As the sun drew closer to the western horizon...just an hour or two before Starfall was due to head to Canterlot Castle for his astronomy lesson, the young stallion found himself in what had more or less become his home since he had first met Princess Luna, looking over some old tokens of a life that seemed like it belonged to somepony else now.
The tower that he lived in, in the rather spacious and high-class Garden District of the city, had actually once belonged to the long-time student of Princess Luna's older sister, generally regarded as the High Princess of Equestria...though it was an unofficial title. This student of Princess Celestia's was actually a friend of Starfall's, having met her at the same time he had been taken under Princess Luna's wing. When it became apparent that Starfall had nowhere to stay, Twilight had offered up this place to him, since she now lived in Ponyville, a small, sleepy little town a moderate flight to the south of Canterlot.
Despite the fact that it was a couple of years since Twilight Sparkle had moved out of the tower, some signs of the place being hers originally remained. The two-story upper section of the tower his 'house' took up was decorated with a blue colour scheme, for the most part, much of the furniture having that subtle feminine touch...enough to remind Starfall that this place had once been Twilight's, but not enough to make him uncomfortable living in it. The entire upstairs area was essentially a massive library and observatory...a mark of Twilight's intense study habits and thirst for knowledge.
Starfall had never been able to bring himself to redecorate the place. Despite numerous assurances from Twilight that the tower was more or less his now, some part of him still felt like he was merely borrowing it from her while his studies in advanced astronomy continued. As such, he tried to keep everything in place as much as he possibly could, almost as if he was keeping it ready in case she decided to come back one day.
Despite this, the young stallion had left his own mark on the small home. The upstairs library had been expanded upon and rearranged, improving the observatory equipment and adding a few more up to date books on astronomy, along with a few star charts, to help fuel his passion. Any evening he had off, he tended to spend up there, quietly stargazing while letting his mind wander. It was something he could often spend hours doing.
This afternoon, however, Starfall was downstairs, in the small, cozy bedroom, looking through a small drawer he had set off to one corner. There were only a couple of items of clothing in it...and they were not fit to wear any more. Part of him was not sure why he kept them...a sense of pride, perhaps? Even so, pulling the tattered remains out left him with a heavy heart...the clothing having a lot of unpleasant memories associated with them.
The clothes were the charred, frayed, and half-destroyed remains of a custom-made suit he had only worn once...to the last Coronation Ball. That night, a former friend of his, Cosmo, had attacked him, and all of Equestria, in a twisted revenge attack for the destruction of the town of Stratos Crossing four years prior. Cosmo's young sister had been tragically killed when a meteor shower struck the town, and it had only been Starfall's intervention that had saved a large portion of the town's population from annihilation.
The thought made Starfall sigh shakily, looking over his shoulder, down to his flank, where his cutie mark rested, clearly defined against his yellow fur; a silver five-point star, cradled by two brown autumn leaves, their stems crossed underneath the star, the tips curling around the sides of the star. To most ponies, it was simply a tribute to his name, and his talent and seemingly insatiable passion for the stars and the night sky.
Very few ponies knew of the true significance of the leaves in his cutie mark...of the secret burden that was his true talent. Starfall had slowly come to learn the true nature of his talent under Princess Luna, and even now, exactly how it worked, and why he specifically could wield it, remained a mystery. Starfall appeared to have a strange sensitivity and connection to cosmic magic, despite the fact that he was classed as a pure-blooded pegasus, with no apparent unicorn or earth pony blood in his ancestry at all. From the magic the Princesses had secretly hidden within the stars, to the ancient, mysterious, and powerful magic of the wider cosmos, Starfall had an uncanny ability to sense its presence on pure instinct, and seemed to be sensitive to it in some respects.
This sensitivity manifested itself most prominently in a twisted, dark way...by giving him the ability to vaguely foresee extraterrestrial disasters in the weeks, or even months before they occurred. Repetitive nightmares were the first sign, but they were always too vague to interpret properly. But in the final hours before the disaster struck, he usually received a very clear vision, his consciousness stripped away from him as some cosmic power desperately sought to give him one last warning.
Such visions had only happened three times in his life...and each one had been more life-changing than the last. The first had been the only vision without a negative experience associated with it, back when he was a young colt, still growing up in the distant land of Oatstralia. It was the event that had resulted in his cutie mark...an event he had kept a memento of, though he never shared that keepsake with anypony...not even Princess Luna had seen it of yet.
