//------------------------------// // A Time Without Threat // Story: The Mask of Despair and the Face of Hope // by Wings of Black Glass //------------------------------// “You did figure out who did that, didn’t you?” “Yes. This was our first encounter with him. But not the last…” “Are you alright? You don’t look so good.” “I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine…” “It’s nice to know that everything went back to normal in the Crystal Empire.” “Yes, that was a relief. For a while, things were peaceful in Ponyville too.” “How much ‘slice of life’ are you going to give us?” “Not much, I’ll skip most of it. Although, there was one day which, now that I think about it, was pretty important…” In the weeks after the events in the Crystal Empire, Sable settled into a routine. Most nights he spent alone, often reading in his room at the castle of friendship or outside in the park until long after everypony else had gone to sleep. When he woke late each morning, he would come to me, or one of my friends, to assist in our daily tasks. He proved to be helpful and intelligent, willing to do whatever job we set him despite the occasional mishap. Still, every time we met, it seemed a frown was never far from his face. I easily saw his discontent, one night I asked him what bothered him. His only answer for me was that nothing he did seemed to fulfill him, and looked back to his blank flank. Despite the strength to thrive that I saw in him that day where his hovel had stood, it was clear his lack of a cutie-mark still weighed heavily on him. Of the mysterious figure that had attacked the Crystal Empire, we heard no more. Despite alerting the princesses Celestia and Luna to the threat, no pony had seen hide nor mane or sign of the dark Unicorn with the scarred face Starlight saw when she was assaulted. Although the concern the attack left in my mind never truly vanished the peaceful everyday life in Ponyville and the duties of my station took it from my mind until it was nothing more than a niggling worry. Today, at last, I had little that required my attention. I found myself knocking on Sable’s door in the later hours of the morning. “Sable, are you awake yet?” “Hmm, yes, I’m awake.” His voice was groggy, and I suspected he was only now prying himself out of bed. Hoofsteps approached the door, and it cracked open slightly, the interior was dark, the windows closed. “Do you need something?” Sable looked tired, blinking bleary eyes in the bright light. “It’s a fine day out, and I’ve got plenty of free time today, I thought we could do something.” “One moment please.” The door shut, although I could still hear him moving about within. Light seeped out through the crack under the door for an instant, and I heard him casting his wing spell before the door opened again. Sable stepped out, yawning, stretching his wings and legs, and wearing a new replacement coat Rarity made for him. “I really need to stop sleeping in so late.” He shut the door behind him as he stepped into the hall. “Are you sleeping well?” “Somewhere between not well enough and not at all.” “I'm sorry to hear that.” He narrowed his eyes momentarily, why was it he felt so insulted by sympathy? “Are you having nightmares?” “Not really. Thinking, reading. Mostly just not sleeping.” I considered that I should introduce him to Princess Luna if he was spending so much time up late at night. I knew the Princess of the Night had a hard time interacting with most ponies as they were all usually asleep by the time she was active. Both of them could use more friends. “So, what was it you wanted to do?” “Actually, I was hoping we could do something you wanted to do.” He blinked, uncertain. “We’ve been giving you tasks and chores to keep you busy, but I don’t think we’ve ever done anything fun that you wanted.” He started down the hallway, towards the kitchen, apparently thinking it over. I was mildly ashamed to think that his indecisiveness bothered me. He was silent until they reach the kitchen. “I’m going to need quill and paper.” “Thought of something?” “I was considering going down to the lake and sketching.” He took a pear and an apple from the counter, munching on them absentmindedly. “I didn’t know you were into drawing.” “Neither do I.” I laughed softly, Sable smiled faintly. “Although I was kind of hoping to, you know, do something. Sketching isn’t exactly a group activity.” “You asked.” He shrugged and then hesitated for an instant. “And you are welcome to join me anyways.” “A picnic by the lake sounds like a fine way to spend a lazy free afternoon.” Effortlessly I summoned my picnic basket, as well as plates, drinks, and everything else needed for an excursion from around the kitchen. Sable watched the activity with a little bit of surprise evident on his face, no doubt he was a little bit jealous of my precise control over so many objects at once. Lastly, I collected the goods to make salads from my pantry, packing everything away underneath a folded blanket. The whole process took less than a minute. “Now we just need those drawing supplies, and we can be on our way.” “I’m going to take a wild guess and assume you mean dropping by your library to get some books.” “Of course.” I answered with a smile. It was also where I kept my extra scrolls and quills. We took the short detour back up to the library, where I pulled down some light reading for the outing. Sable gathered the supplies he needed, and we turned to leave. Then I paused and looked back to collect one last book. My collection didn’t have anything in the way of instructional books about art, although I did have some on art history. I pulled one down to add to my saddlebag before leading Sable outside. The sky outside was clear of clouds, and the sun shined brightly overhead. A gentle breeze flowed through the town, and the ponies we met along the way greeted us warmly. On the way to the lake, I paused to chat for a moment with a few of them I knew. Although Sable was silent for the most part, he was at least polite when directly addressed. It wouldn’t have been unlikely that he was never very outgoing to begin with, he implied as much to me, so his reluctance to speak up made sense. When we reached the lake, we found we were the only ponies about it today, despite the excellent weather for a swim. Sable wandered over to the shade beneath a nearby tree on the shore, where we set up for the gentle afternoon. He dropped down on the blanket, cross-legged, with the blank parchment in front of him. Then he took a quill from our supplies, placed it upon the page, and did nothing. I watched him for a moment, setting the basket down between us, waiting for him to start drawing. Yet he did nothing, just sat there looking out over the lake. Maybe my attention was distracting him. I sat down with my book on the other side of the basket, and we spent a long time in silence. Although there was no dialog between us, the