- KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK -

"Starswirl, open this door!" Twilight called into the room. After the fallout from Trixie embarrassing him in front of his entire class, he'd locked himself away in his bedroom. "Come on. You're going to be late for school!"

"I'm not going to school!" He shouted from the other side of the door. "Not today, not ever again!"

"You HAVE to go to school!" Twilight shouted back through the door. It was about this time that all the ruckus had gotten Trixie out of bed much earlier than she was comfortable with. Her spouse and son knew better than to trifle with her before she'd had her coffee. But this ongoing exchange of raised decibels could no longer go unaddressed by her.

"Would you two PLEASE stop shouting this early in the morning?" Trixie growled.

"She started it!" Stark said.

"NO!" Trixie yelled. "I started it years ago in a moment of passion! And I'LL END IT the same way right here, right now!" The other two went silent. "Now," Trixie continued, slightly more calm, "I am going to go downstairs and make some coffee. If, by the time I finish it, you are not at, or on your way to school, I swear to Celestia, I am going to teleport you there MYSELF, and I will personally escort you through the front door, wearing the little number from yesterday!" The door cracked open.

"You wouldn't." He said meekly. Trixie's horn illuminated, starting the coffee percolator downstairs, and levitating her lingerie from the bedroom. The sound of hot water bubbling echoed upstairs.

"Clock's ticking..." She said menacingly. "Do you feel lucky?"

"Aww." He groaned. Stark grabbed his school bag and stepped out into the hall. Trixie swatted him upside the head with her hoof. "OW!"

"And don't you EVER talk back to your Madre like that again! What's wrong with you!?" Trixie scolded before he took off downstairs, grabbing a bite before heading outside to school.

"Thank you Trixie. It really means a lot that-"

"Shh. Coffee."

"Right." Twilight whispered, stepping back to give her wife a wide berth as she shuffled past her to get her morning brew.
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Starswirl Sparkle sat in the back of the classroom. It was one of the perks of having a last name start with a letter nearer the end of the alphabet when Miss Cheerilee insisted on arranging her students in seating order. The drawback was that Pumpkin Cake was way up in the front, beside her brother.

Still, it wasn't all bad. He still had a great view of her from back there. His distance from the teacher gave him more freedom to engage in more of his personal pursuits. Cryptography was a hobby of his. He would make and break codes that he would bring to work on after he finished his in-class assignments way before his so-called peers.

Cheerilee used to scold him for his lack of attention and class participation. She was hesitant about it at first. She'd never had a prince in her class. But Princess Twilight was very clear on her orders. He was to receive no preferential treatment. In her classroom, he was just another foal.

But his test results were proof enough that he was doing fine in his studies. He certainly wasn't cheating off of anypony around him. He was always the one with the highest grades. No, the truth was far less exciting or sinister.

Home schooling.

His academic aptitude started very early on in his school life. But then, living in a library with two caring mares who would read to him about all manner of educational topics would do that. It was a reinforcing cycle once it started. He would finish his in-class assignments early. Leaving him time to do his homework in class. Thereby ensuring that he would have plenty of time for leisure at home.

Or so he thought.

Mom, Madre, I'm home.

Okay, make sure you do your homework before you go off to play.

I did it in class.

Really? Well then, I could teach you a thing or two myself...

Twilight took it upon herself to follow up with Cheerilee though, since she felt that the curriculum wasn't nearly challenging enough for her colt. And before he knew it, he was in the advanced course with ponies two years his senior, including Pumpkin and her brother. At home, it was prep school for his entrance into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

He began to tread a familiar path of both of his parents, though. His supplemental learning continued to push him light years beyond his classmates. And accelerating his grade level would only further separate him from ponies around him who were much older than him. It wasn't that he resented the extra work. Far from it. He has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. He craved it at all times. The basics in the school house bored him; they were a waste of his time. Time that could be better spent unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

Or kissing Pumpkin.

His other classmates didn't share his intellectual interests. And more and more, he simply felt contempt. Stark looked down at his paper. His most recent code cipher was a particularly complex one. He was doing code permutations. It was a key that changed as you solved it. You would solve one part at a time, and then use the new information to change the key for the next section. It was the only thing he could do to stave off boredom.

"... blah blah blah? Starswirl? Which one was it?" Cheerilee said. He voice had an upward inflection indicating that she was asking him a question. Horse apples! He glanced up at her, indicating that he was acknowledged her addressing him. But his mind was miles away. He had no idea what had been asked of him.

