Flying is amazing. There is no other way to put it and it was lucky that I was still able to do it. At least, that was what the doctors had said. Once again, I’d shown them the endurance and strength of a pegasi warrior… with some help. Dr. Kitty and Winterspear kept pushing me to get stronger. Stronger wings, less weight.
I wasn’t fast anymore nor did I have agility. I could fly, though. Thank the alicorns for that. The occasion today was based on saving time. Crystal had asked me to check in on Velvet sooner rather than later.
The condo building that housed the home that Velvet and my wife used to share looked exactly as I remembered it. I wandered through the front entrance, headed upstairs, and knocked three times on the door. Then I waited.
After five or so minutes, it popped opened. Velvet leaned in the doorway and inclined her head. “Silent Knight.”
“Cheap Shot.” That is what I’d decided I’d call her from now on.
“Uh-huh, what can I do for you?”
“Crystal said you needed a hoof. So…” I offered her a hoof.
Velvet snorted and took it. “You’re such a dork. Come in here.”
She dragged me inside. If I didn’t know better, I would have been certain this wasn’t the same apartment. All of the furniture was different: one whole wall was now a mirror, and there were foal toys everywhere.
“What can I help you with?” I asked.
“Oh, not much. This is mostly just Crystal trying to make us be friends again. Although there is something I do need.”
My ears twitched. We weren’t friends? Well… she had kicked me and we hadn’t really been on speaking terms. I’d just thought we were fighting. “Okay, what’s that?”
Velvet pointed into the kitchen. “Velour has figured out he has wings and I don’t.”
“Ah, I see. Yeah, my mom always said that pegasus foals are particularly troublesome. We fly early due to how light we are.” I poked my head inside to find Velour perched high on top of the cabinets, wiggling. “Step ladder?”
“Oh, I have two. I go up one, he flies to the other side. I go up the other, he flies back. Back and forth until either he gets tired or I do, and lately, he’s been winning.”
I tried not to grin. “Then what?”
Velvet snorted. “Don’t judge me but… well…” She pointed over towards a broom leaning against the counter.
My brow raised.
“I said don’t judge me! I just shoo him to the corner so I can get up on the table and catch him is all!”
“All right, so you just want me to help you avoid the ladders today?”
“Yup! And tire him out if you can. I’ve got to get some practice in or else little colt and I will be living in the poor ponies’ home after I get fired.”
Like Crystal would ever let that happen. They’d just move in with us. Not that I’d mind, of course. Although it would be weird if Velvet and I weren’t friends, but I’d figure that out later.
“Right, I’m on this.” I flapped my wings and flew up to where Velour was sitting. His little eyes got big and his expression was a mix of confusion and delight.
All four of his little hooves thrusted out towards me, melting my heart at the sight. I held out my forehooves and he grabbed onto them. As carefully as I could, I cradled the foal in the crook of my foreleg, flew into the living room, and pointed down at Velvet, who was stretching.
“Is that your momma? Are you giving her a lot of trouble?”
Velour wiggled and spouted off gleeful gibberish. Velvet shot me a look.
“Can you call her Cheap Shot? Say, Cheap Shot.”
The mare stabbed a hoof at me. “Don’t teach him that!”
“No? You don’t want him to learn the truth? What do you want me to teach him, then?”
Velvet was still glaring but her hoof slowly dropped. She just stared for a moment. “Well, I mean, I know you’re joking, but if you’d consider legitimately offering… he needs to learn about being a pegasus. I can’t teach him that.”
It had been, more or less, just a joke of a comment, but she had a point. Idly, I tickled Velour’s belly. “I’d be happy to when he’s ready. His body is going to outgrow those wings pretty fast, then flying will be hard for a while. At least until they catch up to the rest of him.”
I descended to the floor and set Velour onto his play mat before lowering myself beside it. He wasn’t really into blocks like his uncle, Red. He was more about tiny pony figures that he wobbled about in his unskilled hooves.
“Thanks, Silent,” Velvet said before going back to her stretching.
