Chapter 5
Alan stood on the walls of Canterlot Castle, and looked down into the garden.
From his perch, he had an almost uninterrupted view of Luna and Harmony, as they sat together in the shade of one of the large trees.
It had taken them only a few hours to move out of the library, mostly thanks to Twilight’s “Emergency Evacuation Checklist: Town Intact Version,” or EEC:TIV. So, leaving the library in Mrs. Daisy Chain’s, and her husband's possession for now, Alan and Twilight were quick to pack, and had been the first ones to arrive in Canterlot.
And now, Alan watched.
If he were being honest, he would say he was not sure what to do. Did Discord, or...Harmony, whichever, deserve a second chance? Absolutely. Alan had learned this. His most hated enemy, Ironclaw, had become one of his greatest allies because of second chances.
But…
But there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. A small voice that was telling him that this was wrong.
Something was up.
But what?
Luna had given him her approval, which, really did say a lot about the draconequus, but he wasn’t so sure.
What if she was being blinded by her heart? What if she believed him to be reformed because she wanted him to be reformed? What if he was using her? What if?
Alan’s eyes narrowed.
No.
He did not like this.
Not one bit.
<<<|Ω|>>>
Twilight walked down the halls of Canterlot, Orion in her magical grasp. Beside her walked Celestia, who filtered through numerous stacks of papers, all either being carried by a number of scribe ponies, or her own magical grasp.
The element of magic sat on Twilight’s head, ready to be used at the slightest provocation
“Thank you, Twilight, for coming,” Celestia said, signing the latest stack of forms. “Really, it helps put my mind at ease.”
“Of course, Princess,” Twilight answered. “It’s an honor.”
As the Princess handed back the latest stack, she then said to her scribes, “I’ll take the rest of them after lunch.”
With a collective nod from the scribes, they scurried away, leaving the Princess, her student, and the child.
“Still,” Celestia continued, “you have no idea what your presence here means to me.”
“The Bearers are here to serve, Princess,” Twilight replied.
Celestia gave a sad smile. “Yes, I simply wish you didn't need to,” she said, simply.
Orion spoke up, babbling as he looked up at the big pretty pony across from him.
The princess smiled, approaching the babe and nuzzling his belly as he laughed. “And I’m very happy to see you, little Orion.”
The foal laughed as he felt the big warm, fuzzy face meet his body.
Twilight smiled at the sight.
“May I?” Celestia asked.
“Of course,” Twilight said.
With those two words of permission, Celestia swooped up the small colt, blowing raspberries into his soft belly.
Orion laughed some more.
Celestia laughed at the little colt’s joy before returning him to his mother. “I’m sorry Twilight, I just love my smallest subjects, so.”
Twilight smiled. “I understand, Princess,” Twilight said. “After all, who could resist this little guy?” She asked, nuzzling her son.
Celestia smiled. “Yes, children are such a joy,” she said.
Twilight looked up at her teacher, and was surprised to see a sad look in her eye.
Confused, Twilight opened her mouth to speak up.
As they came up to an intersection, however, they suddenly stopped. Luna and Harmony walked on by, crossing their path. “Good morning, Mrs. Sparkle, Celestia,” Harmony greeted.
“Greetings Twilight, Sister,” Luna said with a yawn.
“Good morning,” Celestia replied simply.
The two of them continued on their path, leaving Celestia and Twilight alone in the hallway.
Celestia made to take a step forward, before Twilight held out a hoof. “Hang on a second.”
Confused, the princess stopped, and was about to ask what she meant, when Alan came into her field of view.
He walked, a little low to the ground, eyes narrowed, and glared with enough power to kill a small animal.
He turned to them, smiling brightly, and waved. “Princess, Honey,” he said, greeting them, before returning to his death glare at the draconequus in front of him.
“Hey, Dear,” Twilight greeted back.
Alan sulked off, never letting the two of them out of his sight.
Celestia stared down the corridor after him, before finally speaking up. “Well...at least there is someone else here that shares my fears.”