His mind flew. On the desk beside him, the history book was open to the Wonderbolts. Up at the front of the room was a list of Wonderbolt commanding officers on the chalkboard. It was incomplete, ending at a particular time frame. An arrow led across the board from the list to a sketched sun, that of Celestia's cutie mark, followed by a heart and a question mark. Unless she was asking which Wonderbolt was in love with Celestia, he had deductively narrowed it down well enough to be confident of his answer. He had a facility for memorizing facts and historical events. His mind was a galaxy of stored information.

"Maybe his mom knows." One of the other ponies in his class said, gaining a few snickers. Stark mentally recalled a spell that would turn his desk into thermite, but thought better of it.

"The Icarainian Sun Salutation." Stark said, his voice free of emotion. He wouldn't give the bully the satisfaction of a reaction. And as far as which Wonderbolt was in love with Celestia, spoiler alert, it was all of them.

"Correct. The Icarainian Sun Salutation is Princess Celestia's favorite flight pattern." She said. He resumed tuning her out for the rest of the afternoon.
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Princess Celestia settled back into her throne after a late, albeit pleasant, lunch. Her assistant, Raven, followed shortly after.

"So, Raven," she said as she got comfortable, "what is on the agenda for the rest of the afternoon?" She asked.

"The rest of today looks clear." Raven said as she looked over Celestia's royal day planner. "Next week is a little busy though." She flipped a couple pages. "Um, let's see... Oh, first up, Princess Cadence requires the attendance of you and Princess Luna at the Crystal Empire for the final deliberations with the Duke and Duchess of Maretania. And then, after that-"

"Not Twilight?"

"Hmm?"

"Is Twilight not to attend?" Celestia asked. Raven double checked her notes.

"...No, her presence wasn't requested by the delegates." Raven said. "I would imagine that they desire to keep the number of those privy to these confidential discussions to a minimum."

"Hmm. I know she's a new princess. But I want her to be able to do more than simply have the title. Is there some other way she could participate?" She asked. Raven looked over her notes on the ceremony to be held.

"Their stay would be quite brief." She said. "Hmm, I suppose she could unfurl the Maretanian banner upon their arrival."

"Is that all?"

"Princess, you have to understand that we've already agreed to their terms for the meeting. We wouldn't want to create an affront by suddenly changing the guest list at the last minute. It could jeopardize our ambassadors' work."

"Well we mustn't do that."

"And if I might speak freely Princess?"

"Of course, Raven." She said, pouring herself a cup of tea.

"It's just that, well... we all kind of get nervous whenever all four of our leadership get together in one place at one time. It's one of the reasons that we're glad that Princess Luna is back, parsing up the day, and why Cadence is in the Crystal Empire, and Twilight in Ponyville. It mitigates risk. If anything were to happen..." She trailed off. "Princess Twilight did perform... adequately in your absence during the Harmony Tree crisis. And if it ever came down to it again, it might be best that she be available here."

"Your concern is duly noted, but not needed. We will be fine." Celestia said with absolute confidence. "Send a copy of the Crystal Empire summons to Twilight and Spike. Now, what else do you have for me?" She asked, sipping on her tea.

"Oh, um... Prince Starswirl's birthday is coming up. Do you need me to get a gift?"

"Is that coming up again!?"

"Same time every year." Raven said, turning her planner around, showing the day on the calendar circled in red. Starswirl's 14th birthday.

"Fourteen?" Celestia asked.

"As it says. Do you want me to buy a gift for you to bring?" Raven asked. Celestia sat there in silence. "A gift for the party?" Celestia just stared out into the room, somehow turning even whiter than normal. "Princess?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Celestia said, snapping back to the present. "Um, no. I will get something for him myself this year."

"As you wish. Now let's see... ah later next week we need to"

Celestia stared out the window. Starswirl would turn fourteen this year. She knew what it meant. It was a sign.

"... so barring any major disasters I think that should go smoothly as well." Raven faded back into Celestia's attention.

"Thank you Raven. If there isn't anything else, why don't you go ahead and take the rest of the day off?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty." She said leaving the room. Celestia sat and finished her tea. After a few moments, she rose from her seat.

"Camisa Roja?" She called out to the royal guard by the door. He knelt quickly in acknowledgement.

"Your Highness."

"I'm going downstairs to my personal study, so that is where I will be if anypony asks. I don't expect any more appointments today, and I will be back up to lower the sun later. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am." He nodded. Celestia exited the throne room.

-----

Inside her personal study, she reached out with her magic, feeling for the tendrils of the enchantment on her book case. She brushed it aside with a spell known only to her, dispelling the ward. The bookcase slide aside, revealing a secret entrance to an ancient staircase. Celestia called light to her horn as she walked downstairs to her innermost sanctum. The bookcase closed behind her. She need to consult...