“Yup,” I replied, picking up a small pink mare figure and marching it towards Velour.
The foal gurgled, grasped a green pegasus stallion in two hooves, and flew it towards the mare. By the looks of the path, I’d have to teach this little guy a lot about flying.
“You know you’re kind of an idiot, right?” Velvet said as she made slow movements across the room.
Green Pegasus wiggled right in front of Pink Mare while Velour jabbered.
“I did what I thought was right.”
“Uh-huh, and you hurt Crystal. You’re not supposed to do that, but you’re not going to do that again, are you?”
I shook my head and bounced Pink Mare a bit. That seemed to make Velour very happy and he continued to ramble. “Don’t plan to. I’m certainly not ever going to a war again. Not unless somepony brings one here.”
“Good. She missed you. A lot. It wasn’t easy for her.”
My ear flicked with irritation. “It wasn’t easy for me, either, Velvet. I thought I was going to defend friends, not fight their war for them. It’s over now, though. I just want to forget it happened and move on.”
Velour’s head tilted and he picked up a blue unicorn stallion, forcing him to hold the green in a single hoof. His grip on the pair was very unsteady but they seemed to be having a conversation about Pink Mare.
“Yeah… sorry. I forget that sometimes. I was here watching her. Still, you went there. Anyway, while you’re here, I wanted to ask you something, even if I do think you’re an idiot and a jerk.”
“Great, thanks. I’m so eager to help now. What is it?”
“I want you and Crystal to be Velour’s promise parents. I didn’t want to ask her until you got back. Now you’re back. Assuming you think you can do it, of course. I don’t want you teaching him to be a soldier or any of the violent stuff. Just a pegasus and a stallion.”
I sat up straight. “Velvet, that’s an awfully big responsibility… and an honor. Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Crystal is going to make an amazing mother and, as far as fathers go, you’re not as good as mine, but you’ll do.”
My gaze shifted to Velour. He’d set down Green Pegasus and picked up a white earth pony stallion. That stallion was either fighting with or not-cuddling the blue unicorn.
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t ever hold anything against a little pony like Velour. So, as long as he doesn’t mind, I’ll be his promise father. I’ll protect and teach him like my own. His mother and I used to be friends, after all.”
“Yeah… well, they might be again someday,” Velvet replied before continuing with her practice.
Velour and I continued to play whatever game it was we were playing. It seemed that as long as Pink Mare responded to whatever all the other ponies were doing, I was playing correctly.
This was easy. Pink Mare did what I wanted her to. Now if I could just work out the bit with the other pink mare in the room, my life would be closer to normal. Well… normal plus being a promise father.
☾
The sound of a hoof pounding on my door tore me out of a very restful sleep. Crystal mumbled something next to me but somehow hadn’t fully woken. I guess I’d desensitized her to noise from tossing in my sleep with the nightmares.
What lunatic pony would show up at my place this late at night? I contemplated just pretending not to hear it, but the pounding kept up. Unbelievable.
I slipped out of bed and across the bedroom. Before going out into the living room, I noticed my dagger belt hanging off the hook behind the door. Better safe than sorry. I slipped it on and hid it under my wing.
Once I was out in the living room, the pounding was even louder. Obnoxious and loud. “Coming,” I growled.
As soon as I set my hoof on the handle and pulled the door open, I found Sunny Day standing on her hindhooves, holding onto the frame. “Shylent! Shylent, ish over! Ish all over!” A bottle of champagne was floating haphazardly in her magic.
“What’s over?” Confusion set in. Drunk Sunny was usually a bad sign, at least in my experience.
The mare wobbled forwards and threw her hooves around me. “The war! Ish over! Princhess Luna got back today and shined the treaty. Poniesh coming home!” She drank directly out of the bottle before bumping my face with it.
Over. It was over. Just like that. They sign some paperwork and suddenly there won’t be any more violence or death. “Great,” is all I said before taking the bottle from her and drawing a small sip from it.
The mare eagerly pressed a happy kiss to my nose. “It ish! We have to shelebrate, Shylent! Get Cryshal.”
