Chapter Nine
Xvital
All in all, Xvital thought, it was one of the better parties she’d ever been to. Vix-Lei had admitted that she’d restrained herself from going too overboard like she used to, but she’d done her best to make sure there was still enough fun stuff for all of them, especially Night.
And judging by the fact he was smiling, Vix-Lei had hit the mark perfectly.
The food was excellent. The decorations were festive yet tasteful. The company was, of course, wonderful. The party was just perfect and the guest of honour was happy.
It was odd to see a smile on Night’s face that wasn’t his creepy fanged smile but it was good to see.
Right now, Night and Wind were the last ones in the card game, the two of them grinning competitively at each other. While she had been a bit concerned that Wind might make things worse by trying to win, it turned out to be the right thing as Night was baiting and joking with Wind over their previous hands.
Which made Xvital feel a bit guilty and like a complete idiot for throwing those previous hands…
“Hah!” Wind Breaker gloated as he tossed down a hand. “Read ‘em and weep!”
“I’m afraid it will be you weeping,” Night Blade replied with a smirk, setting down his own hoof. “I win.”
Wind Breaker’s jaw dropped, then he shook his head with a resigned grin. “Ah well. Should have known I’d never win at poker.”
“Because you have a lousy poker face?” Vix-Lei joked from her own spot.
“Exactly,” Wind said as he scooped up the cards, setting them back onto the deck. “Looks like the pot is yours.”
Night Blade smiled as he slid the ‘pot’, actually a bowl of small, hard candies that Vix-Lei had given them in place of poker chips, towards him. “I’ll save it for later,” he said. “So what’s next?”
Just then, Argus’ head snapped up, and he had an odd look on his face. “Somepony’s coming,” he said. “Somepony who means well, but…” his voice trailed off.
Now Vix-Lei looked worried. “Can you tell who it is?” she asked.
“I think I know, but…” Argus shook his head. “Unfortunately, it’s definitely not Sacher Torte and her staff.”
“Drat.” Vix-Lei looked disappointed, remembering how the chef and her assistants had needed to go back to their normal duties about an hour into the party.
“So who is it?” asked Page, also looking worried.
Just then, the door opened, and four Nox ponies stepped into the room, one of whom Xvital recognized, and her jaw dropped in shock. “Major Blade‽”
Night Blade’s own face hardened as he pushed his chair back and stood up. “Did Mother and Father send you?” he hissed at the four.
“No,” Crooked Blade replied. “We came to see you of our own accord.”
“Well, you’ve seen me. Now go away.” Night Blade’s glare was only growing.
“Whoah whoah whoah,” Herakles stood and raised a hand. “Can we get a cast list here? Who are you four?”
Crooked looked over at him. “I, sir, am Crooked Blade of the Royal Guard. I am also Night Blade’s oldest brother.” He gestured to the others. “My twin sister, Hidden Dagger. Our youngest sister, Serrated Dagger, and our other brother Deep Blade. We came to see Night on a family matter.”
“Ah.” Herakles nodded and moved back.
Xvital looked at Night Blade, and saw he was looking angrier by the moment. “Look, this really isn’t a good time-“ she started, but stopped when Night Blade held up a hoof.
“Let them talk,” he said. “And once they’ve said their part, they can leave and never cross my path again.”
One of the mares started at that, and Xvital looked over at them to see an expression of… was that actual worry in her eyes?
Crooked stepped forward. “Night,” he began quietly. “Earlier today, I… had a meeting with Miss Xvital here. And she pointed out some things to me that, in retrospect, I should have known already.”
“But we didn’t think about it at the time,” the taller mare, Hidden, said. “We… in our own ways, we were just as bad as Mom and Dad, the way we neglected you,” she admitted.
“Heck, I’ve barely said two words to you since before you got your talent emblem,” the other stallion added sheepishly.
“And I’ve probably said even less,” the younger mare added. “I have no excuse for that.”
“The point is, that we’ve all made mistakes with you, and it’s long past time that we started to make up for it,” Crooked spoke up. “Can you forgive us?”
Night looked at his siblings and slowly shook his head. “No, are you joking?” Xvital’s heart skipped a beat, with everyone sharing worried looks as her friend had his usual glare on his face. “You’re not really sorry; you just feel guilty! If you actually cared, you would have done this years ago!”