<<<|Ω|>>>
“Sleep well, Luna,” Harmony said, standing outside her door.
“I’ll see you in the evening, Harmony,” she said, before closing the door behind her.
Harmony smiled, before he began walking away from the door. “And how was our chaperone?” he asked, passing by Alan.
Alan said nothing, but continued to watch.
Harmony stopped, standing in the hallway, facing the pony. “Do you not trust me, Pendragon?”
“Luna trusts you,” came his reply.
“That’s not what I asked,” Harmony pointed out.
There was silence for a moment.
“You may or may not be who you say you are,” Alan said. “You may or may not be trustworthy.” He glared up at the towering draconequus. “But Luna trusts you, so I will let you walk.”
Harmony nodded. “Wise,” he said simply, before walking away.
Alan followed.
He never saw the smile on his quarry’s face.
<<<|Ω|>>>
Weeks passed.
The Bearers waited, all at the ready, while the stallions took turns watching the intruder with caution.
But none watched as carefully as Alan.
Soarin was the first to start leaving the draconequus alone for short periods. After all, it isn’t so hard to distract a newlywed husband.
Big Mac was second to let them out of his sight. The farmer assured Alan that he couldn’t get away with anything in the garden, but it did not help his nerves.
Thunderlane, and Spike simply began to let him wander, confident that he wouldn’t do anything once the month was out, leaving only Silver, Alan, and Shining.
Dividing the day into three, eight-hour shifts, they never let Harmony out of their sight. Not once.
Alan’s shift was especially grueling.
From 4pm to midnight, when Harmony and Princess Luna were the most active, Alan watched them. This would not have been so bad, if it were not for the fact that they were almost always on the opposite end of the castle from his wife, only to return each night to find her asleep, tired from keeping Orion happy by herself all day.
And then, when he woke every morning, she was already gone, talking with the Princess or whatever else she was doing that day.
In the end, he saw her a few hours a day, if at all.
But he kept his vigil, watching the Princess and the draconequus went about their day.
He watched them now, staring up at the night sky as Luna showed him her newest constellations and plans for shooting stars.
It was almost midnight, and then his shift will be over.
He did not turn around as the sound of approaching hoofsteps sounded behind him.
“Sir, here to relieve you,” Silver said.
Alan nodded, wearily. “Thank you, Silver.”
The earth pony looked between the Pendragon and the couple on the garden grounds. “S...sir, permission to speak freely?”
“Go ahead,” Alan said.
“It’s...it’s been almost a month, sir, and Harmony hasn’t done anything. H-how long do you want to keep watching him?”
“As long as it takes,” he thought. As long as it takes for what? For him to act out? To prove himself guilty? That could be an eternity from now, assuming it actually was Harmony. Could he really stand guard that long?
“Until we know for sure,” he answered.
“And how long will that take?” Silver asked, unknowingly echoing Alan’s mind. “Sir, I’ve read the report. Discord was not patient enough to go without causing some chaos somewhere. Sir…” he paused. “Sir, Luna trusts him, isn’t that enough?”
“No,” came the mental answer. But he couldn’t tell him that. Not really. What would that say? The Pendragon has no faith in his Princess? Yeah, that would go over well.
He looked at the commander through tired eyes and over bags from lack of sleep. “Until I know for sure,” he said, firmer this time.
“Sir—”
“Am I going to have to take a twelve-hour shift, Commander?” he asked, no small amount of bite in his tone.
Silver blinked. “I...I’ll take the shift, sir. I’m just…I just worry about you, sir. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you haven’t had any sleep for the past few days, sir. You don’t look well.”
Alan sighed and turned. “I worry too, Silver…” he gave one last look at the couple under the canopy of stars. “I worry too.”
With those last words, Alan walked away, heading back home.
He walked, alone except for the occasional night guard, all saluting him as he passed.
“Evening sir!” Came the call of a familiar voice, and Alan wearily turned his head.
The Batpony that greeted him waved as she approached, and the Pendragon gave a smile. “Evening, Twinkle Drop.”
