//------------------------------// // Post Common Era Chapter Twenty-nine/War of Stars Chapter Twenty-five: Admissions // Story: The Lunar Knight's Willow Leaf // by Moonlit Novel //------------------------------// Author's Notes: Thanks to Deadinlight for beta-reading and helping me edit Post Common Era Chapter Twenty-nine/War of Stars Chapter Twenty-five: Admissions Shadow Eyes felt vulnerable without her magic, she couldn’t see, and she… “Shadow Eyes, watch yourself!” said Sunrise Lily as she pushed the mare out of the way of a rather rude stallion who wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and barreled down the hallway. Sunrise shot a glare at the stallion as she leaned against her marefriend she slowly led her down the hall to her own room, it would be a while before her marefriend’s magic would be replenished to a point that she could use her magic field to see again, and she said she would take care of Shadow Eyes… - - - After Shadow Eyes had been made comfortable, there was a knock at Sunrise’s door and she excused herself from the bed, trotting up to the door, she looked at the screen that let her see who was on the other side of the door, revealing it to be Prince Masao. “One moment, your highness” said Sunrise as she opened the door, “Is there something I can help you with?” “I heard my student is here, and I wanted to check on her” Sunrise was quiet, part of her knew he was going to want to do that, but another part of her wanted to send him away, she wanted to be alone with her marefriend. “Look I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but I do need to see her” with a sigh the mare stood to the side and let him in. “She’s in my room, please don’t take too long, she needs her rest, her magic—” “Yes I know, I owe her my wife’s life, I just need to talk to her.” Sunrise nodded and led him into the bedroom part of her suite, where Shadow Eyes was laying in the bed. Masao walked up to the bed and remained quiet waiting to be announced but after Shadow’s remark he could not resist. “Did you send them away love?” asked Shadow Eyes not hearing Masao walking beside her marefriend. “Actually—” started Sunrise “I am glad to see that you are starting to feel better, I was worried that you would have changed from that near death experience” interrupted Masao, a smile in his voice as well as on his lips and the mare in the bed froze in shock. “Prince! I am sorry! I—” “I owe you, you saved my wife’s life with your shield. If anything I should apologize for letting you come into danger in the first place” said Masao and his student was quiet, Princess Luna had explained to her that they were not gods already, so she knew that there was no way that they knew that she had been there until Masao had stumbled upon them. In truth, he had saved them she would not have been able to block another blast of magic, and now she was without magic or her version of sight for an indefinite amount of time… “We should have hit the alert key, I didn’t realize someone was in there until I ‘saw’ your wife, and after I noticed your combat I—” Shadow Eyes stopped and took a shuddering breath. “That will be you one day, if you stick with my teachings there will be none that can stand against you, and heaven help the ones that earn your ire then” said Masao with pride. “I froze, I nearly got her and I killed because I was in awe of the power I felt” “But you didn’t, and that is all that matters. I am proud to call you my student, and I am proud to be able to teach you what I know” said Masao before he ruffled her mane causing her to jump slightly at the unexpected touch, Sunrise glared at the prince for touching her marefriend as he did but he either didn’t care, or he didn’t notice as he stood straight and sighed. “Rest up, I want you back to peak condition as soon as possible, I am going to teach you a few spells I invented after the advent of the dark magic classes being added to the Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns’ curriculum, spells I intended to only teach to someone who deserved them” Masao turned around and headed towards the door, he stopped at the door and sighed, “I’m glad you are okay, Shadow Eyes, I don’t know what I would do if you had gotten seriously hurt from Luna’s and my sparring session. You are dear to me” with that, Masao left the room and the suite in a stunned silence, however for Shadow Eyes it was a warm silence, Luna was right! He did care about her. Well she was going to prove herself worthy of that fatherly affection, even if it killed her! “Was Luna right to worry? Is he falling—” “What? NO!” said Shadow Eyes her unseeing eyes wide at the proposed question “But… But he said that you were dear to him!” said a worried Sunrise, if Masao truly wanted to get in between Shadow Eyes and her there was nothing she could do, there was— “He’s like a father to me, my sunshine, and I, like a daughter to him” said Shadow Eyes as she rolled her eyes at her freaking out marefriend the mare in question looked at Shadow Eyes hard knowing that the mare would not be able to see her do so. “What? I know you are staring at me Sunrise, I can feel your eyes on me. Tell me what is wrong” - - - It took a month, a month of Masao visiting, her spending busy nights with Sunrise, both helping her with her own homework, and night without any homework were very heated so she got very little sleep. but Shadow Eyes was back on her feet and able to cast spells once again, the two blasts of magic she took had drained her magic completely and she barely had enough to live on as her magic tried to replenished itself, however she now felt better than ever, almost as if she could cast even more spells than before… “Well you should be able to, having your magic drained like that gives your body only two options, one give up and stop producing magic, and be forced to live like a Saddle Arabian horse, or your mana regeneration as I call it grows exponentially” said Masao when Shadow Eyes mentioned it to him and she shrugged her shoulders before trotting beside him and pressed against him affectionately and he messed her mane. “Prince… I um… Iseeyouasafatherfigure” Masao nodded and got down on a knee and hugged the mare tightly. “I see you as the daughter I will never be able to have, that is part of the reason I feel such pride in you.” Shadow Eyes turned her face towards him as he pulled away, and he could see tears welling up in her eyes and he pulled her into another hug, which she returned. Though she never mentioned it, her father never was around, not his fault, seeing as he had died in an accident when she was young. Masao’s presence was something she had grown to look forward to being in. Getting up Masao cleared his throat and motioned for them to continue on down the hallway towards the training rooms, when they got there Shadow Eyes used her magic field to scan the room as she started to shake slightly at the sight of the room. “Steady, Shadow Eyes, steady” said Masao placing a hand on her back in and effort to calm the young mare. Reassured, Shadow Eyes stepped into the very training room where she had saved Willow Leaf from being vaporized, looking around she noticed there were a few changes there were items that had nothing to do with training as far as she knew. “I plan on starting to teach you how to maximize your magical blasts first, something simple before we get into the difficult part of learning entirely new spells” a ghost of a smile grew on Shadow Eyes’ face as she took her place across from her teacher, no, from her father…