Six Months Later
Everything around me was burning. I couldn't feel the heat from the flames but the smoke was very real. It choked me and I could barely make out the room around me. There were boxes strewn all over and not one of them was untouched by the flames.
Despite all of this I was not concerned. My attention was wholly focused on the mare in front of me. She was only a dark outline behind the smoke but I could still clearly see the gun she had leveled at my forehead. I knew she wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger and I wasn't afraid of it.
The gun went off and I reflexively squeezed my eyes closed. Nothing happened. When I opened my eyes again the burning room around me was gone, replaced by an endless expanse of darkness. The only landmark was a barely visible, narrow stone path under my hooves. I knew I shouldn't follow it. I knew it lead somewhere I couldn't come back from.
From the darkness an alicorn strolled down the path towards me. She was nearly as black as the air around us. I couldn't help but take a step forward towards her as she stopped in front of me. Her eyes were empty in such a way that they threatened to draw in any spark of light that threatened to illuminate us. She opened her mouth to speak, but the only sound that emanated forth was that of a winter wind through dry leaves.
The sound stirred something deep in my chest. I shuddered, but a smile crept onto my face.
"I understand."
The alicorn seemed satisfied with my reply. Something shimmered deep within the sockets of her lifeless eyes and she leaned in close to my face. I closed the distance and pressed my lips against her. There was something familiar about it, something that made me feel guilty inside. I tried to pull away but-
The hoof pounding against my bedroom door painfully jarred me out of the dream. I started awake and cracked my head against the headboard as I jolted out of the position I'd been sleeping in. The sound must have been audible outside the room because the knocking ceased.
"I'm awake, I'm awake!" I called out, squinting in pain as I held a hoof on top of my head where a lump would surely form. "I'll be out in a damn minute."
I immediately felt remiss about my language, but truthfully the pony outside had heard worse from me under less deserving circumstances. She wouldn't be too terribly offended.
With the knocker gone for at least the moment I rolled over in bed, trying to work up the motivation to get up. Instead I just laid on my back and stared through the skylight in my bedroom ceiling. Snow obscured enough of the light coming through that it was impossible to tell if the sun was rising or setting. It made waking up for my nocturnal schedule at least a little less disorienting.
Guilt if nothing else finally made me pry myself out of the pile of blankets Id buried myself under. I didn't bother to tuck them back into place before I flipped a switch beside my bed, illuminating a vast array of free-standing and table side lamps around my room.
From there I trotted across the room and pulled open the black-out curtains over the window on the far wall. Several stories below the hustle and bustle of Canterlot's streets did not seem diminished by the fat snowflakes that floated lazily down onto them.
Canterlot winters were not all that different from those I'd grown up with in Baltimare. Both cities had quite substantial weather teams to thank for that. Between Canterlot's high elevation and Baltimare's coastal influence both saw a fair amount of snow.
If not for the apartment I found myself in I could have almost pretended I was back in my old city. My apartment there had been what some ponies might have called ultra-modern. Decor with lots of sleek, sharp edges and all the most up to date amenities.
My new home in Canterlot was a far cry from it.
What had once been an extensive three story home originally built for Canterlot's old money had been renovated into three spacious apartment units. They were still up to date on amenities, but no matter how many modern items I put into the space the old world charm still seeped through.
I was sorely reminded of this as I passed the claw-footed tub and shower on my way into the master bathroom to wash the sleep from my face. I hated it more than I would admit, but still not enough to fork over the money to have it replaced.
Dressed in a particularly puffy green down-filled vest I eventually made my way out of the bedroom to begin the usual evening routine. I found my little orange unicorn colt, Bookmark, sprawled in his usual spot on the end of the living room sofa watching cartoons.
"Hey buddy, how was school?" I stopped beside him, patting him on the head all the while being careful not to obstruct his view.
"Hey Uncle Mossy..." The colt was barely conscious of anything outside of his television program. "It was good. You know, all the usual stuff and junk."
I nodded and smiled thoughtfully. "Stuff and junk, eh? Sounds like a good day indeed."