Crooked’s shackles rose. “We already told you, we didn’t think about how our actions were affecting you,” he said somewhat sternly. “Is it too hard to believe that someone outside the family was finally able to see past… well, everything? To realize what we hadn’t all these years, and what’s more cared enough about you to come out and open our eyes to what idiots we’ve been?”
“For one of my friends to care, no. For anyone in my family to actually listen to them, yes.” Night glared back at him. “Good day, Crooked.”
“Dammit Night, I know that you are pissed off at mom and dad over everything, and rightfully so,” Deep suddenly snapped. “I’d be mad too if they’d treated me like that on one of the most important days of my life. But let’s be honest; they’re in their seventies already. We’ve all had our own chances to stew over crap with them but we managed to get over it. And screw tact, do you really think you’ll have the time to be angry with them that much longer?”
Night just glared at his sibling.
“Get. Out.” he hissed angrily, watching them file out of the room before slamming the door shut behind them. Night stood there for a moment, breathing heavily before he started to hold back his sobs.
Everyone was staring at the guy now, with Page walking to him slowly. He flinched away, shaking his head.
“I’m sorry, I- I am going to bed now everypony,” he said, holding his head and wings low. All of the enthusiasm in him previously was gone. “Vix-Lei, thank you for setting this up, and everyone, thank you for your help. Continue to have fun, I... I have to be alone now.”
The Nox pony then walked into his room and slammed the door behind him, leaving the entire place quiet once more.
Xvital looked around at her friends and their guests, and saw the expressions on their faces, most of them obviously concerned about Night. Rex’s look in particular somehow mixed concern with contemplation.
Finally, Page spoke up. “I should go talk to him,” she said. “I…”
Xvital shook her head. “I’ll talk with him,” she replied. “This is my fault - I’m the one who went to talk to Crooked in the first place, if I’d just kept out of it…”
“You may have brought things to that guy’s attention, but it was his choice to come here,” Wind Breaker interrupted her. “You didn’t force him or any of Night’s other siblings into doing anything.”
“Yes I did,” she snapped back at the griffon. “Night didn’t want me getting involved and I could no, should have respected his wishes and let it be. But I didn’t…” she shook her head. “Why didn’t I just listen to him?”
“What’s past is past,” Rex said as he laid a paw on her shoulder. “You can’t change it. But you can move forward.”
She smiled at him gratefully. “Thanks, Rex.”
Then she headed for the door and was ready to knock before she paused for a moment. “Night, can I come in, I’d like to talk to you?”
“Why the fuck are you even asking if I care?” his voice didn’t have its usual grumpy bite, the bitterness in his words colouring it with a mixture of sarcasm and disgust. “You are going to do it anyway!”
Muttering a curse under her breath, Xvital quickly remembered what Page had told them about Night’s issue of people ignoring his wishes and how big of an issue it was with him. She tried to think of some way to apologize for this mistake but everything she thought of came up flat or disingenuous so she decided to bite the bolt and walk inside.
The room was pitch black although due to her eyesight, she could make out Night glaring angrily at from his bed as well as his bloodshot eyes. She couldn’t help but feel pity, guilt and embarrassment as Night wiped his running nose with the back of his arm. It was such a sharp contrast from the tough bastard she knew he was to see him be like this.
“Well,” he spat at her, clearly hoping she’d take the hint and leave him alone. “What do you want?”
Flinching at his accusation, Xvital slowly walked over to him, keeping eye contact. “First off, I just want to say I am so sorry for this; I should have listened to you, I should have-” Night let out a snort and turned his head away, telling her that that conversation was over. “Secondly, I want to talk to you about Deep said.”
“You’re going to tell me that I should go apolo-”
“No,” she snapped at him, causing him to turn back towards her. “I said I want to talk about it. You get to decide what you want to do; I won’t tell you to do anything.”
Night stared at her for a while before nodding his head.
