Ghost Lights

by Winston

Chapter 7

Ghost Lights

Chapter 7

---

I was passed out until late the next morning, unsurprisingly. That was helped by the fact that I was in a room that only had windows in the north-facing wall, so direct sunlight didn't make it inside. My head hurt a little bit, but it was nothing that really bothered me. Drinking plenty of water had kept it from getting too bad, and I think I slept through the worst of it anyway. By the time I was really up I was mostly just thirsty, which was an easy enough problem to solve.

When I finally emerged from the guestroom I'd crashed in, I felt like I should be a little embarrassed. Sleeping it off in the palace after a wild night is something I'd never done before. For that matter, I never even have wild nights, period. If anypony thought anything of it, though, they didn't show it. The other guards didn't even give me a second glance as I walked through the halls with my eyelids still feeling a bit heavy. I'm pretty sure word got around and they knew what kind of partying we'd done, so this was probably not unexpected.

I headed toward the kitchen to see if there was anything left over from breakfast that I could beg off the food service staff. Azure Sky found me before I got there. She seemed wide awake and active, not hung over at all.

"Good morning," she said cheerfully.

"Good morning." I nodded back. I was... less energetic.

"Hey, you must be hungry. Let's grab a late breakfast... really early lunch... whatever. It's a nice day. We can eat out in the gardens," she suggested.

It suddenly seemed as if she felt obligated for some reason to treat me like a guest and keep me company. "Oh... no, don't worry about me," I told her. "This is your last day here. You should be spending time with Princess Twilight. Say your goodbyes. It's gonna be a while before you can see her again."

"Can't right now. Court. Business to take care of. She'll be busy for most of the day." Azure rolled her eyes a little.

We made our way to the kitchens, and grabbed a little bit of whatever was conveniently available. Most of it ended up getting eaten while we were still on our way outside, before we'd ever even reached the garden, but it was still worth going out there. Azure was right. It was a really nice day, and hanging out in the fresh air and quiet of the secluded palace gardens was a pleasant contrast to the loud partying I'd been in the middle of a few hours ago.

The clear sunlight helped lift the last of the haze from my head and fully wake me up. Faint chirps of bird songs and a subtle perfume scent from the flowers, slight but sweet, drifted in the air.

The two of us sat there together quietly. I couldn't think of anything to talk about, which became a little awkward. Without really thinking I reflexively did what many pegasi do to preoccupy themselves and alleviate tension in these situations, and started preening. I realized when I did how much I needed it, actually, since my feathers were ruffled from partying and sleeping and I hadn't done any grooming yet that morning. I can't stand leaving my wings in a messy state. It grates at me on a primal, instinctive level if they're not pristine.

I ran my teeth like a comb down each feather methodically, one by one, carefully straightening them all out. The feeling was calming and soothing. Preening is... well, difficult to compare to anything else, really. It's a source of comfort, a source of pleasure. It's highly ritualized. Every pegasus develops their own routine with their own preferred style and pattern. I'm not sure how to express to earth ponies and unicorns just how relaxing and soothing and, honestly, basically essential to pegasus sanity this is.

It's even better if a pegasus is lucky enough to have a preening buddy around to help. The bond of trust and sense of intimacy with another pony doesn't get much closer than that. It's very sensual and very satisfying. That's not to say it's only done between lovers or special someponies, though. Some cheap romance novels and the like may try to promote misconceptions and make it sound like it's always erotic, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. Lots of completely platonic friends have been known to preen each other.

Anyway, obviously I was working on my own at the moment. I continued for several minutes, losing myself a little in the rhythmic process of combing and working over one feather after another, that sense of being 'in the zone'. Eventually, though, the unbroken quiet got to me even despite that. Azure was there with me but she hadn't said anything since I started. I began to have a strange feeling somehow, as if I could feel her curious eyes on me while I groomed.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I looked up from preening, suddenly feeling very self-conscious about it. Azure had indeed been watching me. We looked at each other for a blank second, then she broke her gaze and turned away slightly. A small hint of an embarrassed blush formed in her cheeks.

"Well, don't stop on my account," she said. "Sorry. I... didn't mean to stare..."

"Nah, it's alright." I shrugged casually. I looked away from her, fixing my gaze on a convenient nearby rose instead. It was a yellow one - the color of rose that means friendship, I recognized idly. Bright Bloom had explained to me all the meanings of all the various colors of roses she sells, bit by bit over time as they happened to come up in conversation. I always remembered them all. They're interesting. She's interesting.

"It's just... I don't know why, but it's kinda fascinating," Azure said. "I don't actually get to see pegasi preening that often. I guess I've just always wondered what it's like, having wings and feathers, you know?"

"It's like having a couple of extra things growing out of your back that are covered in stuff that has to be constantly cleaned and kept in impeccable order," I told her.

"Yes, of course, those poor pegasi," she said with friendly sarcasm. "The ability to fly must be such a burden."

"Oh, yeah, it's a tough life." I nodded. "But somehow we manage to overcome all that adversity and survive through our sheer undeniable awesomeness. Or at least that's the official story we give the unicorns and earth ponies."

"Spoken just like Captain Dash," Azure commented.

"Well, like I said, that's our official story, and I'm sticking to it," I told her. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."

I dove back into working on my plumage to finish up my morning preening. "Besides," I said through a mouthful of feathers, with my face buried in my wing, "what's it like having a horn?"

"Oh, you know..." Azure thought for a second. "It's like having a big pointy thing growing out of your face. Makes you look funny, sometimes it bumps into stuff... and you have to be careful not to stab other ponies if you ever try to give them a kiss. Seriously, one false move and this thing could put an eye out."