The meteor shower that had destroyed Stratos Crossing had been the second of these events...and had torn his life apart. Despite his best efforts to warn the town of the impending crisis, his pleas had fallen on deaf ears until it was too late, resulting in the deaths of so many ponies...deaths that still gave Starfall nightmares to this day, though they had eased in the last few months.
Cosmo's little sister had been among the dead, and was the loss that weighed most on Starfall's mind. Cosmo had blamed Starfall for the disaster, destroying their friendship. With his family also blaming him, Starfall, barely an adult at the time, was left to fend for himself, barely surviving from one day to the next. Tormented by his perceived failure, and the faces of all those who had died, some of whom he had known.
But it was the third and most recent event that the ruined suit reminded Starfall, for it had happened on the night he had worn the suit, as Princess Luna's esteemed guest at the prestigious Coronation Ball. Cosmo, still seeking some form of retribution four years on, and corrupted by dark, evil magic, had crashed the party in a sequence of events that had nearly brought a passing comet down upon Canterlot...a feat which would surely have killed thousands of ponies, including Princess Celestia, and thrown Equestria into an age of darkness not seen since the reign of Discord, the mad spirit of chaos and disharmony.
In the end, if had been up to Starfall to help stop Cosmo. He had assisted Twilight and her friends, only learning after the event that the six young mares were the current wielders of the mythical Elements of Harmony...but as they were preparing to unleash their powerful magic to stop the comet, Cosmo had made one last effort to stop them, firing a spell that Starfall deliberately jumped in the path of, protecting not only the Elements, but Princess Luna as well. The spell had destroyed his left wing, leaving him with the scar that currently rested in its place...and were it not for Princess Luna intervening at huge risk to her own health, he would have surely died from his wounds that night.
Starfall knew that he should be grateful...he was incredibly lucky to be alive, and luckier still to be coherent and mostly intact, both physically and psychologically. But even so, his missing wing still pained him, even after all this time. He was doing a lot better than he bad been even a couple of months ago, slowly learning to accept and adjust his new disability. Deep down, however, Starfall knew the pain of the loss would never truly leave him...and days like this were always going to hurt him.
Sighing again, Starfall tried to focus on the positive memories the ruined suit was supposed to provide. The Coronation Ball had been the one and only time he had ever danced with Princess Luna. The memory brought a small smile to his face...the mare of his dreams in his hooves as they slowly spun around the dance floor. They had not professed their love to each other until later that night, meaning the dance had been chaste. Close, without being intimate, a sign of the deep friendship they had at the time. He wished that it had not been interrupted...that maybe, sometime in the future, he would get a chance to finish that dance, without any interruptions from possessed stallions intent on overthrowing Equestria's current golden age.
Starfall was so lost in his thoughts, that a rapping on the front door nearly made him jump out of his fur. He had not been expecting any visitors today, so was puzzled as to who it could be at the door now. He quickly checked the clock, but it just confirmed that he still had time before his lesson with Luna, so it couldn't be her wondering why he was late. Puzzled, the young stallion returned the tattered, burnt suit to the drawer, shutting it softly before heading to the front door, grabbing a dark cloak as he went.
The cloak was a simple, but fine creation...a Hearts and Hooves present from Luna a couple of months ago. It was made of a soft, but warm material, coloured in a deep, dark blue...almost black, like a midnight sky. The edges were trimmed in silver, and the cloak itself was covered in hollow stars of various shapes and sizes, outlined with more silver thread...a solid silver moon resting on the back of the hood to complete the design.
Starfall recognised it as the work of Rarity, an aspiring fashionista in Ponyville...and one of Twilight's best friends, the bearer of the Element of Generosity. Luna, on top of commissioning Rarity to create Starfall's suit...which she had made a replacement of after the Coronation Ball...had asked the young mare to make this cloak as a present for Starfall. He already owned a cloak, a battered, frayed one that he had owned for years. While Starfall had no intentions to throw away his old cloak, he had to admit it was starting to fall apart...the black material faded to a dull, deep grey now. It was also a few sizes too small, so the replacement had been received with much appreciation by Starfall, and only token protests.
Despite the fact that it was relatively warm outside, being midsummer at the present time, Starfall tended to wear the cloak whenever he was in public nowadays. It helped hide his identity, which was gaining a reputation thanks to his association with the Princess of the Night. But more importatntly to Starfall, the cloak hid his disfigurement from the world, which helped keep the stares to a minimum when he was out in public. Even here, within this home, Starfall tended to wear it when he had visitors...especially if he did not know who was visiting, like now.
