//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 A Nice Day? // Story: True Black // by Leonofsweden //------------------------------// True Black Chapter 4 A nice day? 28th of March. Zig Zag stirred in his bed, groaning when opened his eyes to take in his surroundings. Sitting up he felt how sore and stiff his right shoulder was, and his face felt like somepony had been punching it over and over again. Carefully lifting a hoof to it and winched at the soreness, then he remembered. Somepony had been punching him over and over again. He gritted his teeth. "Iron Boot…" He whispered. As his memories were starting to come back to him, he watched them in disbelief as if they were happening to somepony else. Had Iron Boot really been trying to kill him? That was not the normal bullying he usually did; that was something else completely. Zig Zag had never been afraid of Iron Boot and his bullies. Today was different though. Right now he was terrified. Sliding out of bed with a grunt as his right shoulder protested against caring any weight, but he forced himself to ignore the pain. Then slowly making his way out of the room. When he neared the stairs to go down into the kitchen he heard something below. Stopping at the top of the stairs, hearing a voice he did not recognize. As quietly as Zig Zag possibly could he snuck down until he saw the back door. His mother was standing with a city guard he did not recognize. "I must say for someone new, you are quite good, I'll tell the captain to save you for us more appreciative ponies. That'll keep you away from most of the riffraff we do have in the city guard." The stallion said and smiled at his mother. His mother nodded and gave him a rather strained smile in return. "That would be appreciated… And tell the captain I won't forget what he told me." Bright Sky said to the guard as he left. She closed the door and put her back to it, then slid down to the floor. The mask she had been holding up in front of the guard fell away. Zig Zag had never seen her look so… vulnerable, as when the tears started rolling down her cheeks. Bright Sky held her eyes closed so she couldn't see Zig Zag quietly coming down the stairs. He didn't know what to do with reaching the bottom, sifting down while watching his mother slowly and repeatedly bump the back of her head against the door. "Ma'am… Are you okay?" Zig Zag asked carefully. Her eyes snapped open as she heard his voice. She dried her eyes quickly and stood up. "Honey you're up? How are you feeling?" She asked to avoid answering his question. Zig Zag looked down at the floor. "I'm fine…" He lied. She gave him a sad smile, and walked over to the kitchen counter. "So sweetie… What do you want for breakfast?" She asked as she put a trembling hoof on a piece of carrot. Zig Zag could see she was clearly not okay. "Carrots and Dandelions would be nice…" He said and smiled, immediately regretted it since it stung quite badly in his face to do so. Bright Sky saw him wince at the pain and looked away, thinking she was the cause of it. Zig Zag looked out of the window in the back of the kitchen. It was still dark out, so it had to be very early in the morning. He rose and walked up to his mother. "You want any help?" Zig Zag asked wishing nothing more than for her to say yes. "No… Why don't you sit down honey?" She answered him. He disappointedly obeyed her, and walked over to sit down at a table. Sitting quietly and watching as his mother prepared breakfast. "Who was that earlier?" He suddenly asked without ever realizing it himself. They both jumped at the crash when the plate she had been carrying over to the table shattered on the floor. She was holding her hooves to her mouth, but then quickly gathered herself again. "That was no one… just… no one… please no more talking about him." She said as she bent to pick up the shattered plate. Zig Zag looked down at the table. "Sorry…" He said sadly. Bright Sky prepared another helping and walked over to the table to sit with Zig Zag. She watched him slowly eat his breakfast. When he was done, she leaned over and ran her hoof through his messy blue mane. "What you say we take the day off… Do something nice, just you and me?" She suggested with a smile. Zig Zag looked at her curiously. "But the ships from the South are scheduled to come in today." He reminded her. "Oh don't you worry about that. Not being first in line for once won't kill us." She told him as she leaned back. That wasn't what she usually said; always being first was more or less the foundation of her business. But right now Zig Zag wanted nothing more than to spend the day with his mother. "Okay…" He said and smiled at her without winching this time. She smiled back and gathered up his plate. "Why don't we start with sleeping in today? Then maybe head out to the park to eat something nice after?" She wondered. Zig Zag wasn't really sleepy at all, but could easily see his mother clearly was. Right now he would do anything he could for her. "Yeah." Was all he answered and followed her up the stairs. At the top of the steps Bright Sky turned left towards Zig Zag´s room. She waited at the side of his bed while he jumped in, and then lay down beside him. Zig Zag immediately scooted