//------------------------------//
// 283 - You Never Return to the Same Home 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
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"Silver." A large figure approached, sun-set shaded mane flowing gently behind her. "You're back." A gentle smile was on Celestia's face, though her eyes darted when an unknown creatures entered her field of view before returning to him. "With... news."

"News I have." Silver hastened his steps to meet her, his own smile a little deeper than hers. "I am so glad to see you right now. Where are the others?"

Celestia inclined her head faintly. "Luna is sleeping, it is that time of day. Night Watch is overseeing repairs."

He blinked. "Repairs? Of what?"

Her horn glowed, pulling aside some curtains that were hanging on a hallway and blocking the vision. With them aside, it was easy to see the great hole in the castle, the sky visible beyond it. "We've been... busy while you were away. Though I hear your journey had its own perils and troubles."

Silver sank to his haunches, gaping at the massive hole he couldn't even fully see from that angle. "What happened?! Is everyone alright?"

"Everyone is fine," she assured, setting a hoof on his shoulder. "Those responsible have been punished. Are being punished, for that matter. Now... you weren't so fortunate."

His ears pinned on his head. Did she already know? "Nefertari..."

"She did not accept peace in life, she has little choice now."

Silver recoiled at that. "That's... not a nice way to say that."

"I didn't mean to trouble you." She rose to her hooves. "We have important things to discuss. Have you time?"

Silver trailed after her, a step behind. "Of course. You noticed the new people, I assume?"

"It would be difficult not to." She turned an ear towards him. "I trust there is a good reason for them? You would not bring them here on a whimsy."

"They were servants of the sultan, looking to escape that life." He clopped at a sedate trot along with her. "He hoisted them on me as a gift to make up for Nefertari's passing, so I secured their freedom."

"They have a nickname for you, I hear. Too Kind Prince. It fits you, but it doesn't capture the entire image, does it?" She turned away from the hallway, veering into a sitting room, tea and little cakes already present. "I will start with what is likely most pressing; Nefertari will be interred respectfully. I will see you are given an invitation to the date of it, if you wish to be there?"

"Are you alright?" Samantha was speaking to him through her bugs. "That was a considerable deviation from standard--"

"No, but I will be." He licked over his lips. "I'd avoid almost anyone else's, but she was my wife." A little smirk emerged. "And a shaman. I bet she'd haunt me if I didn't show up."

Celestia nodded faintly, her eyes resting on him firmly. "Was she... fighting? A grand battle?"

Silver's teeth clenched, thinking back on it. "She was sitting, healthy and listening, then she was dying. It... was not how she would have wanted to go."

Celestia's ears folded back. "I see... Was it some illness we failed to notice?"

"It was a weapon!" he barked far louder than he had intended. With a slow breath, his horn glowed, drawing out the deadly sphere from his saddlebag. "And this is it. None must know of it. Do you have a place to put it, or someone who can destroy it?"

The glow around the sphere shifted golden from silver as Celestia took it from Silver's magic into her own. "This... How curious." She looked past it at Silver. "Dreadful, of course, but still curious. Destroying such things blindly leave us exposed to the next time they appear. I will have it studied, thoroughly, and countermeasures will be catalogued here in Canterlot for the day they are needed, should such a day come."

"That murdered Nefertari and many other jackals..." He sat up, fidgeting a bit. "Study it, then destroy it. I don't even want to imagine a pony ever even considering using it. Also, the sultan thinks this is lost, so don't mention it to him."

"Noted." She set it aside on a cushion. "Lying to foreign dignitaries now are we? How bold... Silver, we are retiring."

He recoiled, ears dancing. "What? Who we? Retiring?"

"Luna and I." She gestured likely in the direction where Luna slept. "Twilight will be replacing us. We are both... old, and ready to retire."

"What?!" Silver scrambled to his hooves. "What?!"

"Calm yourself, David."

Silver crashed back to his haunches. It had been quite some time since his long dead name had been invoked. "But... really?"

"Yes, really." She raised a hoof to his shoulder. "I am tired, and so is she. We will relax now. Tell me with truth that I do not deserve it."

"No! I mean, of course, you do..." He ran his hooves together, struggling to put it all together.

"Are you certain you're alright, Dad?"

Silver twisted an ear back, trying to ignore Samantha. "I thought you were both really just... waking up. You were becoming more than just what Equestria demanded you be."

"And I would explore that further, which requires I put down the crown entirely. Twilight will be replacing me." She glanced away for just a moment. "Will you come with me?"

Silver raised a hoof to his chest. "I'm not that old!" She looked at him with a finely raised brow. "Not like that, I mean... I don't want to retire."

"Luna had predicted you would not... Then you will remain. I absolve my claim on you, my former stallion. Luna will do so when you next see her."

Silver sank back, watching Celestia do a strange little hoof gesture that he could only guess meant 'We're divorced'. "But... Really?"

"Really." She leaned in and touched noses with Silver gently. "In truth, I am glad. Please, do stay and watch over things. See that Twilight sits comfortably on the throne."

