The high, polished windows of Shadow’s room allowed an almost liquid pool of moonlight to cross into the space, lighting upon the four figures variously splayed about the furniture. The theatre seats were down, with the blue unicorn illusionist splayed across three of them, slumbering hooves still clutching the game controller. A little ways to the side the red earth filly was cushioned by several pillows near the seats, in a very similar state. The young zebra appeared the most relaxed of them all, dozing quietly among the lacy sheets of the canopy bed.
It was the Pegasus colt who seemed to be restless that night, perched silently on the top bunk, sat up and watching the moon through the window, still reminiscing adventures and catastrophe. Stress was on his mind, but it was as quiet as he was. So far as he could tell none of his company was suspect of his mounting sense of dread. There had been heavy stakes thrust upon him and the knowledge that it was his chosen burden didn’t help matters. With the current sinister deal a pony’s life was in his hooves, possibly more than one, and with the deadline veiled he found an itch in his mind to being as soon as possible.
Somewhere in the distance of Canterlot city a church bell rang out, once, twice… he counted the tolls up to twelve, marking the time of midnight, and his age at eleven flat years. He felt the need of a smile, but couldn’t muster it, there was too much stress involved. He wanted this to go away, it had been four years since something like this had happened and he had convinced himself that the events had faded forever. But now it seemed like his old life was back, Lightning was here, and so too was immeasurable danger. This was the situation he had pined for since his forced separation from Ponyville, and now he wasn’t sure he wanted to face the consequences.
Perhaps it was the silence and the dark that brought desperation to the point that Shadow could not resist action. He let his wings flare, gliding to the floor and walking towards the window. The moon was full and bright making the gardens below shine with an ethereal light, an illusion of grace the day could not hope to match. It could have something to do with his lineage, but Shadow had an affinity for the evening hours, and now they seemed those in which he would have the safety to take flight, quietly, without alerting anyone and hopefully returning before worry could settle in.
Right now another possibility was in the moonlight, that it was the perfect moment to leave on his new assignment, to leave before anyone else could follow him and get themselves killed…killed… death was a real possibility, having only a vague notion of where he was going and a more vague notion of what was involved.
He thought back to the chamber, reciting the words, or what he could remember of them “Go to the capital of the great cape, and there you find the immortal kylix, and there it must be destroyed,” he muttered in a low voice, trying to hold those words in his memory even if he fumbled for the definitions. Capital, great cape, kylix, he repeated it over and over in his mind, trying to retain.
Whether he was going to make the jump tonight or not was still in the air, but air was something he needed desperately right now. He gave two short strokes of his wings to carry himself up to the window latch and unhook it, gliding down to slowly push the panes out of the way. Chill surged quietly into the room but he ignored it, inhaling the scent of grass and sky. It was a nice, quiet breeze that evening, and he relished in it. The experience was second only to the meteoric hunt and it let the turmoil in his mind ease slightly.
Eyes on a bank of dark clouds rolling in from the east, he yawned. It hadn’t exactly been a calm day and he was tired, likely to sleep until lunch the next day when sleep did take him. Yet he wasn’t entirely sure it would, should he leave tonight it would be in the night air, on wing, and he wouldn’t be able to land for a long while. It wasn’t often a Pegasus could actively fall asleep in flight, but when it did happen, and he knew from experience, it wasn’t good. Maybe he could put it off just a little longer…
“You’re not planning to jump are you?” the quiet voice of Iris startled him almost out the window “It’s very cold out, you might catch something…”
“Nope,” said Shadow, still breathing heavily “No, I just couldn’t sleep, and I needed some air. It’s a very nice night out isn’t it?” the last bit of that made him want to slap himself, he was never going to learn to avoid those sorts of slips was he?
“Nice enough to wake me up,” said Iris, smile plain in the moonlight “You really should close the window though, you’re bringing the chill inside…”
“Oh, gosh, sorry,” Shadow found himself babbling as he fumbled for the catch cord to pull them closed again “I didn’t mean to wake you up, I just, I don’t know.” He was blushing heavily now, looking anywhere but at Iris.
“You know I can feel the heat your face gives off when it’s this cold,” said Iris, her smile turning slightly more sinister “You’re not as good at hiding things as you think, and before you say it, it is actually just as hard when it’s a blind person you’re fooling.”
That only made him blush brighter “That’s just not fair,” he muttered, clearing his throat, and then speaking again “Sorry, I wouldn’t say anything like that, I don’t want to be mean to you. I mean, I’m mean to Lightning but that’s you know… sarcastic.” What was he even saying?
“Are you saying I’m not as tough as Lightning?” asked Iris, smirk not fading as she raised an eyebrow “Because, excuse you, I’m much cooler. I may be blind but you’ll notice I’m very good at making up for it.”