“Cryshal is right here, Sunny,” Crystal said from the bedroom door, wrapped in her robe. “I see you’re kissing my stallion.”
“Jush a little.” Sunny trotted over and kissed Crystal in the same way. “There, even.”
Crystal laughed softly and moved towards the kitchen. “I’ll make some tea. You’re going to need it. So Minister Sombra and Twilight Sparkle completed their task?”
Sunny’s eyes narrowed. “Minishter Shombar did! Ish washn’t that Twiglet Sporkle!” She threw her forehooves up and wiggled them. “Oh, Shunny, be more like Twiglet. Oh, Shunny, look what Twiglet did! Oh, Shunny, Twiglet stopped the war!”
My nose wrinkled at the taste of the champagne. It wasn’t for me. I hid the bottle and trotted over to Sunny, setting my hooves on her and guiding her towards the couch. “Aww, come on, Sunny, everypony likes Twilight Sparkle.”
“I tried to like Twiglet in the shool shower one time! She didn’t notish at all. Kept talkin’ about how efficishent we were with water ushage.” She let me settle her on the couch.
Over my shoulder, Crystal was just giggling. I tried to change the subject. “Were you at the palace this late? Why didn’t you go home to Azurite and Soarin?”
Sunny stared at me, dumbfounded. “Huh?”
“Your… uh… mates. Why didn’t you go to your mates? You know, the big stallionly one and tiny yappy one.”
The golden mare waved a hoof. “Wash shtill at the palash. Working late. Then we all shtarted schelebrating.”
Crystal brought a mug of tea over and offered it to Sunny. “And our home was the first you thought to come to when you finished? Is there something I need to know, Silent?”
Sunny’s magic captured the mug and levitated it closer to her mouth. She tilted her head back and opened wide.
“Oh, no, no,” Crystal cooed before grabbing the mug in her own magic. Then the pair had a small tug of war. I simply reached in and took the mug from the both of them with my hoof. Unicorns…
I set it down. “Crystal is right, why us?”
Sunny’s eyes were closed. She seemed to be snoozing.
“Uh… Sunny?”
Without warning, she sat straight up. “Princhess! Princhess Luna. She wantsh to shee you now. I am to eshort you to the palash.” She reached out a hoof and set it on my shoulder. “Come wish me.”
Sunny then promptly fell over onto her side.
I looked at Crystal. She shrugged. “You’re already up, and it isn’t that far of a flight.”
“Yeah… can you look after Sunny?”
Crystal kissed my cheek. “Of course… as long as she isn’t your secret fillyfriend. I don’t think I could handle it if I suddenly found out that Sunny had four mates and I was unknowingly one of them. She did kiss me, after all.”
“To my knowledge, we are not her mates,” I replied in a non-committal way before trotting into the bedroom, removing my dagger, and putting on my blue cloak. I stuck my head into the living room. “But, if she wakes up and does kiss you, I’ll forgive you. I know who you come home to.”
What did normal ponies wear to the palace? A cloak, sure. A hat? I hated hats. I only had the one. A simple black cavalier hat. It would do. I set it on my head and trotted out into the living room. “How do I look?”
“Extremely uncomfortable.”
“Then I am ready for my first audience with the princess as a civilian. Good evening, wife.”
Crystal laughed and shook her head. “Good evening, husband. I shall await your return on the widow’s walk.”
I removed my hat, bowed deeply, and then trotted out into the night. There was a chill in the air. Summer wasn’t technically over, but this high on Alicorn Spire, fall came quickly.
It didn’t take long to fly over to the palace. Out of respect for the guards, I landed outside the main gate and went to the normal check-in area. Unsurprisingly at this time of night, there wasn’t a single pony waiting in line.
“The princess has sent for me,” I told the palace guard standing outside the small gate beside the main door.
“Of course, sir. Captain Day vaguely mentioned something about that on her way out.” He motioned me past and I trotted across the courtyard and into the palace proper.