Change. Too much change. Everything was dissolving around him, or so it felt. "I..."

"You know her." She smiled gently. "You've avoided her. She has much in common with you, perhaps you will grow fonder of her once she lives here. The castle is being prepared and her coronation is being prepared."

"Coronation?" Silver sat up, ears perking. "She already has a crown."

"Certainly." Celestia swept a hoof in a wide circle. "But not rulership of Equestria.  That must be given formally, to make it clear to all watchers, and to put ponies' hearts at ease, so they know this transition is proper and peaceful."

"Of course," he mumbled, tail twitching fitfully before a thought crept up. "I wasn't considered?"

Celestia smiled at that, a true smile. "You don't even mean that question."

"Well, no, still..." He worried his hooves softly. "I wasn't good enough for that?"

"Perhaps you would have been, had I been training you from foalhood. Twilight was groomed for this task. Now look me in the eyes and tell me the truth."

He met her gaze, suddenly steely and hard and he shrank back a little. "I won't get in Twilight's way, promise. I... adore her too much for that. I want her to succeed."

"Adore?" She leaned forward, breath barely felt. "I forget what strange emotions you had for ponies before even meeting them, though you two have been pen pals for some time, have you not?"

"We have... Oh! Are the others coming? Her friends?" He perked at that, imagining all of them there. "Rarity, Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash? Applejack?"

Her metal-clad hoof gently rested on his nose, silencing him. "They will come for the coronation, of course. How could they miss it? But they live in Ponyville, and there they will remain. Only Twilight and Spike will come to live here."

"This..." He pushed free of his own bubble of misery, imagining Twilight, seperated from her dearest friends. "She will be so lonely. This must be... This has to be terrifying for her."

"Fortunately, she will have solid allies at her side." Celestia rose to her hooves. "Please, watch over her. I will want news of her triumphs and failures, and I can think of no pony better in position to deliver this news to me."

"Of course!" The very idea of letting Twilight suffer was repugnant, thoughts of his own sadness shoved aside rudely. "I will do what I can to help. Though this reminds... if you're leaving, I guess you don't care what new servants I brought."

"They are not my concern," she gently agreed. "That is between you, Night Watch, and Twilight Sparkle. One owns you, the other, this castle. Both will have opinions, I should think."

It hit him then. He wasn't in a herd anymore. He had a wife, a single wife. A lunar pegasus mare with glasses and a love of roleplaying, who he had almost shoved away at one point. "I need to talk to her."

"Both of the 'hers' I mentioned, yes." Celestia floated a small slice of cake towards Silver. "But both are busy at this moment. Sit with me a little while longer."

He snapped the cake in half with a quick bite. "You never told me what knocked a huge hole in the castle. Was it a monster attack?"

"In a sense?" She lifted her shoulders softly. "Three of them. Two of which I believe you knew. Chrysalis and Tirek?"

He blinked rapidly. "They were both here!? Who was the third? Something even worse?!"

"In some ways... A small mare that thought she deserved the world..." She smirked faintly in remembrance. "She was an alicorn for a small while, making you not the most recent anymore, so there is that."

"What happened to them? To you? I mean, you're here, so I guess you're alright, but... details!" He threw a hoof wide. "Please... Everything is... I just need to know."

"Which is why I said we should sit. I will tell you." She sipped gently from her own cup. "Unbeknownst to us, dark powers were preparing to strike us..."





Night landed, wings folding. "You aren't on the list. In fact, there are no kirins on any of my lists."

Still regarded Night quietly a moment. "I only just arrived."

"Are you lost?" Night adjusted her glasses, looking Still over. "I had only heard of one kirin visiting Canterlot, and you are not them. I met them, friendly."

"Am I not?" Still inclined an ear at Night. "I am Still Water."

"Night Watch." She reached out a wing towards Still, offering it to shake. "Pleasure, but you really shouldn't be here. We're repairing the castle, which means this entire area could be dangerous to be casually strolling through." Her other wing came in, dropping a hardhat right on Still's head, though it rested on her horn rather than settling on her head. That great kirin horn poked through the hole it had, but got stuck partway in.

That same horn began to glow as she lifted the helmet and began to fuss with it. "Night Watch... wife of Prince Silver Watch?"

Night smirked softly. "It's still odd to be known as 'the wife of that stallion', but yes, that's me. Do you know him then?"

"I am in his employ." She dipped her head low. "Which means I am in your employ as well, Ma'am. How can I serve? You appear to have need of--"

"--Did you find one of his wives?" Maribelle approached ponderously, Whiskers riding on her shoulder. "Hello! I am Maribelle, and we also work for you. Where do you need us?"

Whiskers waved from her lofty perch. "Don't mind her. We really are here to help though. Silver is terrible at giving us things to do, but you look better at that."

Night looked between the three females that were apparently ready to do her bidding. "Well... Alright... First step." She pointed with a wing at a bin. "Get dressed. I expect safety vests worn and helmets on every head, then we get to work! We have a castle to rebuild."