Love and Understanding

by Sadeipaw

Chapter 3: Garlic

After talking with the lunar princess for an hour more she suggested I go to sleep. She would wake me when the dawn had arisen and take her bed back from my brother and I. At first I wanted to argue with Princess Luna about sleeping in her bed but I didn't get much opportunity to do so, having zero caffeine in my body and the sound of the goddess humming a sleeping glamor didn't give me much of a chance to argue my case.

And I slept on the princess's bed with no fear, only dreams of the past.

~~~

I remembered running in the fields outside the city, giggling with joy as a young foal enjoying the feeling of wheat stalks brushing across my body as I ducked in the brush, hiding from Wink's detection spell with an illusion of my own. I imagined my body as nothing but the single stalks of grain blowing in the wind and my horn glowed with magic. I saw the stalks grow out of my skin and cover up the hole I had made by laying in the grain crop and smiled as I wove the *fabric of the other wheat stalks with the ones around me.

“Winker's will never find me now!” I giggled before going into a mediative state to absorb every sight and sound of my surroundings.

Before I knew what happened I was grabbed by the scruff of my neck and hoisted out of the field at a galloping speed by a guard off duty, his flowing white mane and blue grass eyes filled with disappointment as we raced toward the city.

As soon as we were inside the gate I was set down by Wink who looked like he had already gotten his lecture
.

“How many times do I have to say this to you Highstar, foals are not prohibited outside of the city without adult supervision! Would you really want me to have to explain to your mother that you got taken as a snack by a passing drake?” The guardpony I had know as Garlic scoffed me and I hung my head low in shame.

Thats where I lost the hyper realism of the dream and began to think in abstract ideas.

Was that guard asked to keep an eye on me when my mother was working?

If so, was it out of respect or was there another reason?

Could he have been my and my brothers father?

I tried my hardest to picture him and found that it was difficult, I kept going back too those two details; white mane, green eyes. I pictured my mental image of Garlic harder and saw nothing else and began to get frustrated with my lack results and finally saw something I wasn't looking for as I replayed the events again.

A single bolt impacting were I was sitting in the wheat milliseconds after I was pulled up. If I hadn't been yanked right on time from that bolt I would have hit in the head and known no more.

That brought up one only more questions.

Why was I the target of an assassin?

Why couldn't I remember an event like that until just now?

Was my memory wiped at one point and just recovering?

That thought seemed trigger another hidden event in my memory. I had woken up later that evening hearing some argument downstairs in our house. Sneaking downstairs in the large doorway before the kitchen I heard the sound of glass shattering and yelling.

“Garlic Bread! I told you to keep a better eye on him while I was working! If he had been harmed in anyway...” She stopped to growl as I peaked inside to see how the guard was taking this abuse and had to stifle a laugh.

He looked extremely bored as he reached across the kitchen table and grabbed another wine glass to fill for my mother.

“Relax Heather, I had it handled. The little guy almost had me fooled with an illusion of the two running around the outskirts of the city but when they ran through a cart and kept going thats when I realized that Highstar was an extremely clever little... guy,” He laughed filling the glass and touching up his own before sliding it toward my mother.

She exhaled slowly before grabbing the glass and slowly lifting it up to her lips for a moment, savoring the white zinfandel she loved at nights.

“Garlic. You are my most trusted friend from childhood. When we both came to this city I had no idea I would be hired as an assassin for the Celestial Order of the Sun,” She murmured looking toward the sink window that was lit with the light of a harvest moon.

“And when you found out I was with child you offered to be a godfather... selflessly and not with a moment of hesitation. I remember being a young filly and shooting down your offerings of love. Why? Why did you do it?” She asked looking Garlic in his dark green eyes and I watched as the stallions face turned to a beacon of sorrow.

“Heather. I love you. I always have and knew I needed you in my life. And I was prepared to do anything to keep you in my life,” He said in a voice filled with pain that I couldn't understand as a child.

My mother sighed and moved next to him, wiping a faint glimmer of a tear from his eyes and kissing him on the cheek softly before hugging him tightly. He took her embrace fully wrapping his head around her neck tightly before pulling away.

“I love you too my dearest friend.”

~~~

I woke with a start with Luna slowly saying my name, cold sweat dripping from my body as I looked to my brother. His place on the big velvet mattress was empty and I began to panic.

“Luna, where is my brother?” I asked worry scratching out of my dry throat as she laughed.

“Wind woke up as soon a my sister did enter the room.” She said passing a glass of ice water toward me and I took it gingerly before chugging the whole glass down and thanking her. She laughed with joy that is almost impossible to describe, before yawning sharply.

“My sister is in the dining hall down the stairs from my tower. She has your brother with her,” She finished barely before yawning again causing me to get up and gently help her lay down in her bed.

“Good morning Princess Luna,” I whispered softly as her eyes closed.

“Good morning Highstar, pleasant... day...” She mumbled before falling asleep.

I saw myself out of her room quietly and headed toward the stairs I had to descend to make it to my brother and the princess.

“Celestial Order of the Sun?”

[*I had discover at a young age how to falsify my appearance and even avoid magical detection by weaving the fabric and magic of the surrounding area into my illusions. It is how I discovered the phenomena of magic being in almost everything only to discover that great minds like Star Swirl had already wrote and did research on such subjects.]

Author's Note:

I know footnotes are attrocious but I wanted to include some facts on how I view magic in Equestria should work. For awhile I wanted Psionics to also be a form of magic that even Peg's and earth ponies to be capable of. Still thinking about it honestly.

(Edited 8/28/13 9:30 PM)