The sounds of good cheer spilled out of the various rooms. The staff was celebrating boisterously. Thankfully, the guards that were on duty seemed to be keeping to their posts. The ones that weren’t were about to the level of drunkenness Sunny was.
Lieutenant Midnight Snow was standing outside of Princess Luna’s wing when I arrived. She looked completely sober. “Mr. Knight, thank you for coming so late. Princess Luna insisted that she see you right away after having spoken to Princess Celestia about your situation.”
My situation. That was one way to put it. “Of course. Lead on.”
We walked together in relative silence. Merriment continued to spill out from the various offices. Off-duty guards and staff were lingering to share their relief with their comrades.
I simply followed the dark blue mare, feeling neither joy nor sadness. Why I felt so little, I wasn’t sure. Dr. Kitty might know.
Midnight Snow stopped outside of Princess Luna’s private chamber. It was a place I’d been hundreds of times. A place I now missed. She opened the door and motioned inside. “Princess, Mr. Knight to see you.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” I said as I walked past her and into the chamber.
Princess Luna was sitting in her big stuffed chair, looking my way. She did not have an elated look on her face. The door closed behind me, cutting off my escape route. I removed my hat and bowed.
“Welcome, Silent Knight. I apologize for summoning you so late at night… and for sending Sunny Day. I was assured you would not refuse her. That was assuming she found your home before her inevitable drunk-induced slumber. I’m glad that seems to be the case.”
“She’s resting peacefully under Crystal’s care. Welcome home, Princess.”
Her head bobbed. “Thank you. Celestia tells me that you resigned your commission.”
Getting right to it. “Yes, Princess.”
“You were mistreated?”
“I feel I was.”
“You felt resignation was your only recourse? You didn’t wish to appeal or, perhaps, wait until your princess returned?”
“I was angry. Plus, my protest will protect other veterans far more than crying to my princess will. I will not be placed under a microscope and watched every second, with the threat of dismissal plaguing me constantly.”
Princess Luna stood from her chair. “Agreed. Princess Celestia has already ordered a full investigation and I have personally interrogated Iridescence about what little Winterspear told her. I am displeased.”
“I’m sorry, Princess. As I said, I was angry and made a rash decision. To be honest, I’m not sure it was a bad one. I’m not well enough to command and have no desire to remain in the Army.”
The alicorn trotted over and ducked to place her forehead against mine. “We will discuss that another time. For now, you are where you need to be. Tell me of your nightmares?”
“They have been far less intense and frequent. For some reason, things calmed down after I resigned. Is that your doing?”
“It is not. Nocturna was quite specific in her notes that no dream was beyond the reach of the House of the Night. In ancient times, this actually disturbed some ponies, and knowledge on how to defend against such an encroachment was sought.”
“Is such a thing possible?”
“It would seem that it is. I found a few methods that could be used to protect one’s dreams. Be honest, Silent Knight: were you attempting to prevent me from seeing your nightmares? I know you object to my… good-natured spying.”
My head quirked, brushing my nose up against hers. “How would I have such power or knowledge? Surely I’d need to be a unicorn?”
Princess Luna set a hoof on my shoulder and sat back. “Not for this. It is an act of will. A powerful will. The kind of will that a Knight of the Moon must possess.”
I blinked. “I’m not… I don’t. Princess, I promise. Why would I stop you from protecting me?”
“I’m uncertain it was the princess from whom you were defending yourself, Silent Knight,” came a familiar voice as Moonlit Star stepped out of the princess’s private bedroom.
The matron was here in Canterlot? She’d never been willing to leave Haven! “Matron?”
The mare nodded politely. “You are surprised. I felt this situation warranted that I return with the princess. It is intriguing that you are denying her entry into your dreams.”
“I’m not! I’m not denying her. The opposite has been my goal. I’ve invited her to help me.”
The matron nodded. “Your goal, certainly. Have you not studied the books of High Marshal Moonglaive? Are you not a Knight of the Moon?”
Princess Luna looked down at me curiously.