“I never said that…” said Shadow, wishing she would stop pointing out her own weakness, it just made him feel awkward about the issue “Just… I don’t…”
Iris giggled “You’re so awkward,” she said “It’s adorable!”
“Adorable?” Shadow exclaimed “I am not!”
“Hush,” Iris hissed “You’ll wake Charm and Lightning.” She managed a tiny smile “It’s almost like you’re building a royal harem, lots of girls in your room, people are going to talk…”
Shadow just couldn’t respond to that one, sitting down and quietly shaking his head. Iris continued for him “You know everyone always thinks I’m all naïve and helpless because I can’t see. You do it too, you were doing it just then, but I think you’re just being protective. It’s not an issue, you know, the only thing I miss seeing is faces…”
“Miss seeing?” Shadow asked.
“Well, you know,” said Iris, “There’s the old saying that you can’t miss something you never had, but I think that’s a lie. Everyone talks about how pretty people’s faces are, how expressive the eyes are. Whenever someone tells a story their characters have all these nice traits I can’t even imagine. Black hair, blue eyes… It doesn’t mean anything to me. What good is a pretty face if you don’t get to look at it?” she blushed slightly as she finished “Sorry, I didn’t mean to go off like that… I don’t know why I got so serious… and I sort of went off…”
“Well…” said Shadow, casting for words “Faces are nice… I guess? It’s how you can tell what someone is thinking, or feeling, and, for what it’s worth,” had it warmed enough to hide the heat on his face yet? “You have a very pretty face.”
Iris smiled “I have ways,” she said “To tell how someone is feeling, I don’t need faces for that. When they’re happy they move more, talk louder. When they’re sad they’re quiet, and angry! Well, that’s very easy. But…” she went red herself now “When someone’s heart races so much you can hear it, and their breath is really short, and they get all stumbly and awkward… well that’s.” she looked away, trying to hide an embarrassed smile “That’s something else…”
“Oh,” said Shadow, quietly clueless “I guess that’s cool, I mean, I wouldn’t know what it is so that’s a bonus for you?”
“I don’t see how you don’t know it,” said Iris “I was describing you just then silly.” She giggled at Shadow’s stunned expression “I think we should go back to bed, there are a lot of things happening tomorrow…”
“Yeah,” said Shadow “I guess there is.”
Iris shifted her weight gently from side to side “Do you maybe want to share a bed tonight?”
Shadow found his heart beating even faster, mildly understanding what Iris had said now “Oh, um, sure, I mean, if you want to, and I don’t snore too loud, or-“
Iris cut him off, quickly silencing him with a kiss on the cheek. She led the blushing mess of a Pegasus back to the canopy bed and idly helped him get situated. It was awkward and silly but they managed to end up snuggled up to one another, intertwined in the quiet darkness.
From atop the roofed parapets a robed pony watched these events through a distant window, eyes narrowed in frustration. His chosen proxy was being somewhat more sluggish than he had expected. By this time he had hoped for the pegasus to be halfway there but the unstoppable arrival of the old allies seemed to be stalling him…
There was a slight crackling of electricity between his hooves, as if testing his own power. It had been called into curious question lately, despite his total dominance of the setting, and he was desperate to know why things weren’t going as he wanted. True, he could never, with all the power in the world, predict a moment into the future, but he felt as though this, of all things, should be working.
Still, the colt didn’t have a deadline, he supposed he didn’t either. There was no force that could stand between him and his goal, so if patience was what was required, well, he could wait one more day. After all he was the world’s most unstoppable-
Those prideful thoughts were interrupted by a sharp clang and a searing pain in the side of his head. He staggered back, enraged, staring at the heavy metal toaster oven that had collided with him. Unruly characters he could deal with, possibly even control, but this unruly son of a-
Calm, i, calm. That was his constant mantra. There were pieces on the board, even if they were being difficult to move. He had Discord, a knight in the pocket, Nightmare moon, his incapturable queen, and then there was Shadow, the pawn determined to cross the board and rise. Once the opponent’s reclusive bishop was toppled, when his damnable counter was vanquished, then he could capture the queen for the final mate…
That metaphor was old and predictable, and it was getting harder to work with, especially with the two girls he knew not the allegiance of. The zebra would most likely stay by the side of his pawn but he couldn’t be sure, and the others were impossible to predict. Still, as long as his pawn’s deal was in play she could be sent off the board at any moment.
It was an interesting game, this, the one which he felt he played in versus with the universe itself, against a foe he could not see. That opponent would know his every move, yes, but for now he had the better pieces, and he hoped to pierce through on that alone. In fact, the way things were looking he was almost there.
The toaster oven disappeared without residue, and i vanished soon after. There was more important business to attend to in darker parts of the world, other pieces to move, and a campaign to push forward.
The unruly toaster oven promptly came back into existence, in precisely the same spot.