From the living room I made my way into the kitchen. There amongst the antiquated oak cabinets and marble counter-tops I found the pegasus responsible for waking me. She balanced a covered Tupperware bowl on one wing as she rooted through my refrigerator.
"Honestly Mr. Hooves, I think you two might die of food poisoning if I didn't clean out the junk you call food in here every week." The light purple mare favored me with a dour expression over her shoulder before resuming her purge of my so-called edibles.
Ginger Wind, or Windy as she preferred to be called had been a godsend. For a while Bookmark and I had lived off of the insurance money I'd received when my house in Ponyville burnt to the ground. It had been a substantial sum, no doubt thanks to some gentle nudging by one of the royal sisters, but it was far from infinite. I had found work both to bring in money and save myself from boredom, but it left me with time in the day where Bookmark was unattended.
A pony from work had recommended Windy as a nanny before I even officially started. Bookmark took to her immediately, and she seemed to take my attitude in stride. It had been a perfect match. She watched Bookmark at her home after school, allowing me to sleep until six or so in the evening when I awoke to prepare for work. This included feeding him dinner, which she even sometimes brought for me as well.
"You wouldn't know good junk food if it jumped out of the fridge and bit you on the flank." I stated indignantly, snatching the bowl from her wing. "If you eat nothing but pristine food all of your life you never get a chance to build up an immunity to anything."
Ginger Wind pulled a paper plate with a slice of old pineapple pizza out of the fridge and tossed it into the nearby trashcan. "You know, I honestly cant tell if you're being serious or not and that truly scares me." She scraped her tongue against her front teeth and spat dryly. "Just looking in there makes me cringe."
"No one said you had to eat anything in there. Relax a little." I examined the bowl I had stolen. It was lukewarm vegetable stew that she had most likely intended to put in the fridge for me before she'd spied the other other contents.
While Windy continued to fuss about in the kitchen I set myself up at the table and helped myself to the stew. It was a little bland, but as a beggar I was not about to be a chooser. By the time I finished off the bowl it was time for me to head off to work.
"Be sure to help Ms. Windy do the dishes after you do your home, buddy. And don't stay up too late making Hearths Warming cards." I called into the living room as I wrapped my scarf around my neck and set off to find my matching knit hat.
"Quit dawdling, you're going to be late." Windy scolded, flinging my hat out of the kitchen. I had no idea how I'd managed to leave it there.
"Thanks, mom."
As I descended the stairs of my apartment complex a coughing fit shook me to the point of having to brace myself against the railing of the front steps. A white cloud of steam from my breath floated around my head as if I was coughing up smoke from some internal fire. By the time I was finished I could see my own private galaxy of little white stars twinkling before my eyes. I had to rest for a minute before starting my walk to work.
The fits had started in November and were increasing in regularity and severity as the months went on. I’d gone to several clinics hoping for a remedy, but each pony had given me a different diagnosis. Bronchitis, walking pneumonia, whooping cough, and several that I had never heard of before. The usual end result had been a course of antibiotics and the old ‘take two and call me in the morning’ routine.
Bookmark never seemed to come down with it, so at least it wasn’t contagious. As long as it didn’t affect the colt or prevent me from doing my job, I could deal with it. It probably just looked worse than it was.
The eastern residential district of Canterlot was nice by any standard, but it was a far cry from the luxurious northern districts where the upper crust of the city resided. My district was what would have been called the servant district in the old days. It housed many of the other employees of the castle and shopkeepers who could afford to own their own house as opposed to living above their shops.
The area was a little further from the castle itself than I would have liked, but the relative informality of the place made me much more comfortable. This was a rare part of Canterlot where I could freely walk the streets without getting any sideways glances for my somewhat scruffy appearance.
I arrived at the eastern castle gates just as the sun began to slip completely below the horizon. The changing of the guard had not yet occurred, so the servant entrance I used was still watched over by two solar guardsponies.
As per routine the earth ponies lazily crossed their pikes in front of me, blocking my path as I approached.