Twinkle gasped. “A superior officer using a first name? How scandalous!”
He gave a soft laugh.
Twinkle Drop frowned as she got closer. “Wow, sir...are you okay? You look pretty bad.”
“So I’ve heard,” Alan replied. “I’ve been watching Harmony for the past few weeks now…”
She gave a grunt. “Glad somepony is. I don’t trust the guy.”
“You too?” he asked.
“The part of me that wants to eat ponies likes him,” Twinkle explained, “and I learned not to trust that part.”
Alan nodded. “Good to know I’m not the only one.”
She nodded back, before a frown graced her features. “Look, sir…”
“What?”
“I...I was talking with Sunny earlier today, and...and he told me that your wife has been missing you.”
Alan nodded. “I know…”
“I...if I may suggest, I would like to say you should probably give it a rest, let someone else watch him.”
Alan shook his head. “Can’t.” He kept walking, back bent as though he was under a massive weight. “I need to keep them safe…”
<<<|Ω|>>>
“No…” Alan whispered.
It was all wrong.
The sky was red, and the ground was black, burned beyond all recognition.
Where the ground wasn’t black, it was red, slick with blood.
“No, no, no…”
Soarin’s body was a twisted lump of flesh, his mouth the last recognizable piece of his face, caught in a terrified scream.
A pink leg lay next to him.
“No! No! No!”
Shining and Cadence, held each other in their arms, their heads and lower halves gone completely.
Silver, recognizable only because of the heap of the metal that was his armor, was curled up into a mangled ball and a tattered stetson floated on the wind.
“No!”
Rarity hung, pinned to the wall by purple scales, Luna’s crown placed haphazardly onto her head.
The body of a wingless, cyan pegasus hung from a lamppost that had somehow survived the carnage, and next to her hung a headless Thunderlane.
Fluttershy, perhaps the most merciful, was simply turned to stone. However, Alan did not want to think about how she would act if she was reawakened with her arms and wings broken off as they were, or with Big Mac in pieces at her feet like a sacrifice to a pagan idol.
“No! No!” Alan screamed.
But in the middle of it all, was the worst.
A single body.
Her horn had been sawn cleanly off, down to the skin, and her mane and fur shaved off completely, revealing hundreds of cuts along her body.
It was almost impossible to recognize her, but Alan knew the scars on her chest. The ones he had put there with his corrosive touch.
And he knew those eyes.
Those eyes that stared up into the red sky, terrified of what she had seen in her last moments.
Those purple eyes that gasped and begged for release with the last glint of intelligence still in her.
Those purple eyes that even now, were still wet with the tears she had cried as she begged for the pain to stop.
Those eyes that had begged for the comfort of her husband before the end.
He tried to go to her. Tried to hold her. Tried to look into her eyes and see if there was any life left.
But his legs refused to obey him.
He was powerless.
Utterly helpless.
A hideous laugh echoed around him, and Alan looked up.
The dark silhouette of a massive, crazed draconequus loomed over the horizon. It laughed at him, at his powerlessness.
The laughing continued, even as a large lion’s paw came down on him.
Alan woke with a start, looking up into the darkness of his room.
He was alone. Twilight and Orion were outside, probably getting breakfast.
Alan sighed. Grabbing the covers, he then rolled over, and tried to forget the nightmare.
He really needed sleep...
<<<|Ω|>>>
Twilight sighed, staring at her son as he stuck the wrong end of a spoon in his mouth. She wished Alan was here to see this, really. She hadn’t seen him much, only a few hours a day before he went off to obsess of Harmony.
Obsess was truly the word for it. When he wasn’t asleep, he was thinking about Harmony. Be it the dastardly plans of his twisted mind, to the angle that he was working, Alan never once thought about something else.
It would be a rather large lie on her part to say that it didn’t bother her.
It bothered her a lot actually.
What, was Harmony so important that he mattered more than our family? Was he that important?’