in close to her. She wrapped her hooves around him in a tender and loving hug, like she used to do after he'd had a bad nightmare. And just like before Zig Zag immediately started listening to her steady breathing and soothing heartbeat. It didn't take long for his mother to start drifting off. Just when he thought she was asleep, a very soft voice drift done to him. "Don't worry… I won't let them hurt you, I'll do anything to keep you safe…" She murmured half asleep. This made him smuggle in deeper into her embrace. Despite Zig Zag not being to sleepy, it didn't take long for both of them to drift off into the land of dreams. Where nothing bad had ever happened to either of them. **** He awoke with a start, flying up to take in his surroundings. As Lobo realized he was not in the cage, and that Black Star was nowhere to be seen he visibly relaxed. This was still the command tent, and he was alone. This surprised him, in a good way. Giving himself a good long stretch, and then a vigorous shake of the head. Lobo immediately felt much more alert. He walked towards the exit, but then a familiar pain started nagging in the back of his head. He stopped just inside the exit and grunted quite annoyed. Lightning Strike had not released him from their talk, so he couldn't leave the command tent. With a snort he went back in front of the cluttered table. It didn't take long for him to feel bored and restless. He paced around, until he happened to glance down at the table, and saw the maps, scrolls and documents, but what captivated him was that strange scribbling seemed to have meaning. As he started to read the scrolls he quickly became quite fascinated. He had never seen anything like this in his own realm. Apparently when Black Star instilled him with the language of the Celestial Empire, It had not only been the spoken but also the written. After reading through some notes and scrolls he quickly gathered that there were about fifty soldiers stationed in this temporary camp. They had all been sent here to keep Black Star and her research safe. On the orders of some Chief Decurion Avarice, whoever that was. The name Avarice was more or less stamped on everything he read. Lobo muttered to himself and started inspecting a map instead. He could see the surrounding areas for quite some distance. To the north he saw some imaginary line running through the landscape, called a border. If he recalled correctly, that was also one of the pretenses for this camp being here, to check on the border. It appeared to hold great value to the ponies. There were also some small settlements around. And on the coast there was a large town called North Bay. Until now he hadn't fully understood just how many of these ponies there were, and he noted that this map was a small one when comparing it to the one lying beside it. On top of this map, on the coast he saw one small dot marked North Bay; between the two maps he got somewhat of an appreciation of how vast this Empire was. There must be a staggering amount of the ponies in this realm. His ear twitched as he heard someone approach from outside. He quickly went around a table to lie down where he´d been sleeping, striking a rather regal pose as he waited. When Lightning Strike walked in she halted as they made eye contact. "Well that's a surprise, finding you here wide-awake, doing nothing." She said and walked in dropping another scroll on the table. "And what should I be doing?" Lobo asked curiously. "Go out and enjoy the day… It's almost noon." Lightning answered with a wave towards the exit. He shifted his gaze to it and then back to her. "I can't." Was all he answered. She looked curiously at him now, since she saw nothing stopping him from walking out of the tent. "Come again?" Lightning said and walked up to him. "Black Star ordered me to stay here until you release me… You have not done so. Therefore I am trapped here right now. Don't get me wrong though, the minute you let me go I have to find her again. So I'm not complaining about the situation." He explained. Lightning raised an eyebrow at this. "She really does have complete control over you." She said. Lobo looked uncomfortable as he broke eye contact with her. After staring at the floor for a couple of seconds then he looked back with empty eyes. "I hate Black Star with all my soul, but if she orders me to lick her hooves with a smile on my face… I would have to do it." He stated with a shudder. Lightning actually looked a bit disturbed at the thought. "That is too much power for anyone to have over another. But at the same time I must confess that I am relieved. Without that control you would kill me right now wouldn't you?" She asked without hesitation. Lobo actually gave her a long searching look before he replied. "I actually don't know about you. Black Star… yes without a second thought. You and that purple one with the knife… No, I don't think so. Don't get me wrong will never be friends. But I don't hate you enough to kill you, unless I'm hungry that is." Lobo said and grinned at her. Lightning actually gave him a little smile, she hadn't expected to hear that. And it really seemed like he meant it as well. "We better keep you fed them." She answered him as she