//------------------------------// // 48. Honesty // Story: Divine Entertainment // by Orthoros //------------------------------// Scholar Arc Year 5, Month 1, Day 1 "Uhh... hi," Amber said, giving Atlas a small awkward wave. Atlas just stood there, as his thought process came to a screeching halt. Blinking a few times his brain started to reboot itself as he tried to comprehend the madness that was his life. The two occupants at the table exchanged worried looks while they waited for Atlas to give them any reaction at all. After a few more moments of awkward silence, Atlas blinked a few times rapidly as if he just now realized where he was. "Bwuh?" Was the only thing that came out of his mouth after he tilted his head to the side and furrowed his brows. "Umm... Allow me to introduce myself first," the brown stallion said in an attempt to smooth the situation. "My name's Midnight Sapphire, and I've been on night duty as your guard for the past few years. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in a more official capacity." Atlas momentarily tore his eyes of the orange mare in front of him and acknowledged Midnight Sapphire's existence with a short nod in his direction, before returning to disbelievingly staring at his presumed friend. Midnight Sapphire looked back and forth between Atlas and Amber, waiting for either of them to start talking. After it became obvious that it was just not about to happen he let out a deep sigh. "Look, I'm sure you two have lots of things to talk about, so let's just say I'm gonna grab myself something to drink and I'll be back later, ok?" Neither of them answered him, but Amber shot a grateful look before refocusing on a crease in the table. Midnight rose from his chair to make an awkward beeline for the door. He had to gently nudge Atlas in order to get him to move away from the door a bit. "Why don't you take a seat?" Amber asked after a few moments. Atlas mechanically moved to the chair Midnight Sapphire left. He sat down, not even sure of where to even begin, waited for Amber to kickstart their conversation. "So, umm... I'm sure you have a lot of questions..." Amber said while stealing a glance at Atlas, who was still staring at her in disbelief. A million questions bounced around the guard rails in his head making it difficult for him to decide which one to ask first. Amber returned to not saying anything, seemingly giving Atlas the time he needed to come to terms with the situation. After all, one of his best friends was just revealed to be a covert agent assigned to spy on him. Slowly, but surely, Atlas started to recover from the initial shock of his discovery. The more time passed, one question seemed to gain more and more importance, until he just blurted it out. "Why did you never say anything?" Amber looked up from the table and into Atlas's eyes. "I was given orders to not reveal my true identity unless an emergency situation called for it," Amber explained solemnly. Something about Amber's answer irked Atlas. At first, he couldn't quite place it, before it hit him like a truck. "Real identity?" Atlas asked, shocked. "Does... does that mean Amber is not your real name?" It wouldn't have been the first time someone in Atlas's circle of friends used a fake name, but at least Belle didn't hide it for five years. "Oh! Nononono!" Amber recoiled. "Amber is definitely my real name! I was just referring to my identity as your guard and observer!" Amber winced slightly, since saying these things out loud made them sound worse than they were. Atlas breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, I think I get it so far. But, why were you placed into my class instead of just observing me like, what was his name again? Midnight Sapphire?" Having to keep her position a secret made some sort of sense to him, but why she couldn't just regularly perform her duties was beyond him. "Well, there are actually two reasons for that," Amber explained. "First off, I wanted to go to the academy anyways, so I was able to strike a deal with my superiors." Atlas nodded slowly in understanding and to prod her to continue. "The second reason is..." Amber started fidgeting and avoiding Atlas' eyes. "Because of my special talent," she added almost inaudible. Since nothing was around to overshadow Amber's voice, Atlas had no problem hearing what she said nonetheless and his eyes went wide at the revelation. "Your... your special talent?" He asked cautiously. "But... So... you always knew what it was? From the very start?" Amber simply nodded at his question, confirming his accusations. "But... what about all the times we tried to find out what it was?" Atlas asked, tearing up a little bit. "I remember that we stayed up a whole night researching once, only to come up empty." "It was all part of my cover," Amber whispered, a stray tear finding it's way across her left cheek. Atlas, once again, stared at Amber in disbelief. He started to feel a little nauseous as he stared at the stranger before him. All this time he had known her, laughed with her, gotten to appreciate her and trusted her. Only to have it revealed that she was keeping some immense secrets from him. What if there was more she didn't tell him? Was everything he thought he knew about her just another lie? At this point he couldn't even be sure if he knew the mare in front of him at all. The thought alone scared Atlas immensely. A