//------------------------------// // A Worrisome Night // Story: Lavender // by ChillyKitty //------------------------------// Evergreen worked quietly and quickly. Nightfall had come and yet he was still working. He didn’t even have much to do, Iron Root hadn’t stopped by today so there was no mess to clean and the only pony who visited was a guard who got chafed by his armor.  Though he had absolutely nothing to do, he still found himself not wanting to sleep, he’d slept in late that day and had no doubt screwed up his sleep schedule. He knew he should put in the effort to fix it, but instead he spent his time reorganizing his herbs. He was just about to put them back into alphabetical order when his ear twitched at the sound of the knock on the door. “Hello,” he spoke as he opened the door, “Oh Silver Spear, how can I help thou?” He greeted the pony. “Princess Luna requested the tea you gave her yesternight.” He said simply, he wasn’t the talkative type, was he? Not that Evergreen cared, he wasn’t one for small talk either. “Of course, give me a moment.” He turned to his herbs and levitated the lavender, lemon balm and ginger toward his desk. As he worked, he couldn’t shake the notion that something was off. Normally you don’t need the same cure for a headache two nights in a row unless it was caused by caffeine and this was not. Has she been suffering from these headaches for longer without telling anypony? Perhaps she was given to much work to do or maybe she wasn’t getting enough sleep? It didn't seem like a sleep deprivation headache but perhaps the lack of said sleep was causing stress. Any way, Evergreen had no say in it and all he could do was give the herbs, which is fine, it’s his job after all. It's fine. Within a moment he turned to Silver Spear, “Here is the tea,” he levitated the herbs wrapped in cloth, “And tell her to eat this if she needs immediate relief.” He explained as he offered the second slice of ginger that wasn’t in the tea’s cloth. Silver Spear nodded and left without a word, the tea hovering beside him as he trotted back to the princess. Evergreen sat down, a strange empty feeling filling him. He sighed at it, he was probably just tired. He stood to go to his room but was stopped in his tracks at the sight of the moon in the sky. It was silver and beautiful and seemed to take all of Evergreen’s breath away, if only for a moment. But the moment passed and it occurred to him that the moon was so high in the sky because it was so late, which of course reminded him to return to the task at hoof and so, he headed to bed. … The morning came quickly, too quickly. Evergreen turned to the window, the sun was bright in the sky and- it wasn’t morning was it? No, it was midday by the looks of it. Evergreen couldn’t help but scoff at his tardiness, hopefully nopony came looking for herbs while he was asleep. Evergreen sat down on the floor and let out a yawn. He was only able to relax this way for a moment before he heard a loud knock on the door. “Ugh.” He moaned as he stood and trotted to the door. He swung it open and looked around, no pony was in sight, then he glanced down… Of course. “Good Afternoon Evergreen!” said the colt cockily, he trotted in passed the unicorn, not waiting for an invitation, “I just came back from visiting Father, I wonder what he thought of his first born sleeping in until noon?” Agitation filled Evergreen, “Thou little bra-” “Relax,” Iron Root laughed, “I did not tell on thou.” Evergreen shut the door and turned to his younger brother, “What doest thou want?” “Not much, hey, dost thou want to see a move Father just taught me!?” Iron Root turned to the corner that he’d been leaving one of his many wooden swords in. Evergreen rubbed his temple with his hoof, he wasn’t awake enough for this level of energy, “When have I ever been even remotely interested-” “Look! Look!” The colt mumbled with the toy sword in his mouth. He then proceeded to do what Evergreen could only assume was a very complicated series of precise attacks onto an invisible enemy. Either that or it was just a foal aimlessly swinging around a glorified twig. He then finished by throwing down his sword and breathing heavily, “How was that?” Evergreen clapped his hooves together but put absolutely no effort into looking anything but annoyed, “Very nice, thou sure did beat up that air.”  “Father said that I was learning quickly!” He spoke, clearly not caring whether his brother was impressed or not, “Pretty soon I will be as good as any of the guards in this castle!” he boasted. “I look forward to the day thou hast to work instead of coming here.” Evergreen replied. “Oh yeah!” said the colt suddenly remembering something, “Thou hast to let me stay here tonight.” Evergreen tilted his head, “Why?” Iron Root staying was a regular occurrence, but he usually asked, not demanded. “Cause I wish to train with the guards all day and Father said I could if I got thine permission to stay here for the night,” Iron explained calmly as he pushed his toy back into the corner, “To bad thou were too asleep to give me thine permission, so I lied!” he grinned. Evergreen opened his mouth to object but then shut it, “Thou know what? I do not care.” with his new sleep schedule, as bad as it was, he wouldn’t be too tired to clean