"Halt. Present identification." The larger of the two spoke up in a practiced professional voice.
I held up a hoof, gesturing for them to give me a moment as I fished a small chain with a gold coin dangling from it out of my vest pocket. Gripping the coin in my teeth I flipped the chain around my neck and approached the pair of guards.
The face of the coin displayed a beautiful engraving of the royal emblem, the two royal sisters circling each other. The flip side of the coin was blank until the chain came to rest around my neck. Slowly but surely a pinprick of magical light appeared in the center and swirled outward, carving a perfect image of my own face.
"Mossy Hooves; night caretaker for the royal gardens." I announced in an equally practiced voice as the pair gave my ID a quick once-over. Seemingly satisfied, they retracted their pikes and allowed me to pass.
The ID coins had come into use after the changeling invasion some years ago. Literally any pony on castle grounds had to have a coin specially enchanted for them alone. Each coin would only react with the specific pony it was created for based on some kind of magical detection system I didn't understand. What I did understand was that a disguised changeling wouldn't be able to trigger the coin of a pony it was trying to duplicate.
After passing through two more of the usual palace security checkpoints I arrived at the castle gardens and set out to find the daytime caretaker, Bear Bones. I found the black pegasus in the aviary trying to coax a pair of screech owls out of their nest box.
“Let me guess, Celestia let Philomena have free roam of the gardens today?” I said quietly as approached the bottom of the nest box’s pole, not wanting to spook the owls.
“Gee-whizz, Mossy. What was your first clue?” Bear growled back down at me, giving up on the owls and moving on to the next nest. “She left an hour ago and they still won’t come out.”
Philomena really was a sweetheart. The phoenix wouldn’t harm a hair or feather on the head of any animal in the garden. Some of the animals just couldn’t acknowledge that. Philomena was smart enough to know that the owls were afraid of her, but not quite bright enough to realize that constantly badgering them wasn’t going to earn their friendship.
“I’ll still never get over that. The rabbits and squirrels frolic around care-free while a fiery bird of prey circles overhead, it’s only the birds smart enough to know she shouldn’t be a threat that get bent out of shape when she’s here.” I chuckled a bit as the male screech owl poked his head out of the nest to see where Bear had gone. “Just go home, Bear. I’ll make sure they get fed. You can give their nest box a double thorough cleaning tomorrow morning.”
Bear swooped down from the nest boxes, undoubtedly ready to give me an earful about climbing my own flank up there to clean the boxes, but something stopped him. He bent down on one knee and bowed his head to someone behind me. Knowing what that meant I quickly whirled around and did the same.
“Rise, my little ponies.” Princess Luna’s regal voice floated warmly through the chilly evening air. How she and her guards could sneak up the way they did was still a mystery to me.
“Caretaker Bear Bones you are dismissed for the evening. My business is with Caretaker Mossy Hooves. Please give my best to your family.”
Bear rose to his hooves, gave me a see-you-later nod, and trotted off for the palace gates. He hadn’t managed to tell me to clean the nest boxes myself. I guess that would mean he would have to do it in the morning. What a tragedy.
I rose to my own hooves as well, nodding back to Bear even as Luna’s guards moved to create a perimeter around the aviary.
“Good evening, Princess.”
“And a good evening to you, Mossy Hooves.” Princess Luna trotted over to me and peered up at the nest box that Bear had been fussing over. The owls inside in turn peered back down at her. Upon seeing who it was they quickly squeezed their little bodies through the even smaller nest entrance and spiraled down to us. One perched atop the Princess’ back; the other awkwardly came to rest atop my head.
“You aren’t right in the head.” I whispered to the little owl, which only tilted his head side to side obliviously. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”
The princess giggled and nuzzled the owl on her back affectionately. “So I have often heard said of many ponies in Canterlot.”
At that we both broke out in a small fit of laughter, spooking the owls back up to their nest. I almost thought I was going to get away without coughing, but a tickle in my throat caught me near the end.