deep feeling of betrayal was eating Atlas up from the inside and he felt sick. "What is it?" Atlas asked, already dreading the answer. "Your special talent, I mean." "I... I instinctively know when someone is lying," Amber said meekly. "Until today I haven't failed once in recognizing a lie." A pit formed in Atlas' stomach. If she truly always knew when someone was lying... She would've seen through Atlas' cover a long time ago. While she couldn't possibly know what exactly he was, she definitely must have known that everything he told her about where he was from was a lie. Which brought up the question... Why hasn't she told anybody about it? Surely, if she told the guard that he was lying through his teeth about his past and some other sensitive things, Atlas would've immediately been put behind bars. The fact that he was still a free man, or stallion as it was, meant she never told on him. "So... you always knew?" Atlas asked tentatively. Atlas intentionally didn't specify what he meant, since it seemed pretty obvious what he meant at this point. "About all your lies? Yes, I always saw right through you," Amber let out a saddened laugh. "You have a terrible poker face." "Why didn't you ever tell...anypony?" Atlas conspiratorily asked, and now genuinely curious, perhaps even a little hopeful. Maybe, just maybe, it meant all of their friendship wasn’t just a job. "I just thought that you lying about your origins didn't endanger anypony around you, which is why I didn't report it," Amber said. "After all, I was only ordered to report any and all suspicious behavior that could potentially be dangerous." She added with a smile. "I'd say that is plenty suspicious behavior right there," Atlas responded, momentarily forgetting his internal turmoil and donning a small smile. Amber just shrugged her shoulders in response, smiling at a dent in the table. The mood seemed to lighten up a bit at the bit of banter. A short pause followed, in which neither felt the need to say anything and instead chose to process all the new information. "So... who are you?" Atlas asked suddenly, which prompted a sharp intake of air and a hurt look from Amber. "That mare I've gotten to know over the past five years... How much of her is actually you?" "Except for the things we just talked about..." Amber happily smiled. "All of it." Atlas had to blink a few times since this wasn't exactly the answer he expected. "I never changed myself for the mission's sake," Amber explained. "Apart from my secret mission, I was just a regular student at the academy. I wasn't told to befriend you, but I did so anyway. All those times we were together, that was all me. When we made jokes together, when we studied together, struggled together, played together, laughed or cried together, all of that was me just being myself. I might have originally approached you because of my mission, but over the past years, you have grown to be my best friend. And that's the honest truth." Amber finished with a hopeful smile, her tears betraying her jovial look. She obviously was just as emotionally invested in this conversation as Atlas was, which gave him pause. Atlas averted his gaze towards the floor. His eyes flitted around, focusing on nothing in particular as he let everything pass through his mind again. Five years. Five years of friendship, of hardship and supporting each other. He had made many happy memories with Amber, and the thought of it being fake almost crushed him when he first saw his friend sitting in a chair that a stranger should have been. He still felt a little betrayed, but at the same time he could understand why she couldn't tell him. Seeing her reactions during this whole conversation felt like further proof that she was happy to finally come clean. Happy, and scared. Happy to finally be able to stop lying, and scared at the possibility to lose a dear friend. It would truly be cruel to lose a friend because of things that were outside one's range of influence, something that must scare her just as much as it scared Atlas. But still, instead of deciding to keep it a secret, something which she definitely could have done, she chose to come clean and tell Atlas the truth. Something which could potentially cause her to lose her best friend. What further proof did he need at this point? Atlas' eyes flashed a soft orange, accompanied by a slight shiver running through his whole body. By now he was familiar with the feeling and due to his mastery of magic, could even feel like something had changed within him. His head snapped upwards, his eyes meeting Amber's as his eyes widened in realization. He would need to test his theory later, but right now he had more important business to attend to. "I believe you," Atlas simply stated. Amber's eyes shot wide open, a quiet sob escaping her. The waterworks started in full as the tension visibly left her body. "Does... does that mean we can still be friends?" Amber asked between a few sobs. "Even after all I did?" Atlas rose from his chair and moved to give Amber a hug. She obviously needed a good friend right now. "Of course," he said quietly. "And I believe since you told me your secrets, it's only appropriate that I'll share mine with you." Amber didn't say anything in response and simply hugged Atlas back, relieved to finally be able to be honest with her friend. They remained like this until Amber finally calmed down.