up after Iron tonight. “Really?” Iron asked, causing his brother to sigh. “Do whatever thou wants.” he said bitterly before going back to his room and shutting the door. He could already hear the clamoring of hooves as his brother shuffled to pick up his toy sword again. Evergreen took his time brushing his mane and tail. He yawned several times before finally opening the door, passing his distracted brother, grasping a load of green tea from his herbs and trotting out of his workspace. He headed to the kitchens, quietly replenishing the stock of green tea and taking some hot water to make the caffeinated tea for himself, adding a bit of mint for his personal cup. He sipped it slowly as he took his morning- now afternoon trot around the castle. There were plenty of ponies he passed who paused to wave or say ‘hello,’ who he’d have to pause to at least nod back to with a semi friendly smile. It was quite bothersome really but he needed to get some exercise. His body wouldn’t forgive him if he stayed cooped up in his workroom all day, no matter how much he wanted to. He then watered his plants and looked at each leaf and flower to see what was ready for harvesting and what needed to be cut off. He ended up going back to his workroom with a load of chamomile and peppermint. The day was less uneventful than yesterday. Evergreen figured out fairly quickly how to avoid Iron's antics via stepping over and around where he predicted the foal's movements would be, though that didn't save some unlucky feverfew that needed to be repaired. Two maids came in at some point, asking about a herb that would reverse aging affects, he had to fight not to role his eyes in front of them. A few guards with pulled muscles or chafed armor came, Iron seemed to enjoy the company of them, judging by how chattery he was. He, of course, left his work a few times to get meals for him and Iron from the kitchen, he supposed the walk over there would do him good. Eventually, after nightfall, Luna's guard came again. "Silver Spear..?" Evergreen said, slightly surprised to see him a third night in a row. "I guess this is becoming a nightly thing." The guard shrugged. "That tis my fear.." Evergreen mumble to himself before remembering in his job, "Right! Tea, yes?" Silver Spear nodded, "Same as yesternight." Evergreen buried his worry deep in his mind and began making the tea. He set a jar down slightly louder than intended and immediately regretted it. "Evergreen?..." a small voice mumbled. "Oh no."  "Sweet Celestia, are you a night guard?!" The foal didn't even hear his older brother's worried words as he quickly stumbled toward the door where Silver Spear stood. "..hello?" Silver Spear barely had a chance to respond by the time Iron began battering him with questions. "Wow, dost thou work for the night princess? Is it fun? Dost thou have a bed time? Dost thou know my father? Dost thou work with the day guards at all? Do-" Iron was cut off by a sudden piece of ginger in his mouth, "Hawt!!" He spat out the slice of ginger as Evergreen snickered. "Yes, ginger tends to be hot," he spoke, "Now, the night guard needs to take this tea and ginger to his princess," he spoke as he levitated the mixture toward Silver Spear along with an extra slice of ginger, "And this future day guard should be sleeping so he can be awake during the day." Iron looked to his brother and then to Silver Spear and then back to his brother, "Tis not fair!" "It wouldn't be very fair to our father if you're asleep during training." He stated, "Not to mention the earful I would get for not enforcing thine bed time. Now go, sleep, Silver Spear needs to work now." Iron ears flopped back, "Fine." He spoke, stifling a yawn, "but I am not tired.."  "Yes, thou art tired." Evergreen responded with an eyeroll as the colt trotted back to Evergreen's room. "My apologies about that Silver Spear." He said turning back to the guard. "Oh that is alright," he said in his usual unamused voice, "This job is normally quite boring, I'm glad to see somepony's excited by it." The two then said short fairwells. Evergreen trotted to his room, finding a sleeping colt taking up as much space on his bed as physically possible. He sighed and lied down, praying to not be kicked in his sleep. As he turned to his side he couldn't help but worry. Worry about the mare with stars in her mane.  How long had she been having these headaches? How much worse had they have gotten? How bad did it have to hurt before she finally asked for help? Surly she knew that the lavender will eventually stop working as her body adjusts to it, of course everyone knew that. But still, lavender every night wasn't bad normally… but this wasn't for sleep or relaxation. This was for a stress causing pain. Evergreen squinted his eyes shut tighter for a moment, trying to force the thoughts away. It didn't matter, as long as he did his job. She requests the tea, he gives it to her, end of interaction. The night princess could handle herself, he had no reason to worry for her like a mother worries for a foal. If it got to bad he could technically give advice, as that was a part of his job as well, but those qualifications got rather iffy once it was applied to a princess. With a heavy sigh he sank into his pillow and let himself be taken by sleep.