afternoon was peaceful and calming. Now and then I heard Sable’s quill scratching on the parchment, often only for a moment. I gave him the space to think, instead diving into my art history. The pages of that tome were filled with reproductions of some of the many great artists of Equestria’s past. In truth I had never really paid much attention to the subject of painted art, preferring the written word and the occasional antique. Although it was easy to see why these were considered some of the greats, with soft impressionist works of flowers and night skylines and idyllic representations of the pastoral life alongside grand depictions of Celestia’s raising of the sun. The dappled shadows of the sun through the leaves of the tree above on the pages of the soft artworks and the songs of birds in the trees about the lake eventually lulled me to a serene peace, and I found myself nearly falling asleep. So I set the art history aside, it was pretty but not particularly intellectually challenging and switched instead to the other book I brought, a hefty tome on philosophy. This kept my mind attentive, and I lost myself in its pages and the discussions of morality it presented. Time passed like this, in the quiet afternoon shade, until… “Cannonball!” I had just enough time to blink and look up before Rainbow Dash slammed into the lake’s surface at high speed. Water spouted high into the air in a huge plume and fell towards us in an onrushing wave. Reflexively I shielded my books using my wings and braced for the torrent. The wave crashed down, our basket and lunches washing away. When the pull of the water ebbed, I looked sadly at my tomes, now dripping wet. Sable glanced over, his face seemingly stuck in dull surprise, water ran off a barrier he managed to place around himself just in time to avoid being thoroughly drenched. I mentally kicked myself for not doing the same. “Rainbow Dash!” The blue Pegasus with rainbow hair popped her head out of the water and looked over when I shouted. “Hey, Twilight, Stardust. I didn’t see you there.” Dash started to swim around using the backstroke. “I thought today would be good for a swim. What are you two up to?” “So much for our lunch.” Sable looked around for our basket, thrown somewhere far off. I held up my books, dripping wet. “I was enjoying a nice afternoon, reading.” Some anger seeped into my voice. Dash glanced up from the lake’s surface. “You trashed my books!” “Oh, sorry, my bad.” Then she dived out of view into deeper water. I sighed, maybe the books were salvageable. “Well then.” Sable brought himself to his feet and removed his coat. Now I saw why he structured his wings to not connect directly to his body; the coat slips out from beneath them easily. It fell well within the uncanny valley for me, or any pony with wings. “Enough sketching.” He dropped his coat, wet around the edges, where he was standing and leaped into the air. There he waited until Dash surfaced again and swooped down to skim the water’s surface. His hooves sent up a splash right into Rainbow Dash’s face, and he swung back into the air with a laugh. “What the? What was that for?” Dash sputtered her complaint. “Fair’s fair, Rainbow Splash!” He laughed as he swung around in a long arc to make another pass. Dash rocketed her way out of the water, forming up beside Sable with a wide grin. They took turns passing each other, trying to make larger and more massive waves on each swing. I left the two of them to their games, setting out my books to dry. The text was smudged badly but was mostly still legible. The art history book did not fare so well, many of the images were wrecked. Oh well, Starlight could probably fix them. For a moment I considered joining the other two in playing in the lake, they had given up the splashing game in favor of free-falling dives out towards the middle. Then I spotted Sable’s parchment beneath the edge of his coat and pulled it out before whatever he’d done got ruined underneath the still damp coat. I spread it out, my curiosity got the better of me, and I looked over what he’d made. It was quite clear he was no master, I had to turn my head several times to even recognize the lake. Scattered across the page were somewhat more detailed images of birds in flight, he was better with lifeforms than with landscapes. Some of the wings were drawn with skeletal structures as if he were studying them instead of drawing for fun. Also present were some mathematic formulas which appeared to involve gear ratios, and describing circular patterns. Exactly what for, I had no idea. In some ways, they reminded me of the half-formed thoughts I had seen on his plans to repair his hovel’s foundation. There were also a series of swirling circles within circles; they looked more like doodles than proper drawings. What really drew my attention was a single meticulous image towards the lower left corner. Carefully crafted, especially compared to the lake or even the birds, was a unique pony. It was laying down; front hooves crossed gently, eyes half-closed with a faint smile on its face. Then I startled when I realized who it was. It was all greyscale, but the mane matched my own, and there was a scratched in shape which must have been a book in front of it. He had been sketching me, and it was even pretty good. I drew myself away from the page, looking up to find Sable, but neither Dash nor he was visible. Come to think of it; I hadn’t heard any splashing for a little while. Then Dash surfaced out in the middle of the lake. I laid out Sable’s sketches to dry and waved her over. “Where’s Sable?” Rainbow Dash glanced around when I asked, mildly confused. “We were seeing who could dive deeper. He was right behind me.” Now worried, I took to the air, circling the center of the lake. Dash pulled herself onto the shore and shook off the water, before also joining me above the lake. The depths were too dark; if he was down there, I couldn’t see him. I was about to dive under myself when something flashed in the deepest part of the lake. I hovered over the position, peering into the murk. “There!” Rainbow Dash pointed to the shore. A dark figure pulled itself out of the lake, laying on the beach still half in the water. “Sable?! Are you alright?” We landed beside the prone pony. He was gasping for air. I lifted him the rest of the way out of the lake and set him down on the nearby grass. His wings had vanished; presumably, the flash of light I saw was them dispelling. He coughed a few times before weakly raising a hoof towards us. “Note to self. Glass wings make poor fins.” Weakly he even tried to laugh. “I’ll be alright.” I let out a held breath, and Dash relaxed her wings. “Although I think I’ve had enough lake for today.” “Dude, I know you just almost drowned and everything, but you so won.” “Do you think she noticed?” “Not a chance.” “What are you two giggling about? I didn’t notice, what?” “No, she really didn’t.” “…?”