Luna looked on, concerned, but chose to bring up another topic instead. “I suppose that you know why I am here unannounced, do you not?” Her tone was more serious than it had been before.
I hadn’t known before, but after hearing that I knew what she meant. “Already? It feels like it was just last week…”
“You know as well as I do it has been four weeks, Mossy, just as our agreement stated.” The slender alicorn chided, gesturing for me to walk with her. “Do not worry about the animals. I will have one of my guards stand in for you until we are finished.”
“Don’t try feeding anyone!” I called back to the guards as Luna nudged and guided me out of the aviary. “I won’t be blamed if you get bitten!”
I was left waiting in one of the palace’s many smaller studies while the princess proceeded on to the main throne room to retrieve her sister. During the transition period of twilight the palace was filled with both the solar and lunar guards. Outside the study door stood one of each, both looking mildly irritated to have been pulled away from their respective duties. I had never tried to leave the study before one of these meetings, but I had a pretty good impression of what they might try to do to me if I did.
Rather than give the guards anything to work with I simply tossed my hat and scarf onto the nearby armchair and warmed myself by the fire. I could handle the cold outside just fine, that didn’t necessarily mean I liked it. Surely I would start to feel better in general when spring finally came.
When the door finally opened again I quickly bowed my head at the arrival of both princesses. Celestia of course was first through the door, followed closely behind by her sister. The Princess of the Sun looked friendly enough this evening, but I could see the signs that she’d had a long day. She was always gracious during her day court but once you encroached into her personal time you were more likely to get sunburn than a tan.
“Rise, Mossy Hooves. I have dinner arrangements with an envoy of Griffin Nation tonight and I would prefer not to keep her waiting.”
The Griffins always had preferred Celestia. The sun princess seemed like she would have been more than happy to dump the diplomatic affair into her sister’s lap. By all rights Luna was the princess one should have had to speak to at that hour anyway.
“Princess.” I greeted her politely as I climbed to my hooves, looking past her rather than at her.
Celestia approached me, or cornered me would have been a more apt description. With my back to the fire she loomed over me, her horn aglow in regal golden light. She closed her eyes and began to wave her horn over my body. The familiar tingling invasive sensation rolled through me. I frowned and tried to ignore it.
Accepting the ‘offer’ to live in Canterlot had been a blessing and a curse. It was a lovely place and I was gainfully employed, but it was essentially a cage. We were far enough away from the Everfree Forest that we were deemed ‘not contagious’, but we were still required to undergo periodic testing for the influence of dark magic. This meant we were not exactly free to come and go from the city as we pleased. The old adage ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ seemed to ring true here.
After several minutes the princess retreated back to her sister and whispered something into her ear. “Very good, Mossy Hooves. I sense nothing of note. You are free to resume your duties. Though I would have you bring your colt to my day court in the morning to be checked as well.” She said to me finally.
I almost agreed without thinking, but luckily a thought was still fresh in my head. “Princess Celestia, could we please maybe put that off until the day after? Hearths Warming is coming up soon and Bookmark’s school is having festivities this week. I don’t want him to miss anything…”
The princess seemed to think for a moment, and then nodded her head in agreement. “It would be unfair to rob him of the day. Later in the week will be fine. Good night, Mossy Hooves.”
I was awash with relief. Despite her dislike of me she was still a fair and generous ruler. I couldn’t help but smile widely as I bowed again. “And a good night to you too, princesses.”
The sisters exchanged their goodbyes for the evening with a brief touching of horns, and then Celestia was gone. I moved to retrieve my hat and scarf, unaware that the princess of the night had not followed suit. She instead had taken a seat by the fire.
“How is little Bookmark doing?” Luna asked, eliciting a jump from me as she gazed into the fire, oblivious.
I decided to play it off like I had known she was there all along.
“He’s good… very excited about the festivities tomorrow. The apartment has been littered with construction paper, felt, and glue-sticks for days now.” I smiled and chuckled. “I wish I’d had half his enthusiasm for that stuff when I was his age.”
“That is good to hear. Does he still speak of his mother?”
