didn't feel like cooking, and other essential services, such as the hospital.

Once Starfall had been confident he knew his way around the area, Twilight had taken her leave...but not before surprising Starfall with a quick hug. He had been so surprised by the completely innocent and simple gesture of friendship that he hadn't thought to hug her back until after she'd let go and said goodbye. It had been years since anypony had hugged him, and it had never been by anypony but family before then.

He quickly brought himself to the present again, as he realised Princess Luna was speaking once more, having already missed her reply to his assurance Twilight had been helpful. "Very well, Starfall..." she said, trailing off as she looked outside, the sun disappearing below the horizon as she did. Princess Celestia had made way for her to rise the moon.

Turning away from Starfall, she walked calmly over to the window, nudging it open with a hoof, before pointing her horn at the twilight sky, a blue glow flaring to life around it as she worked her magic. For a few seconds, the glow grew in intensity, Starfall not entirely surprised that it took a significant amount of magic to raise the moon. Eventually, though, her horn gave a bright flash, and though Starfall could not see it from his position inside the room, he thought he could vaguely feel the wave of magic as it was released, which let him him know that, somewhere out there in the night sky, the moon had risen, ready to make its slow journey across the night sky.

"Now, Starfall," Luna once more said, turning and wandering back towards him. "We know that thou already know plenty about the stars and the night sky, but tonight, we would like to go over the basics of what we will be teaching thee. Thou may already know most of this, but we want to see that thou knows all this, and that thou doth not have any misleading knowledge. Not only that, but thy exam results have told us that thy knowledge of the planets is less extensive. Depending on how tonight goes, we will most likely be studying those for the first few weeks, to get thy knowledge and skills with them up. The planets are just as necessary to understanding the night sky as the stars are...even the moon has it's place. Thou cannot favour one or the other. Doth thou understand this?" she asked finally, staring intently at Starfall.

Starfall nodded nervously. "I understand perfectly, Princess," he said softly. He had almost been expecting it. As boring as it was likely to be, going over things he likely already knew, he understood that Princess Luna needed to check his pre-existing knowledge, to see just how much he knew, and if he had any knowledge that was wrong, or poorly thought out. The exam may have given her some idea, but Starfall knew it would not paint a full picture. He also had a sneaking suspicion that the Princess was testing his resolve...seeing if she could bore him into leaving voluntarily before they really had to get into this too far.

He did not voice that suspicion, though...not about to accuse the Princess of anything that could have even the remote possibility of angering her. He simply remained quiet as he was guided over to a work table near the massive window he could observe, levitating a book off the shelf and in front of him, one Starfall recognised. He had studied from this book on his own through his adolescent years. He had found that it was actually a really good guide on the basic and intermediate knowledge he needed to understand the night sky.

"This, Starfall, is the primary tome thou wilt be studying from for the present time," Princess Luna explained simply, before levitating a scroll down as well, placing it next to the tome. "This is similar to the exam thou completed, but it is more refined, and much more extensive...a test of what you know, and what you don't. It will allow us to determine what studies we can pass over, and what we shall need to focus on the coming weeks."

Starfall nodded, understanding, but Princess Luna was not quite finished. "Since this is a test of thy current knowledge, we shall not assist you this night. We expect this test to take up the rest of this week for you to complete. By next Monday, we hope to be starting to teach thou some new things, not continuing to go over this revision. Are we clear?"

Starfall swallowed nervously as the Princess once more gave him a highly intense stare, before nodding. "Very clear, Princess," he replied softly, Luna seeming to nod in satisfaction at that, before gesturing for him to get started.

The rest of that evening was conducted in a silent, tense atmosphere. Starfall had no intention of breaking the silence, and risking the ire of the Princess of the Night, while Luna herself seemed to have no interest in starting another conversation with Starfall, clearly still mistrusting of the young pegasus. Instead, Starfall kept his focus on the long exam the Princess wanted him to complete, his knowledge of the tome he was reading from serving to speed up the process.

It quickly became apparent to Starfall that this was indeed going to test the full extent of his astronomical knowledge. Not only was the scroll he was filling in incredibly long and exhaustive in it's coverage of the profession, but Starfall routinely found himself getting up to find other books among the shelves Princess Luna had point out yesterday, to find information the main tome simply did not cover. The exam not only covered the stars, planets, and the moon, but also tested him on his knowledge and ability to use various pieces of astronomical equipment, from telescopes to star charts and various other pieces of gadgetry.

Throughout the evening, Starfall looked over at Princess Luna, waiting for her to comment on his efforts, or criticise him for something or other. For the first hour of the evening, though, she seemed to be busy, herself, magically flicking through a few scrolls, writing down notes or filling in larger sheets which then disappeared with a burst of magic when she was finished with them. Starfall figured she was probably going through various royal duties and other such things, a suspicion that only intensified when Luna narrowed her eyes whenever she caught him looking, glaring at him until he turned his attention back to his own work.

Later in the evening, though, the Princess did finish with her own tasks, and spent the remainder of the evening either staring out the window, stargazing, or else looking over Starfall's shoulder. As before, she spoke or made any kind of verbal signal, but Starfall noticed her hard, criticising look fading gradually the longer the evening wore on. She still seemed to look on him with a level of disdain, only it did not seem to be as strong as before.

Finally, though, as the cramps Starfall was developing from sitting and writing for so long were starting to affect his ability to focus on the task at hoof, Princess Luna finally spoke up. "Very well, Starfall," she called, making him look up at her. "That will do for this evening. The hour is late, and I have kept thou longer than you should be staying," she added, gesturing to the clock.

Starfall's eyes widened in surprise as he turned to it...it was approaching eleven at night, far later than he had anticipated. Nodding in understanding at the Princess' signal for him to pack up, though, he dropped his quill, unable to stop a sigh of relief from escaping his mouth. He quickly moved, getting up out of his seat and packing up everything, putting all the books and equipment he had taken back where he had put them, earning a simple raised eyebrow from the Princess.

When he went to hand over the scroll, though, he paused. "Umm, Princess Luna? Would it be okay if I took this with me tonight? I'll bring it back tomorrow, I just thought it would be easier and faster and I worked to complete some of it in my own time, that's all."

This time, Starfall got his first major reaction from the Princess for the entire night, her face showing a look of unmistakable surprise, and there seemed to be something else mixed in, like she was almost impressed, though Starfall figured he was probably imagining that.

After a moment or two, the Princess finally replied. "We see no reason why thou cannot study in thy own time," she finally said, her voice displaying her surprise. "See to it that thou do not lose that scroll, however," she added, her usual stern tone back in full force.

Starfall nodded. "I'll look after it," he promised, before heading towards the door. "Good night, Princess Luna," he called, leaving after he got a nod back from her, the only farewell he was going to receive, apparently.

But as he left the study behind, and wandered back down the hallway to leave the Royal District, he looked over his shoulder, briefly spotting the Princess of the Night staring at him with a look that seemed almost conflicted, before disappearing the moment he spotted her, leaving him wondering just what the Princess of the Night was thinking about.