Fuck it, I am a Dustpelt and Ferncloud defender. It isn't my fault everyone lies about their relationship. They are, at maximum, less than a year apart. Dustpelt was NOT Ferncloud's mentor, that was Darkstripe THEN Longtail.
And BEFORE anyone comes at me for Dustpelt eyeing Ferncloud as an apprentice (though if that makes you queasy all power to you), it is almost like a massive plot beat in the first series was Bluestar being so done with StarClan she REFUSED to do her leader duties and an apprentice (Swiftpaw) LOST his life and another apprentice (Brightpaw) LOST half her face thanks to her withholding the cat equivalent of their college degrees because despite what the fandom thinks while apprentices START as the cat equivalent to teenagers they do not END as the cat equivalent to teenagers, they end as the cat equivalent to college students and every apprentice's warrior training varies in length.
At worst, Dustpelt was Ferncloud's brother's (Ashfur's) cool freshly graduated mentor who she got closer to because they had the same shitty professor (Darkstripe) and he helped her with her college courses while the professor was being replaced (Longtail) and helped her and her brother through their university president (Bluestar) withholding their degrees until Dustpelt's peer took over as new university president (Firestar) and gave them their degrees.
(Also, Ferncloud and Ashfur are older than their foster brother Cloudtail yet made apprentices later so if you want to get more humanized Ferncloud and Ashfur were unrightfully held back.)
(Also, also, Ferncloud died at cat 46 and Dustpelt died at cat 51, and I swear to gods if someone tries to tell me 5 years [once again, most likely less] is a problematic age gap for humans I will-)