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"Mom, Madre, I'm home." Stark said as he walked into the Golden Oaks Library. Trixie walked out of the kitchen.

"Your Madre has been summoned to the Crystal Empire." She said to her son. "To do some... princess stuff." She said with an irritated tone in her voice. "I wanted to go with her, but she insisted that I stay behind to look after you."

"I can look after myself." He said.

"I know dear. That's what I told her. But she insisted. And you know how she can be." Trixie said.

"Yeah..." He sighed, sitting at the table with her. "I was thinking about applying to Celestia's school this fall."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I... I think I'm ready."

"You've been ready for years." His mom said. "Why now?" In response, he gave her a bit of a glare. "Oh. Listen, I'm really sorry about... yesterday. But you shouldn't base a big decision like this on something like that." He pulled a folded piece of paper from his bag. He held it in his hoof.

"This," he said, "made its way around the classroom today before I got a hold of it." He passed it to her. Trixie unfolded it and blushed. It was a penciled sketch of her, holding a ruler, dressed in her lingerie from the day prior. Above her was a speech bubble. "Where's my naughty librarian?"

"Oh my."

"Yeah. So I think you can understand my reluctance to go back there this morning." He said. "This is even worse than the regular teasing."

"Now Starswirl, you know what your Madre would say about all this."

"Yeah, yeah. If they were my real friends, they wouldn't tease me." He recited. "But that's just it Mom, they're not my friends. They never were! I just want to go somewhere else and start over!" He laid his head on the table and covered it with his hooves. Trixie ran her hoof through her son's mane.

"Did your Madre ever tell you what I did before I met her?"

"Yeah. She said you were a performing magician. She met you at one of your shows."

"Well, yes, that's part of it." Trixie said. "I was a traveling magician. But part of my performance was boasting about how much better I was than anypony in my audience. Anything you can do, I can do better I would say." She smiled weakly. "But all it did was alienate me. It forced me to keep moving on from town to town. And then..." Trixie recalled the events leading up to her obtaining the Alicorn Amulet, and exacting her revenge. "... and then, well, your Madre help to show me that there were better things in life. Her friendship helped me to be a better pony. And that was, gosh almost fourteen years ago." She said. Stark understood that he would be turning fourteen soon himself. And that the gestation period of a pony was nearly eleven months.

"Mom?" He asked. She looked at him. "You know how Auntie Pinkie Pie has a dad?"

"Yes dear?"

"And Auntie Rarity has a dad. And Sweetie Belle and Pumpkin Cake have a dad?" He asked. Trixie knew where this was going. She knew what he was asking. It had taken him far longer than she had expected. But she was no more prepared for the delay. "And you had me after you met Madre."

"Of course dear. You're our son."

"But how? You're both mares. Am I adopted? I must be. And don't feed me a line of me being delivered by a damn stork."

"You are MY son!" Trixie said, taking his hoof in hers, looking him in the eyes. "And I am your mother."

"Then who's my dad? My real dad?" Stark asked.

"He's- I- I don't..."

"You must know." Stark said. "I've taken... that class. I know you need a stallion. And that you and him had to... you know-"

"It's just that... it's immaterial!" Trixie said, frustrated. "What does it matter who the... sperm donor was? Twilight, your madre, my partner, was the one who helped raise you! And that should be all that matters!" She said, tearing up.

"Mom, I'm not trying to diminish what Madre has done. I just... I just want to know. I need to know. Mom?" Trixie looked at him between sobs. He'd grown up so much. "Please?"

"Okay." She wiped her eyes. "Your mother wasn't always a magician. After I met Twilight for the first time, I lost everything when a giant magic bear smashed my caravan. I ended up becoming a dancer in Canterlot. An... exotic dancer." Stark's eyes went wide. "Yeah, I know. I was never proud of it, but the pay was good. Especially when I did... favors for stallions."

"Mom? You- you were a- a whorse?" He asked in a hushed whisper. Trixie wept.

"I'm so sorry. I was just going to be a dancer, I swear. But sometimes I- did. I did those things." She cried. "But that was how I met your father."

"Do you know who he was?" He asked. Trixie looked at him. If it was anypony else, she would be able lie to him. Years of being a performer gave her that talent to act. But not him. If she lied to him now he would see right through her. And she just couldn't stand the idea of losing his trust. She nodded, affirmative. "I want to know who he is. I want to at least meet him."

"You already have."