"Aww, sounds rough," I said with mock sympathy.

"It's pretty awful," Azure affirmed. "I tell you, earth ponies don't know how good they have it without all this silly extra stuff attached to them."

I continued rifling through one feather after another. One of them I came across had a lot of play in it, a familiar feeling of loosening up that I knew meant it was getting to be about time to make way for a replacement. I gave it a gentle tug to test how close it was, and it popped out painlessly. It was a pretty decent-sized flight primary, perfect material for a writing implement.

I held it in my teeth and raised my head out of my wing to face Azure. "Hey, I found a present for you," I said, and blew the feather towards her. It drifted and spiraled in the air for a couple seconds, glowing golden yellow in the sun, until she caught it in the pale blue glow of her magic and pulled it over to herself.

She examined it briefly. "Thanks." She nodded with a pleased look. "I can always use more quills."

It's sort of interesting to me that unicorn magicians, the ponies who go through the most pens and quills, can't themselves grow the feathers they need to make them. It's the pegasi, the ponies considered most prone to wildness and being ruled by emotion and impulse rather than rationality, who supply one of the most essential tools of the learned disciplines of magic and science.

I suppose it goes to show how interconnected we all really are.

Saving my dropped feathers for Azure is something I don't mind doing, anyway. They would just be headed for the trash can if somepony didn't have a new purpose to put them to once their flight days are over. It makes me feel a certain sense of pride to see some of my plumes sticking out of the glass jar on her desk that always has a large collection of quills waiting for her.

---

Out of convenience, I ended up hanging out at the palace that day, even though I was off duty and didn't have a guard shift to work. There was just no particular reason to go back to my apartment. I'd already cleaned up, locked up, and left everything in a state where it would be fine for the next six months. All the gear I'd packed for the Seawall was still there in the palace waiting for me to grab it and head out. Going back and forth again would have just been a wasted trip, so I was invited, by Princess Twilight herself, to stay and use the same guestroom again for the night. I gladly accepted.

Since I was there as a guest, she also invited me to dinner. As is normal for the palace, it was served just before sunset. It was interesting. I've seen Princess Twilight eating many times, in the course of guarding her, but in all the years before that point, I'd never actually sat down and eaten a meal with her. I wondered and worried about if it this was appropriate even now, but I reasoned with myself that technically I'd been issued orders to a new posting at the Seawall, so for the time being I wasn't actually one of her guards.

The palace has a large formal dining hall, but Princess Twilight only uses it for official state meals when she has to deal with a special event or with somepony particularly important. I think she really kind of dislikes it. It's big and luxurious, but in a way that just makes it colder and more impersonal.

Instead, we were in a smaller and more modest room and at a less imposing table that was much plainer and more casual. I mean that in a relative sense. Everything was high quality, fitting for a princess and probably much more expensive than the average pony would have at home, just not adorned with the large hall's kind of over-the-top grandiosity that oppressed the atmosphere with the weight of formality.

The sense of closeness was also helped by only four of us being at that meal: Princess Twilight, myself, Captain Dash, and Azure Sky. I was a little surprised but not surprised at the same time. I'd sort of expected there to be at least a few more ponies dining with the princess, maybe nobles or high-level administrators or officers with business there to work through. On the other hoof, taking the time out just for Azure and myself on the eve of our departure is exactly the kind of thing Princess Twilight would do for ponies that matter to her. That made me feel pretty special, though I knew that in truth it was probably mostly for Azure.

The meal started with vegetable soup and garden salad. All of us at the table were for the most part quiet during this first course, with everypony focused on the food.

The main dish included carrots steamed expertly to a perfect state where they were still firm and not mushy, but soft enough to no longer have a hard crunch, and drizzled with a light honey glaze. I think they were seasoned with ginger and cardamom. They were delicious, whatever it was.

"I asked for the chef's amazing glazed carrots to be made especially for you," Princess Twilight said to Azure. She smiled at her student. "I know they're your favorite. I wanted you to be able to have them one last time before you go."

"Thank you very much, Princess," Azure responded. "They're very good." Her voice was quiet and she only just barely looked up from her plate. She hadn't eaten very many.

Over the next minute or two, silence fell like a shroud, a thin cloth sheet descending slowly and softly but covering the whole room beneath it.

Captain Dash glanced quickly, pensively, between Azure and Princess Twilight. She returned her eyes to her own plate and focused on the business of eating dinner.

I started to feel uneasy.

This went on for a few more minutes, until finally Princess Twilight gently cleared her throat, and spoke. "So..." she began, "Sunburst... what kinds of wildlife do you usually expect to see at the wall?"

I quickly swallowed the bit of carrot I was chewing. "Well, Princess... as far as I've ever encountered, there aren't many large mammals. It's mostly rodents, or rabbits, and maybe the occasional fox, but nothing bigger. There's birds, though, especially seabirds. Along the beach there's usually sea life - shellfish, seaweed, starfish. Whatever the waves wash up onto the sand and rocks," I told her.

There was more silence.

"That sounds... uh... interesting." Captain Dash tried to fill the void.

"Oh, it... it is," I responded. "I've seen some, uh... real oddities, in the tide-pools and things like that. Yes. It's an interesting place."

For a moment, I felt unbelievably lame. I returned to eating the carrots I'd been served. That stilted silence took over again, holding the room in its grip. Nopony could seem to break it, however hard they tried. I was pretty glad, honestly, when that meal was over. By then, the sun had set completely and it was about time to try to get some sleep, because tomorrow would start very, very early.