“On one hand; fuck them. Fuck them all,” she said as she sat down, watching Night blink in surprise. Clearly wasn’t expecting me to say that, she thought to herself. “They fucked with you your entire life. What do you owe them? Absolutely nothing. And before you start saying they’re your family… look, I grew up in a home with my mother, someone who may or may not have been my brother, I honestly don’t know, and a few other families. I left home when I was old enough to be on my own and wound up living with another woman who raised me as her own daughter and she was more of a mother to me than my actual mom. Hell, when Tizoc and I get a date planned for our wedding, I am inviting her and not my mom. Because she is my family like you are my family. Just like the rest of the crew is our family. Our crazy, crazy family,” she said as she placed her hand on his shoulder. “And on the other hand, your parents are old. You are entitled to be angry with them and it is normal to wish to cut off ties and stew for a while. It’s normal. For you, you got fucked in your age to theirs. You might forgive them one day only to find it is too late to make amends and that would kill you. You have a big heart, hidden under all that grump, and it would devastate you to have all that regret.” She saw Night drop his head, but she forced him to tilt it upwards. “It’s not fair and it sucks, I know. But those are what I think you can do. Whatever you want to do is your decision and we will respect it, I promise.” She then leaned over and pulled him into a hug.
Night tensed up for moment before he relaxed, and leaned into the hug. “Th-thank you,” he said as he returned her hug.
“No problem Night,” she said with a bit of a chuckle, not expecting Nigh-
“Don’t tell Wind about that hug; he’d never let me live it down,” Night mumbled, blushing.
“My lips are sealed,” she said as she patted his back, a smile forming on her face and his. “So do you have any idea what you want to do?”
“...No, I don’t,” Night admitted. “I…” he shook his head. “I need some more time to think things through; I’m going to go my gym to work out some of my more… aggressive aggression, if that makes sense.”
“Yeah, it does,” she said as she stepped backwards to let him up. “Take care, okay?”
“Yeah,” he said with a bit of a forced smile as he started towards the door before he paused. “And Xvital? Thank you.”
“Hey, what are friends for?” Xvital said with a smile. “I… may have not always been the best of friends to you, but… we are friends now. And this is what friends do. We support one another.” Xvital’s smile faltered for a second. There would never be a better chance than now. “Also, I want to say I’m sorry for being just a bitch before; I had a very bad experience with nobles before I came to Equestria, my mother in-law being the worst, and… well, I kind of took it out on you. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until Page knocked some sense into me after you left us, and I’m so sorry about all of it.”
Night Blade regarded her before shaking his head. “I wasn’t the best of ponies to be with either, Xvital,” he was kicking the carpeted floors before flicking his eyes at her, holding out his hoof. “If you will forgive me for being a massive dick, I’ll forgive you being a gigantic bitch.”
Xvital smirked and held her own hand out. “Deal.”
Night flashed her a real smirk and shook, before he opened the door and walked out.
Night Blade
The main room of the suite had been pretty quiet before he stepped out into it, but every eye quickly turned his way.
“Night?” Page asked as she started to move towards him. “Are…”
“I’m feeling better,” Night said, a faint smile on his face, before he heaved a sigh. “I needed that, I really did, but I do still need some time to myself for a while.” He looked up at her. “I promise, I’ll be back later, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Page smiled back. “I’ll- we’ll be here for you.” She gestured to the others, who were all looking at him with their own expressions of concern.
Night gave his friends a last smile before stepping out into the hall and heading downstairs. He knew that the gym might be closed but then again, he did know a few ways in regardless.
Stepping outside in the rain, he took a deep breath before flying off.
When he reached the Third Star, he saw a new security guard, who was reading a newspaper. “Pool’s closed,” the stallion said without even looking up.
“That’s all right,” Night said. “I was going to use the gym.”
“Ah. Well, that’s still open,” the pony replied, flipping a page on his newspaper. “Dang pranksters didn’t do anything there…”
“Dare I ask?” Night Blade remarked as he headed for the door, raising an eyebrow. The gym was the training place for the West’s swordponyship team after all.
“Near as we can tell, some fool foals got into the pool room and dumped a load of purple dye in the water,” the guard replied, still not looking up. “We’re still having it drained and cleaning the whole shebang out. They didn’t touch the whirlpool or the gym, fortunately, but still…” he shook his head. “You’d think they’d have better things to do than make more work for us.”
“Quite.” Night Blade nodded. “Thank you for the explanation, sir.”
“No problem,” the guard replied. “Enjoy your workout, sir.”
“I will.”
Entering the gym, Night Blade headed straight for a large rubbery dummy in the back. Shucking his clothing and sheathe, he set them aside, reared up on his hind legs, and with a barely squelched cry of frustration, let out a flurry of blows at the dummy, leaving massive dents in it that popped back out as he vented his frustrations.