“That’s not fair, Twilight…” her mind said, scolding herself. “You know he’s just trying to keep everypony safe.”
She took the spoon from her son, replacing it with a binky.
Still, she sighed, it didn’t seem right that he would just leave his family to—
“To what? Keep the country safe?” her conscious jabbed.
Safe from what? Harmony wasn’t up to anything. If he was, he would have done something by now, surely.
“He is a being as old as time itself, if not older. He has patience.”
Then why show up in our lifetime? Why now instead of sixty years from now?
Her mind did not have an answer.
See? He’s trying to keep us safe from a danger that doesn’t exist. He’s wasting time.
Precious time...time with her, time with Orion, time with their friends.
Did...did he even care?
“Of course he cares,” the logical part of her mind responded. “That’s why he’s out there, watching.”
She knew that, honestly she did.
It...it just didn’t help.
She gave a long sigh, and picked up her son. “What am I going to do with your father?” she asked.
Orion would have offered a rather deep piece of insight, had he the ability to speak, and the mental capabilities to properly understand the situation. As it was, however, he simply unleashed a string of gibberish.
Before another word was said, however, a new voice spoke up. “Good Morning, Mrs. Sparkle.”
The unicorn jumped, turning to find the source of the noise. There, right behind her, stood Harmony.
He stood tall, towering over her as he looked down, his eyes blue and mouth serious.
Flashbacks to the day where Discord ran rampant echoed in her mind.
“H-Harmony, hello.”
Harmony nodded, unperturbed by her hesitance. “Is something bothering you, Mrs. Sparkle?” He asked, his voice friendly.
“I...uh…” she said, uncertain for a second. “No...not really.”
Harmony’s cerulean eyes looked over her, and she shivered for a second.
“I think something does bother you,” he said, taking her muzzle in a gentle claw. “And as your friend, I simply must insist. What is it, Mrs. Sparkle?”
She was forced now, to look into his eyes, and as she did, she felt herself calm. Her uneasiness washed away like dust. Those cerulean eyes calmed her, swallowed her whole. There was no worry. No anxiousness. No fear.
“I...I worry about Alan…” she said, answering the draconequus.
“How so?”
“He is always watching you, spends all his time doing it. He’s even lost sleep over it. I just wish he’d just spend time with Orion and me. He belongs with his family.”
“Is that so?” Harmony asked.
Twilight nodded.
Orion reached out towards his mother, his baby talk sounding more and more concerned as he kept trying to get her attention.
“I hear the Grand Galloping Gala is coming up,” Harmony said. “Perhaps you two should take the night off and enjoy yourselves.”
Twilight nodded again.
Orion began to cry.
“Does that sounds good to you?” he asked.
“Yes,” she responded.
“Good!” Harmony said, letting go. “I’m glad we had this chat.”
“Thanks, Harmony!” she said, waving goodbye. “That’s a brilliant idea!”
Harmony nodded. “I’ll see you later, Mrs. Sparkle!”
Twilight nodded before turning to her son. “What’s the matter, Orion? Are you hungry?”
He was not hungry.
Orion was scared.
--------------------------------
Another chapter done.
“They’re shooooooort!”
I know! I know! But trust me I’ll have too much to write about in the later chapters!
“I remain unconvinced!”
Well, fine! Be unconvinced, then! But the plot is thickening!
“Well stop eating so many sweets!”
…
Not...not that plot, Pinkie…
“...”
“Oooooooooooooooohhhhhh! I get it!”
Right...so, yes. I know it’s short guys, but, the good news is what is coming will be worth it. It will be awesome, and it will be long.
Just not yet.
Next chapter! A fun party, and a plot.
“What is with you and flanks today?”
*Sigh* Plan, plot. Pinkie. A plan.
“...”
“Oooooooooooooooohhhhhh! I get it!”
Really?
“Nope!”
*Sigh* Yeah, so anyway, party, plot, sense of dread, yadda yadda. We’ll see you next time!
“Be sure to leave a comment, guys! Seriously, some of you are slacking.”
Bye!