My smile faded and I began to poke at my scarf on the chair with my hoof. “Not as often. Starting school really helped that. Having something to focus his mind on really was the best thing for him. He has stopped asking when she is going to come home though and I… I really don’t know how to feel about that…”
The princess saw the frown begin to creep across my face and waved for me to take a seat by the fire with her. “So long as he had not forgotten about her. You must remember, we do not know the extent to which the time in the Dark Place affected him. It is truly miraculous that he has adjusted as well as he has. Your influence in his life has been invaluable.”
I had my doubts about that. The colt spent his nights alone and his afternoons with a nanny thanks to my night time work schedule. I was always home in time to be there when he woke up in the morning, but that was one of the few times of the day we got to spend together. I did my best to make my days off revolve around him, but under normal circumstances I would probably have been what most ponies would call a bad parent.
“Bookmark is very precocious. I think he would have done well wherever he ended up.” I said glumly, disregarding my scarf and trotting back to the fire. “If he follows in his mother’s interests I’m hardly the right pony to cultivate it. I worry I’m doing him more harm than good.”
Luna gave me a sharp look of disapproval. “When you speak that way you do more harm than good to both yourself and Bookmark, Mossy. I have seen his dreams, he plays, he is happy. When the time comes for him to start thinking of his future I believe you will do what is right for him.”
Truthfully I had given more than a little consideration to sending in an application on his behalf to Princess Celestia’s school. He had spoken highly of it from time to time when a friend or classmate was admitted, and I knew the environment there would probably be healthier for him. I would never force him to go, but just giving him more options made me feel a little better.
“I know I shouldn’t talk like that… it’s just the season, y’know? Everypony gets a little blue in the winter.”
The princess leaned away from me slightly and raised an eyebrow playfully. “The moon shares many traits with Equestria in the winter time. They are both cold and seemingly lifeless. As you may recall I once spent an inordinate amount of time of the moon. I do think you can handle several months of Canterlot winter.”
Luna had quite a way of putting things into perspective and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. This time I thankfully made it through without recreating my impression of a pack-a-day smoker. “I can handle it just fine, doesn’t necessarily mean I have to enjoy it! No offense, princess, but you have wings. When it snows you can fly above it. We earth ponies have to slog through those snow drifts. If it’s too deep precious cargo tends to drag.”
Oh horse apples, did I really just make a dirty joke to the princess?
I bit my tongue. The princess just looked at me quizzically for a moment.
“Why would you not just put your belongings on a sled if they are so precious?”
I barely managed to maintain my composure. Princess Luna had lived many lifetimes longer than me yet sometimes she still displayed a remarkable naivety to certain things. Whether that was a willful decision on her part of just the result of a different rate of maturity from a long lived individual was beyond me.
“That is good advice, I will remember it. Thank you, princess.”
Princess Luna smiled a little, knowing smile and patted me on the shoulder with her fore-hoof. Maybe I was the naïve one here.
“So how are you, Mossy? I have not seen any of your dreams in quite some time.” The princess mercifully changed the subject.
The sleep aides I had been taking were probably to blame for my lack of dreams, but I couldn’t tell her that. She of all ponies knew the effects insomnia could have on the mind, and if she worried about me she would undoubtedly worry about Bookmark as well. It was disconcerting enough to know she had attempted to dream walk with me during the daylight hours when she was technically not in a position of power to do so.
“I’ve been pretty good myself. Been keeping busy down in the gardens like usual; sleeping like a log when I get home in the morning. Been too exhausted to even dream I guess.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth. Hopefully the question had just been a formality and she wouldn’t delve any deeper.
“You are still comfortable with your nocturnal work schedule, are you not? If it has become too much I can perhaps find somepony to assist you in finding something better.”
Before Bookmark and I had arrived in Canterlot, Bear Bones had been the only caretaker for the garden’s wildlife. He had lived on the castle grounds and worked both the day and night shifts. I knew it was way beyond coincidence to believe the decision to divide the duties between two ponies just happened to be made right before I started looking for work. I had jumped through many hoops to get the job, but not nearly as many as someone with my reputation should have had to. I suspected Princess Luna might have had a hoof in the matter and I was not about to snub her generosity.
