//------------------------------//
// Three 
// Story: Forgiven, Forgotten 
// by Astraia Cantata 
//------------------------------//

	A golden sky chariot, pulled by two grey pegasi guards, towed two starkly different ponies through the darkened sky. They had watched Celestia stream past, and raise the moon from Canterlot. She had not quite determined how to make the stars twinkle, so they provided a constant steady stream of pure white light, each several thousand candela more bright than it should have been.They blocked each other out, and it seemed the light was just that of a stormy day. The brightness turned Dike's mane a strange shade of silver, reddish at one angle, yellowish at another, while her coat remained as darkly blue as ever. She fussed over it for a moment, quietly, and turned her attention to her friend. 
It was hard for the both of them to leave their childhood home, with so many memories attached to the forest city, but, if his stoic face and hard set jaw were any indication, it was harder for Brilliance. His family's mines may have been in the caves beneath Canterlot, but he had lived in the capitol his entire life. It was his only home, and he had known it all like the bottom of his hoof, from the palace to the slum. For Dike, the move was inconsequential, not only did the place reek of her mother's sweet moonflower and white anemone perfume, she rarely left the castle walls, and when she did she always managed to get into some degree of trouble. Like when I met that jokester she thought.

Now it is a fact universally accepted that a bright filly in possesion of a high IQ at a young age must be in want of a bully. Such are the laws of equinity. To Dike fell the lot of Bright Lights and Silver Steps, pegasus twins of Hurricane's line. Naturally, they had a similar brash personality, coupled with a condescending superiority that drove Dike insane. On one particular day, they had stalked her from school (they shared a tutor, a brilliant unicorn hermit that refused to leave his home), intent on finding where she lived so they could "walk her home" on a daily basis. It was only their nature to harass her on their way.
"What an egghead! Silver Step, don't you think she should get down from her little cloud?"
"What cloud? Unicorns can't fly!" She added a quick loop-de-loop for emphasis. "What she really needs to do is leave our tutor alone. He shouldn't be wasting his time on egghead servant children."
"I am right here. If you wish to insult me, you could have the courtesy of doing so to my face, instead of doing it from the sky like some coward afraid of magic."
"And what a name!" Silver Steps continued, ignoring Dike's comment. "Were you named after some kind of dam? So your little flowers don't get wet?"
Bright Lights got a wicked gleam in her eyes, as only over-exposed preteen girls can give. "No, she was named after a fill-"
"I was named afer a constellation that only occurs once a year in November, the lady Justice, called Astraia the star-maiden or Dike the goddess of Justice. That's D-I-K-E, pronounced Dae-ki not dike. What were you named after? A big candle? Horseshoes?"
For a moment, she walked in blissful silence, even starting to think that they had left. That is, until Bright Lights finally had a light go off in her mind.
"So, who named you?"
"My mother." Immediately she regretted speaking. 
"Oh, so is she some egghead like you? Wait, that's right, you wouldn't know would you?"
"I bet you made that all up! She did name you after a dam. Or something."
Silently, Dike cursed herself for giving them the ammunition, and wilted under their haughty glares. She knew they were lying, her mother was at home, but to hear them talk about the accepted story that way... it made her wonder what the rest of Equestria thought of her, and her Father. Did the story ever pity him, as if he were some victim of a seductive unicorn that simply left when the going got hard? Or was he, not her mother, the monster in the stories?
"I bet she left because she found out your father was a servant. And poor."
"Does Tutor know you're an illegitamate? Are you even allowed?"
"How does your father even afford to pay?"
She knew where it was going. First they would take strikes at her "absent" mother, then at her father. They were relentless, and she soon found herself lost in some alley. The two snide pegasi hovered over her, like flying vipers, or cockatrices waiting to turn her to stone. She braced herself, ready to go down fighting, when suddenly an angel floated down from Faust herself. 
Well more like another foal, gangly-legged and dirty, tumbled from a low overhang of boxes and barrels.
"That was...AWESOME! Oh, hey didn't see you there."
Standing before Dike, looking straight at her, was a scruffy-looking golden coated colt. His face had lines of grime from being out all day, globs of mud on his fetlocks and a lopsided grin. She had never seen anyone more dirty, or more beautiful. 
"Oh, hello Brilliance! Fancy meeting you here." Silver Steps interrupted her thoughts, stepping up to this "Brilliance". Apparently, they had met. 
"Yeah, Fancy. Hey, kid, are you ok?" 
Dike hadn't even noticed that she was trembling, but she couldn't even talk. Just shake her head no. There was a tenderness in his eyes that she had only ever seen in Mama's eyes or her aunt's. Somehow, she knew she could trust this colt.
Then it hit her. Brilliance. He went to the boys grammar school, down the street. His family was "noveau riche", but already close to the princesses, having provided the royal ornamental armor. Earth ponies, owners of a successful smithing and mining company. He was at her academic level, but much older than her, more her fault than his. She was set to graduate within the next two or three years, and then move to the advanced college. 
"Are you lost?" Dike took comfort in knowing that he was ignoring Silver Steps. The light grey pegasus fumed. 
"Come on," Bright Lights finally said, "we're gone." She dragged the angry pegasus behind her by the wing. 
"Hello? Are you lost?" Dike nodded, not wanting to be heard, lest the harassers should follow.
"Ok, let's get you home."
"WAIT!"
He was surprised to finally hear her talk. "What?"
"You can't tell anypony where I live. Promise me."
He gave her a cocky grin. "Cross my heart."

"Whoa." 
"Just remember, you promised."
They stood before the grand stone wall of the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. 
"Who are you?"
Dike smiled. "That is none of your business."
"Seriously! Are you a princess protege or something?"
That smile still hadn't left her face. "Or something." He gawked at the towers as they neared the gate. Gaily, the colt trotted straight up to the wrought iron filligree of the side gate. 
"You can't get that close--" but he was already there, with guards pointing spears at his neck.
"Um...hello?" 
"He's with me." She explained to the big white Pegasus who seemed to be in charge. His bright red eyes looked suspiciously at the young colt. "I got lost, and Brilliance here helped me get home. He knows the city really well."
"Very well." The stoic Lunar guard ordered his stallions at ease, and opened the gate, just enough for Dike to come in. He smiled gently at the little filly. 
"Explains why you were late. But you know the rules. Come on, they've been worried about you."
The heavy iron groaned as it came down after Dike. She turned to Brilliance.
"Thank you. Remember that you promised."
"I won't breathe a word. Want to hang out sometime? Maybe you could use a friend?"
She just smiled at him and shook his hoof through the gate.

"Well," Dike snapped out of her moment as Brilliance spoke, "At least one good thing comes out of this."
"Oh, and what would that be?"
"Captain Orion doesn't have to give me the stink eye anytime I want to go see you."
Even the guards smirked at that one. Dike faked a smile for her oldest friend. She was really beyond his jokes, especially the dark ones, at the moment, but she couldn't help but be happy that he could still be effervescent, if only to hold her up. 
"I'm really going to miss those alleys" She started, leaning on her best friend.
"And the wall."
"And the gate."
"And the garden."
"And those beautiful stained glass windows."
"And the pointy ends of spears."
"And saving you whenever you came over."
"When there was cake at school."
"When there was cake anywhere, you mean."
"And...when I would go to your house, and you introduced me to your mom for the first time."
Dike paused, choking back her tear. "When Mama would disguise herself so she could see me graduate and all the other functions."
"Those mulled cider nights, when you invited me over to watch the stars."
"Watching Papa sneak a kiss from Mama when they thought I wasn't looking."
The rest of the journey, they named and remembered the places they had visited and shared, as they got lost in the nostalgia.