trotted towards the exit. She stopped and looked back at him. He hadn’t moved a muscle. "This was a better talk than I thought it would be. One less thing before I releasing you. We are going to be testing how good you are at fighting against us ponies. There will be a little combat exercise tomorrow morning." Lightning told him. Lobo just looked flatly back at her. "So I'm to be a punching bag to see how much I can take before a fall?" He wondered. "No you will be allowed to knock your opponents around as much as you want. As long as you don't kill or permanently injure them, there won't be any repercussions for your actions during the exercise." She explained. At hearing this Lobo looked positively giddy. "I think I will enjoy this… exercise." He announced with a positively glowing smile on his features. In a smooth motion he rose and started walking towards her. "I bet you will…" She said to him as he walked past her out into the bright day. **** In the afternoon sun, Zig Zag and Bright Sky were sitting down at the docks watching as a ship pulled into port. It had been a truly wonderful day. Neither of them waking until the sun was high in the sky. They had promptly walked to the park to enjoy a second breakfast while they lazily gazed at ponies running by. Besides themselves, only a few upper-class ponies could be seen enjoying themselves in the same way. After this Bright Sky had bought him a new ball, which they immediately started playing with. Throwing, kicking and bouncing the ball back and forth between them for almost an hour. In the end they had to stop when a particular high nosed butler demanded that they cease with their activities, so that more civilized ponies could enjoy themselves in peace and quiet. His mother stuck her tongue out at the Butler who scoffed in horror at her behavior. Then she had grabbed him with a laugh and launched into the sky with him squealing in delight and clutching his new bal. Zig Zag loved it when his mother took him for a flight. He had never admitted to it, but he'd always been a bit disappointed that he didn't inherit his mother's wings. Going so far that he even tried making fake wing out of twigs and leaves once, it had ended up with him face planting on the floor in his room after launching off his bed. Afterwards he actually thanked the Sun that he hadn't gone with his first idea, which had been to launch off the roof of the house. What he had inherited though, was her agility and lightness. This combined with him still being as strong as befitting all earth pony's, made for a very potent mixture in the end. They had landed at home again after some aerobatics, so that he could drop off his new ball before they went out for dinner. To his surprise and delight Bright Sky had opted for them flying again, though this time he rested on her back, snuggly hugging her neck. They had flown into the finer parts of North Bay, to one of the finer inns around the whole city. Even though they opted to sit down in the corner out of the way, the waiter who approached them had first given them a look as if he wondered whether or not they were lost. Although when she asked for the meal of the day, and paid up front, they didn't voice any complaints. After the best meal he'd ever had in his life, the two of them slowly walked down to the harbor where she had bought him another delicacy. Crushed ice with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Zig Zag was completely ecstatic as he sat with his hooves of the edge of the dock, eating the best thing he'd ever tasted. His mother looked lovingly at him, and giggled a bit when he got a brain freeze because he gobbled it down too fast. "Take it easy honey, it won't run away from you." She said putting a hoof around his shoulder. Normally he would be quite fidgety about such open affection from his mother, at least in public. But not today, today he was just overjoyed to be with her. The sun had almost set before they started walking home. As they walked through the darkening streets of North Bay, Zig Zag kept looking behind him. He couldn't shake the feeling that they were being followed. Just as they turned in on their own street they both heard someone approached from behind them. When they look back Zig Zag immediately saw his mother tense up. Out of the darkness the shape of Captain Iron Rod materialized in front of them. Bright Sky took a protective step in front of Zig Zag, although he peeked around her to glare at the captain. Since he was Iron Boot´s father, he might have found out what happened, and come to apologies. Captain Iron looked at him with a smirk on his face, before turning his attention to Zig Zag's mother. "Why don't you send the kid home? We have a few things to talk about." He said and smiled at her. Bright Sky nodded slowly, and then turned to Zig Zag. "Why don't you go home honey, I'll be there in a second." She said in a quiet voice. Zig Zag shifted his gaze back and forth from his mother to Captain Iron´s. He did not like the way Iron Rod was constantly letting his eyes roam over his mother. "No… I'll stay with you!" He said defiantly while puffing out his chest. Iron´s just looked at him curiously, then chuckled and turned back to his mother. "Do