I smiled for myself as I turned around from the view, looking back at Lightheart. I nodded towards him.
“You are finished for today my friend? I should warn you, tonight is my last time as captain for this tower, so it will also be the last time you can be sure to get up here for your meditation. It pains me that it have to be like that, but I will leave a note to the new captain, if we are lucky then it is one of the nicer guard captains, one of the others who have joined the guard to protect and not to tyrannize.” he said, looking at me with sad eyes.
I nodded once.
“But you are welcome tonight, at dawn as normal. I will wait for you my friend.”
I nodded once more, started to trot towards the staircase down the tower.
*^*
The guards were still standing outside, the unicorn, Corelight, glared at me. As I started to walk away could I hear a scream of dread in the distance. It seems like the wife had found the body of tonight’s work. I smiled as I kept walking, walked towards The Black Stable.
Ponies passed me, on their way to work or other places. Small fillies and colts played in Celestia’s grace, rolled in the still wet grass or chased each other. Guards trotted the city streets, more at ease under the watching eye of the day goddess, at ease because of the lack of shadows.
They might not know that the goddesses watched them, but I know that she did. I knew that the goddesses watched over Trotholm, protecting the city’s inhabitants from harm.
A baker’s apprentice, a colt to young for the cutie mark that adorned his flank, yelled out his masters goods; tried to get customers to the bakery. I thought about going over to buy some bread, but I realized that I did not have any bits on me; I had left my saddlebags in my room.
The bells chimed from the guards quarters on the other side of the city; one chime for the guards to return, the second for the day guards to walk out. But today, something was different.
A third chime was heard today. A warning to all the guards; a severe crime have happened, the guilty is yet to be caught.
I couldn’t help myself but to smile at the guards who startled look at each other before they swiftly left for the guard quarters, trying to look at all directions at once. The citizens of Trotholm kept on with their work, a few looked at the guards who left so swiftly, but most did not care about the guards at all. The darker part of Trotholm did not care what happened in the other parts of the city. And to be honest did nearly nopony here know what the guard chimes meant.
It did not take long to get back to The Black Stable. I gently put my hoof against door to the tavern, gently nudging it open. A sound made me turn my head away, looking down the street, in the direction of the castle.
The only thing I saw were a group of ponies trotting away from their homes, trotting out for a day of work. Nothing out of the ordinary. I turned back to the door, took the step into the common room of The Black Stable.
The first thing that hit me was the smell. The pleasant smell of roasted carrots hit my nostrils, merged with the smell of the few roses that was placed around the room. I relaxed, let the scent wash over me. The fireplace gaped empty, who needed a fire at this time of the year? Four tables stood in the room, a stage could be seen at the other side of the room. Besides the stage was the stairs up and besides them the bar.
I was finally back to the place I called home. I opened my muzzle to call out for Carrotrose, the owner of The Black Stable, when I was suddenly hit in the side by a pale yellow ball.
I stumbled over, surprised at the sudden weight at my side. The yellow ball opened its eyelids, looked up at me with jade green eyes.
“Daddy, you are back!”
I looked at my daughter, a smile growing on my muzzle.
“Yes Honey, I’m back.”
The little filly jumped of me and helped me up again, all the time talking.
“What are we going to do today daddy? Are we going to the zoo? Or will you take me to see the sunrise? No wait, you cant do that, the sun is already up! What will it be? What will it be?”
I smiled fondly at my little filly, felt the the tiredness from the night rush back to me, as if she used all my energy.
Had he had a child? A child that never would see her father smile again? No, this was not the time to think about tonight’s activities, this was a path I had chosen; I will clean Trotholm no matter what the cost. I looked down at Honey again. Nearly no matter what the cost.
But still, had he had a child? A child I now had doomed to live its entire life without a father, a child that would never understand what had happened?
NO this was NOT the time to think about that, my path was chosen, written in the stars. It do not matter what would stand in my way or how many I hurt, Trotholm WILL be cleansed from filth, tonight’s murder was only the first, the corruption went deep and I had just started digging for the root.
“Daddy whats wrong?” Honey asked, looked at me with those giant jade green eyes.
“Nothing is wrong sweetie, I’m just tired. I will not be able to walk out with you today. But tell you what, I will give you a few bits and you can go out and play with the rest of the fillies and colts.” I said, resisting the urge to yawn.
“But I wanted to spend the day with you.” she said, tears filling her jade green eye. “We nearly never do anything.”
I nuzzled her.
“You know what? I will only need a couple of hours of sleep, so go out and play with your friends and when Ce.. the sun has reached its peak come back inside and wake me up and I will spend the rest of the day with you.”
Not even my daughter knew about the goddesses. It was a secret I had not told anypony about yet, a secret that was mine alone for the time being. A secret that I would soon let out. But I could not put my daughter in danger by telling her about it now.
The tears in Honey’s eyes had disappeared.
“You promise?” she asked, a smile growing on her muzzle.
“I promise. Now go upstairs and get a few bits and go out and play, wake me up later.”
She disappeared up the stairs, a yellow ball bouncing with joy. My yellow ball, my daughter.