My ears shot up and, for some reason, I suddenly felt guilty. “Yes, I’ve studied them. I’m as close to a Knight of the Moon as can be. At least, without there being any order left. That doesn’t change anything, though. I’m not trying to stop her. Please believe me, Princess.”
She softly stroked my mane. “I do believe you. You might not be conscious of it, or something else could be happening. Thus, Moonlit Star has returned with me. To investigate.”
Investigate? That wasn’t something I liked the sound of. “Well… the nightmares have stopped, so I guess there isn’t really anything to do?”
“Perhaps, but this is not something we should ignore, Silent Knight,” Moonlit Star said. “There is much to be learned, if you’ll permit it. It is my recommendation to Princess Luna that she tend to your dreams for a few nights. To see if she continues to be thwarted.”
That didn’t sound too bad. “I can agree with that.”
Princess Luna smiled. “Excellent. We will begin tonight. Once you’re home, of course. Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything that would help?”
I shook my head. “No, there is no—“ I froze. The crystal.
“Silent Knight?”
“I… I have a nightmare recorded. On a memory crystal.”
Moonlit Star blinked. “What? How?”
“Exemplar Ferrel helped me.”
“The oracle… of course. Bring us the crystal, then,” the elder unicorn replied.
I shook my head no and backed away from them.
Princess Luna’s head tilted. “Why not?”
“It is filled with the horrible memories of the war. Not just the nightmare. It made Crystal sick… she saw it. Just a glimpse and she was sick. She feared me touching her for days. I… I don’t want you to see it, Princess. I’m sorry, but no.”
Moonlit Star shook her head. “That will not do. Bring it to me. I shall witness it and separate out only the nightmare into a new crystal for Princess Luna. I will protect her from the rest.”
“Matron… you will not be able to handle what you see.”
She tilted her nose up. “I serve our House well, Silent Knight. If your mare survived it, so shall I. Bring it to me.”
Should I? Would she just let Princess Luna see it? I couldn’t allow that. “I will on the condition that you give me your word that only you will view it. Then, once you have the nightmare, you have to help me destroy it.”
Princess Luna lifted a hoof. “Wait a moment, this is a mem—“
The matron cut the princess off. “Agreed.”
“No! These are memories of our war. Pivotal moments in Silent Knight’s life. We can’t just… destroy them. Horrible or not, they are precious. We can’t simply ignore what we could learn.”
Moonlit Star set a hoof on the princess’s. “It is best nopony ever sees the workings of the Knights of the Moon. If he says there are horrors not meant for you, they are not meant for you. We need the dream and this is his offer. What is a war of the flesh compared to the power of magic? We must accept.”
The princess turned to me. “I could order you to give it to me.”
“As a subject, yes, but not as your guard. Besides, I could lose the crystal before I got here. In fact, my memory is a bit fuzzy on where it is right now.
“Believe me when I say it isn’t for you to see. It isn’t fit for anypony to see. Moonlit Star will be its last victim and then she’ll destroy it. There can be no meddling from you. Do we have an agreement?” Negotiating with beings far powerful than me was starting to get pretty old hat. Was that a good thing?
“Meddling! You forget yourself, little stallion. I—“ She sighed. “I do meddle. Very well, I think this is a mistake, but you seem to have me at a disadvantage. She will view it, capture what we need, and destroy it. You have my word.”
I grinned somewhat cockily. “If it is, it isn’t my first mistake, nor will it be my last. Just… believe me when I say no good can come of seeing what I’ve seen.”
The princess approached me and leaned down to nose my ears. "Very well. Any chance I can convince you to sleep here tonight?"
“How scandalous! What would my wife think? She’s waiting at home for me in the company of Captain Day while I lounge in the bedchamber of Equestria’s flawlessly beautiful princess.
“No, I’m afraid that just won’t do! Besides, I’d prefer to go home, lest I find myself single once again at the hooves of a mare. Sunny is quite persuasive.”
Princess Luna snorted and idly pushed me away. “At least you have some of your humor back. Go home, little stallion. I shall see you in your dreams. Return tomorrow with the crystal, as promised.”
I bowed deeply. “Yes, Princess.”