we need a repeat of yesterday?" He asked. Bright Sky panic at that and shoved Zig Zag quite violently backwards. He tumbled to the ground and groaned as he looked up. His mother looked terrified at what she'd done, but then quickly steeled herself. "Go home now!" She barked at him. Zig Zag looked completely distraught as he quickly scampered off towards the front door of the house. Bright Sky looked pained as she saw him run off, wanting nothing more than to run after him. She turned back to Captain Iron who was eyeing Zig Zag as he disappeared. "Your kid is quite the brave one, stupid but brave. We might have to keep an eye on him as a potential future city guard." He said and gave her a mocking smile. Bright Sky shivered at the thought. Had somebody told her that her son would be a city guard a week ago, she would have been really proud, but knowing what she knew now, she could barely keep her dinner down. "What… What do you want Captain?" She asked carefully. He stroked his hoof along her chin. He liked the way she tried to keep a brave front for him. She shivered a bit at the contact but held firm. He smiled fondly at her then put his hoof down. "I've talked to Short Sword about you. His review was quite… spectacular. It pleases me immensely to have another A-list mare in our stables." He said happily as he continued looking her over. "Now being on the A-list gives you certain perks. One is that your time is your own as long as the sun is up. But when the sun sets you will be at home, or at the officers' club where you will have a room set aside for you. Seeing as you have a kid at home, I'd suggest you start using the room immediately. Even if you stay quiet during the act, we do have a couple of screamers in the ranks. The second is that you work every third night. That means you're free today and tomorrow. Now there is of course one exception to the rules. When somepony comes to you with one of these..." Iron´s said as he brought her a square coin. It looked to be made of bronze and had a sword half way pushed into its sheath on both sides. Bright Sky looked at it curiously; she'd never seen a coin like that before. "There are twenty of these in the entire city. If you receive one of them, it doesn't matter which time of day or night it is, or if it's your day off. You do whatever that pony tells you to do immediately and without question." The captain said snatching the coin back. "Now you've shown yourself to be an intelligent mare, so I don't think I'll have to repeat myself." He said with a satisfied smirk. Bright Sky looked at her own hooves and nodded. "Good! I'll be expecting you at the officers' club the day after tomorrow." He said and surprised her by darting his head forward and licking up the side of her muzzle. She jumped back in fright and looked at him with big round eyes. He took a deep shuddering breath and looked back at her longingly. "I'm truly tempted to use my coin right now, but then again the wait will make it all the more sweeter when I finally take you." He stated. Then he abruptly turned around and started trotting down the Street happily whistling as he went. Bright Sky staggered a couple of steps before she had collected herself again. She trotted the last way home quite briskly. As she neared the door she could see Zig Zag looking at her through the shop window. She couldn't meet his eyes and turned away ashamed of what she had done earlier. He had only tried to help her and she had screamed at him. She opened the door and stepped in. Zig Zag turned towards her with a said expression on his face. "He's a bully mum. If we don't stand up to him it will just get worse." He said knowingly and started walking towards the back of the shop. Bright Sky just stared after him; how could he say that so easily, after what had happened to him just a day before? A single tear ran down the side of her face at the realization of just how brave and wonderful her son really was. She heard him walk up the stairs, while she stood and looked around her. All of a sudden she realized it. All of this, the store, the city, it didn't matter at all. She would gather as much resources as she could. Then they would flee from North Bay. She would be branded a criminal here, but it didn't matter since they could live somewhere else, under the rule of a different noble family. With a new found hope she followed after her son, she found him already curled up in his bed. Bright Sky looked at him from the doorway intending not to disturb him. When she turned to go back to her own room she found she just couldn't. The thought of sleeping in that bed again… Carefully Bright Sky walked up to Zig Zag and snuggled in beside him, and once again embraced him in a tight hug. "Don't worry. We'll get through this. And I'm sorry I shoved you before." She said to him. At hearing this Zig Zag turned around and snuggled in closer to her. "It's okay… I know you were only scared, but I can take care of myself; I'm really fast you know." He said bravely as he lay there protected in his mother's embrace. She smiled down at him and kissed him on his forehead. "Thank you." She whispered as the day came to a close just as it had begun. **** Thanks to Meeester for the Pre-read/Edit