I've mentioned before that, in my AU, Starlight was once Celestia's student. She was accepted to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns a few years after [Celestia caught wind of her fake "prophecy dream" and her….special cutie mark.](https://www.deviantart.com/owlcoholik/art/Starlight-s-Cutie-Mark-870028937) Celestia only heard about the story about a year after it happened, and because Starlight grew up in a small nowhere town it took an extra year or two to track her down. But that worked in Celestia's favor because she was able to catch Starlight at a particularly vulnerable time, right after the sudden tragic death of her father [Starflower](https://www.deviantart.com/owlcoholik/art/Starlight-Glimmer-s-Two-Dads-859729991). Starlight was desperate for a new start and a way out of her suffocating small town, and gladly accepted Celestia's scholarship offer. She quickly became one of the most promising students at the academy, partially because of her own skill and partially because Celestia instructed the teachers at the academy to pay her special attention. Eventually, because of her high marks and promise, Celestia selects her as her personal student. Starlight learned many things from Celestia, how to hone her magical skill, how to manipulate others, how to control a population for their own good. Starlight, impressionable as she was, turned out to be a very good student. Unfortunately for her, before her father Starflower had died he had planted the seeds of a rebellious spirit that just didn't know when to stop asking questions. Even more unfortunately, questions invite questions, and her big mouth leads Celestia to discover her cutie mark and prophetic dreams are less than genuine.

Notes:

- If Starflower had still been alive, he would have had serious concerns about Starlight going to study in Canterlot. He probably would have encouraged her not to go and she likely would have listened. Whether intentionally or not, Celestia took advantage of the fact she was feeling extremely lost and confused after his death. Starlight's relationship with Starflower was a major source of mental and emotional support, and after his death Firelight struggled to fill that void.

- Celestia was only ever interested in Starlight because she genuinely believes in prophecy and thought Starlight was the only one who could destroy her sister Nightmare Moon when she returned. Since Nightmare was banished, Celestia has had strange dreams and visions of her return, dreams where only a small seemingly normal purple unicorn can defeat her. She's trained many students in pursuit of this unicorn over thousands of years, and the prophecy was common knowledge in pony society for a few hundred years after Nightmare Moon's banishment. That's how Starlight ends up reading about the prophecy in one of her father's old history textbooks. She never expected it to go as far as it did, but in her defense she had no idea that's why she was admitted to the school. It was years after the fact! Celestia also never told her! She didn't realize some stupid fake dream could be so important…

- Starlight goes on to create Our Town after Celestia kicks her out of the school and disowns her as a student. While in my AU Starlight's leadership wasn't as dictatorial as it's portrayed in the show, she still ended up repeating a lot of Celestia's leadership methods in the town. She regrets that a lot, and now realizes that's a big reason the town fell apart. Well, that and the government sponsored coup d'état.

- Sunburst was never Celestia's student in my AU. He stayed behind in the small town Starlight left and missed her a lot. He ends up studying at a university in the Crystal Empire and marrying Thorax.


I hope this all makes sense, I make little changes in the story/timeline as I go along but I try to edit everything and keep it consistent for future readers…I am well aware I've changed little details about Starlight's timeline re: her being a student when her parents died ect. BUT I'M SLOWLY CHIPPING THIS STORY AWAY FROM THE METAPHORICAL MARBLE!! It's slowly coming together