But when he carefully opened the door to the tower, peering around it to see who was visiting, he paused, opening the door fully as his surprise became apparent...the lavender unicorn smiling back at him was the last pony he expected. “Twilight?” he asked, though there was no doubting the unicorn's identity. “I...what are you doing here?” he finally blurted out, his voice managing to convey the kind sincerity in his tone; as much as she had surprised him, he was happy to see her.
Twilight gave a light chuckle at Starfall's greeting...or lack thereof. “It's nice to see you, too, Star,” she replied, though there was no venom or hurt in her tone, just playing with him a little. The reminder still managed to draw a sheepish smile from Starfall as he stepped aside, letting his friend into the room and shutting the door behind her. “Sorry for dropping in unannounced like this, but I'm visiting Princess Celestia and thought I would drop by on the way,” the unicorn explained as she looked around, seemingly comparing the current condition of the house to how she remembered it being when she had lived within its walls. “How have you been? I haven't seen you since...well...” she trailed off, Starfall realising with a grimace that she had noticed his pained look.
The last time he had seen Twilight was when she, her friends, and he himself had been awarded for their actions at the Coronation Ball in stopping Cosmo. In a way, it made Twilight yet another reminder of everything he had lost, though he would never say that aloud. It was not her fault in any way, and he did not hold it against her.
Seeking to keep the subject away from that darker time, he answered her original question. “I've had better days, honestly,” he admitted softly, his voice a little bitter at the reminder of Precision Strike's refusal to continue training him...and the knowledge that he had to explain as much to Luna tonight.
The lavender unicorn gave him a sympathetic look. “I heard about the Royal Guard training,” she said gently. “I'm sure it's tough, Star...but it's for the best, and it'll get easier once you get used to it, I'm sure,” she encouraged, every word only making Starfall cringe further, the last part even making him shake his head sadly.
“No, Twilight...it's not that,” he muttered, drawing a curious look from Twilight, making him sigh...he knew that she could be insatiably curious, meaning he basically had no choice but to admit to her what happened. “Precision Strike lost patience with me today...kicked me out. My training's already over,” he said, his voice getting quieter with each word. “I have no idea how I'm gonna tell Luna...”
But Twilight did not seem to be focused on him once he had explained what had happened, her thoughts seemingly heading somewhere else. “Precision Strike...where do I know that name?” she muttered, almost to herself.
Starfall shrugged, looking back up at her. “Your brother led the Royal Guard until recently, Twi. He's probably mentioned the name at some point,” he suggested dismissively, getting up. “I'm sorry to cut this kinda short, but I should probably be heading to my lesson,” he added, heading for the front door, too timid and concerned for Twilight's feeling to admit that he just was not in the mood for conversation with her right now.
“Wait!” Twilight called, making Starfall pause at the door, turned back to see her hoof raised in his direction, as if about to reach out and grab him. “Before you go, Star...you're sure the Guard training you was Precision Strike?” she asked, her tone clearly suggesting that she knew something he did not. That alone was enough to draw the pegasus stallion back into the conversation...maybe she could help him with his current predicament?
“Yeah, definitely,” Starfall muttered. There was absolutely no way he was going to forget that Royal Guard's name in a hurry. “But...Twilight...what has that got to do with any-” his dejected query was suddenly cut off from a loud gasp by Twilight, the unicorn's entire face seeming to light as some thought or idea clearly.
“Starfall, I just had the best idea! You could totally come along!” she cried, leaving Starfall puzzled as she ran away with her idea, only seeming to voice half of it aloud as she went. “I mean...we'd have to run it by the Princess, of course. But you both need a break...and the Empire is meant to be so beautiful at this time of the year...”
“Twilight, slow down!” Starfall pleaded, calling over her rapid-fire muttering to get her to stop her a moment, the unicorn giving him a sheepish giggle and apologetic look as he gathered his thoughts. “Now, what's this idea you've got? And how does it help me and my Royal Guard training?” he asked, having to stop himself from groaning as Twilight's expression lit up again. It was time for one of her Equestria-famous lectures.
All he could do was sit back down, listen to what she had to say...and hope that it would placate his mare-friend once she learned that Precision had refused to continue teaching him. The unicorn's opening statement definitely ensured his attention on her was total.
“So...how much do you know about the Crystal Empire?”

Author's Notes:

Here it is at long last!

I'm sorry for the delay even after the blog post, but my internet chose the day after I posted that to shut down on me...it only just came back yesterday, and our provider still hasn't provided us with any sort of explanation.

In any case, here's the latest chapter. I've only glanced over it in terms of beta-reading, thanks to being drained from work and desperation to get this out to you after so long waiting. I haven't made a start on the next chapter yet, and can offer no clue as to when I'll get around to it, honestly.

In any case, thank you to all those who are still here for your patience!