After several minutes of this, he switched to sword drills, which had always had something of a calming effect on him. As he worked, he let his mind empty, feeling the tensions run out of him. At least, as much as they could.
Finally, when he’d finished, he sighed, sheathed his sword once more, and reached for a towel.
Grabbing it, he began to make his way out of the room when he heard shuffling outside, near the trophy stand.
“Damn, we were not there for that one either,” a stallion said to the mare next him angrily, with Night’s eyes opening in surprise as he saw his parents looking at all the trophies he had won.
His mother snorted, shaking her head. “We had to have been there for at least one of his tournaments, Lethal. I refuse to believe that I neglected one of my foals that horribly.”
His father was rubbing her back, his eyes flicking upwards before pulling back in surprise. “Sweet,” he began but his mother cut him off, jabbing a hoof into his chest.
“No Lethal,” she snapped with tears running down her face. “I was there when Crooked graduated from Wing Point and I was there for Hidden when she graduated from Canterlot Business Academy with honours. I was there for Serrated’s first concert and I was there for Deep’s first art gallery! You cannot tell me I missed all of Night’s tournaments. You cannot tell me that I actually abandoned one of my foals!” She began to sob into his shoulder, with his father still standing in complete shock.
Night took a step forwards, calling out, “Mother, father… why are you here?”
His mother spun around with a hoof on her chest while his father tried and failed to keep eye contact with him. Finally, his father spoke up.
“We came here… we came here to see your achievements and…”
“You wanted to convince yourselves that you were not horrible ponies, actually spent time with me and I was wrong to yell at you as I did earlier today?” Both of his parents didn’t meet his eyes, telling Night was he right. “I thought so…”
“Night, we are beyond sorry for what we have done to you,” his father said with his mother walking up to him. “You must know we did not do this because we hate you but…”
“I know you don’t hate me, I’m not an idiot!” Night snapped back at them, forcing his head up at them. “It’s that you don’t care about me.”
“Night,” his mother started, raising her hoof.
“No, let me talk,” he snapped, trying to get this out while he still could. “My talentmitzvah, I know you didn’t ruin it and make it a party for yourself because you hated me. I knew that when I was a kid so the only other thing I could think of was that I didn’t matter to you two. That I wasn’t important enough for you to spite me, for you to hate me.” Night had to bite his lip to stop himself from crying, but it wasn’t working. “That’s why I am so angry at you two. That it’s only now when I saved the fucking world that you actually started to care about me and I-I couldn’t ta-” Before Night could finish, his parents moved and began to hold him.
And for the first time since the Everfree Forest, he let his walls come down and cried into their shoulders with them rubbing his back.
Eventually, Night was able to stop his crying and looked up at his parents, who were crying themselves. Night tried to smile and accept this happy moment but something within himself was preventing him.
“I-I can’t,” he said, shaking his head in anger at himself for being unable to be happy. “Not after everything, I just can’t-”
“That’s okay Night,” his mother said soothingly. “We don't have to start over perfectly, we can take our time.”
“That’s right Night,” Lethal added as he rubbed the small of NIght’s back. “We can take small steps and when you, you, are ready, we’ll move on from there. How does that sound?”
“Th-that sounds good father,” Night said, licking his lips. “An-and I suppose I can apologize to Crooked and the others after how I treated them earlier. As well as Page and the others...”
“Page?” his mother asked and before his mind could catch up with his mouth, he replied.
“My marefriend,” he said with his, and his parents’, eyes going wide.
Gentle Step
Gentle woke up with a throbbing headache, Celestia’s sun glaring down at her through her bedroom’s open window.
Groaning, she placed a hoof to her head and swore to that she would never drink again and she would kill Sweet Surprise for putting her up to this farce of a Captain’s Me-
She shot upright in her bed as all the memories from last night came back, including what she and Memorizing did. Blushing like a filly, she looked for the drone that took her virginity and saw she was all alone in her bed.
A stab of worry and fear of her oldest friend just using her swelled up in her chest and she was about to go find him and say-
The door to her bedroom door opened with Memorizing looking at her with concern on his face as he carried in a tray of food and what seemed to be medication, no doubt for her headache.
“Are you okay Gents?” he asked as he put the tray on her dresser and leaned in close to her.
Smiling at him with all the love in her heart, she leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Yes I am Mems.”