Besides that I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to be able to sleep at night again anyway. There weren’t many other night jobs that paid well enough to allow a single parent to live as comfortably as I did.
“I wouldn’t trade it for the world, Princess. Besides, what would the animals do if I just abandoned them?”
The princess seemed satisfied that my answer was genuine this time. She smiled and seemed to consider for a moment what my four-pawed partners in crime might do if left to their own devices.
“I imagine they might be the first creatures my sister would actually banish to the moon.”
We both had a good laugh again. The laughter and the warmth of the fire put me at ease more so than I had been all night. The princesses were ponies just like the rest of us, but despite what we had been through together in Ponyville I still found it difficult to engage Luna in casual conversation. Even though she was always the instigator it somehow felt inappropriate for me to let my guard down.
“What about you, Princess Luna, how are you doing these days?”
Luna wiggled on her haunches a bit and closed her eyes thoughtfully. She seemed pleased that I had bothered to ask.
“Oh I have been well, Mossy. I shan’t bore you with any kingdom politics this time, but I too have been ‘keeping busy’. My sister and I have been working very hard on plans for a banquet coming up tomorrow.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Such was life in Canterlot. A pony couldn’t go a week without hearing about a festival, gala, or ball that the royals were putting on. Invitation only was the name of the game around here.
“What plans have you for the Hearths Warming season, Mossy Hooves?”
I narrowed my brow and sucked in my lower lip mock-thoughtfully.
“Well I promised Bookmark I would spend the morning of Hearths Warming with him before he goes to his grandparents, but other than that it’ll be sleep during the day and work at night as usual. I never really celebrated the day before; no reason to start now.”
Seemingly frustrated by the fact that I insisted on standing, the Princess reached out with one slender fore hoof and shoved my flank down until I took a seat. It almost seemed unfair that alicorns were gifted with physical strength alongside their magical prowess.
“I am certain Bear Bones would have told you this had I not interrupted you earlier, but there is a tradition tomorrow among the castle staff who are not otherwise celebrating with their special somepony. There exists a seldom used wine cellar beneath the east wing of the castle that is still stocked and just the right size for throwing parties.”
I smirked and raised an eyebrow. Leave it to the hired help to find a way to party on the royal’s dime.
“They believe themselves to be quite secretive about it, so of course my sister and I have known for many years. It hurts nopony, so we allow it to slip beneath our notice, as it were.”
A night of free drinking did sound appealing to me.
“If Bear was going to say anything about a party I’m sure he would have done it ages ago. He probably didn’t tell me because he knew I’d be on duty and didn’t want me to feel left out.“ Also because he didn’t want the shame of me drinking him under the table, but the princess didn’t need to hear that.
“Surely it does not take you all night to see the diurnal animals off to bed and feed the nocturnal ones?”
There was more to my job than that, but she had a point. That still didn’t matter though. In a manner of speaking she was my boss. Even though she was the one telling me about the party, a wise pony wouldn’t just jump at the chance to tell the boss he was planning to shirk his duties. It was probably just the day staff that attended this party anyway. Just because Luna seemed to think it was alright didn’t mean any of the other royals wouldn’t have harsh words for any member of the night staff brushing off their chores.
Princess Luna could see the gears working in my head. She smiled gently and leaned in close to me to whisper.
“The majority of my night guards will be in the immediate vicinity of the banquet, where might I add, all of the royal family will be. Those who remain will most certainly be at this ‘underground shindig’, as the foals say.”
I winced involuntarily at the phrase. I was fairly certain that ‘underground shindig’ was not in any foal’s current vernacular, but I knew what she was getting at.
She really was just encouraging me to take an evening for myself. Something I had been reluctant to do, at least completely, for months now. The company of the other staff members would keep me from me distracted enough to prevent me from falling into old habit.
“Maybe I’ll drop in just to say hello then…” I relented, unsure if I really meant it or not.