//------------------------------// // Chapter 44: Serenity // Story: I am my own OC // by KittyrinnAiko //------------------------------// I spread my wings as I came out of between above the patio areas of the central portion of the keep, and glide down to an opening to the greenhouse. It’s late afternoon, still plenty of time to soak up some sunlight, though my flight from the medical ward is likely to get mom in a panic. Even so, I'm not letting any pony shave my belly. No how, no way. Ain't happening. I open the door and walk in. I close the door behind me just in time to see a couple of pegasus guards land on the platform outside the door. I lock the door and stick my tongue out at them. I then turn back and walk over to my favorite cushion and plop down to wallow in the warmth of the sun. Ya, I'd just enough energy. Sleep soon overtakes me. I woke up sometime later to the now-familiar feeling of a wing over me. It only takes me a moment to realize that the wing belongs to Luna, I snuggle closer and go back to sleep. I woke up the next morning back in mom’s bed. Not in our old wing mind you, but the guest apartment that had been provided for Princess Luna’s use. Renovations on the Lunar Wing were still ongoing, slowed down by a process that very much resembled an archaeological dig. Every single thing had to be recorded, and then carefully and painstakingly removed. I also felt fine. I let out a yawn and stretched. “Good morning Sleepyhead,” Mom offered. “You’re awake?” “Yes. Disgusting isn’t it?” She said with a lilt to her voice. “Though to be true, my original reason to stay up at night was that our ponies wanted a princess on watch at night. Looking for nightmares on the dreamscape was only a small part of what I did. And back then it had more to do with intelligence gathering than relieving ponies of their nightmares. Ponies who’ve come in contact with hostile forces and lived often relive those moments in their sleep.” She was quiet for a bit. “I encountered Nightmare Moon on the dreamscape the other night. She said hi.” “Seriously?” I asked. “I think the elements did something to her and she was going around helping ponies in their dreams. I followed her into a dream where a young mare was dreaming about her job. I watched as the Nightmare set things to rights, reassured the dreamer, and then I followed her to the dream of the very antagonist from the previous dream and watched as she gave him what for and promised that she’d be back if he didn’t change his ways.” “I get the feeling that you are quite perplexed?” “And you aren’t?” “No creature is inherently evil. Not even malevolent spirits. Something happened to her that turned her into the spirit she became. The Nightmare was a spirit possibly untimely demised who was selfish in her motivation. She wished to experience all the things she’d been denied in life, and I have got a feeling the whole eternal night thing was out of anger and not born of a true desire.” “She seemed quite adamant about plunging the world into eternal darkness.” “Only because you, and by connection, her, had been so wrongly accused and set upon. I was there. My memories of my life before the fall may be shoddy but that memory was burned deep into my mind. When I look back on it, it becomes painfully clear that Aunt Tia had been misled and the Night Mare’s pride too wounded to do the one thing that could have salvaged that night.” “And how might I have salvaged it?” “By doing as I asked. By not fighting.” “Easier said than done I’m afraid.” Mom gave me a squeeze. “Didn’t want your belly shaved, is it? You gave us quite a scare when you took off like that.” “Mom, I have six teats. I’m lucky I don’t have the full nine of a common fox. Not to mention the embarrassment of going to flight camp with a shaved belly.” I could feel mom chuckling. “It’s not funny.” “Your a princess. Try to imagine if shaved bellies became a fashion statement?” “Nooooooo!!!” Rarity screamed as she shot out of bed. Mom and I arrived at a small dining room in the keep a short time later for breakfast. “Nova, you’re feeling better I see,” Celestia observed. “You gave us quite the scare yesterday,” Lofty added. “Miss Lofty, your here already?” I asked. “I stayed the night. Scootaloo is here too, just not up yet.” “Turns out all she needed was a little sunshine,” Mom offered. “I am going to have to ask Night Light about it.” “So did we sort all the problems yesterday,” I asked as I picked out a place to sit and sat down. “We still haven't positively identified your would-be assassin,” Celestia offered. “Yes, we upgraded him to an assassin, charges pending a full inquiry.” “Good morning,” a bedraggled Scootaloo said as she entered the room. She walked over to me and gave me a hug. “So, did we tell Scootaloo we gained more family?” I asked just as Cadance entered the room. “Good morning. What’s this about gaining more family?” Cadance asked. “Nova’s brother is alive,” Mom offered. “So did you decide if he’s going public, or just keeping that information on a need-to-know basis?” I asked. “I think we will just keep it in the family,” Mom offered. “Does that include me?” Scootaloo asked. “You won’t be able to tell anyone,” I offered. “I already know a few things I don’t dare tell anyone,” Scootaloo replied and went to sit next to me. “I think I can put off Apple Bloom and Sweetie just by telling them everything I’ve heard about that fight you got into. Did you seriously turn into some kind of phoenix?” “Phoenix?” I was at a bit of a loss. Let's face it, everything happened really fast and I wasn’t paying attention to what I looked like. “You’d become completely enveloped in that foxfire you create,” Celestia offered. “Night Light says it’s called kitsune-bi. He also seems to think that despite your physical age, your ability to use that divine fire may well mark you as Kenzoka which could potentially place you at a higher rank than himself someday.” If my memory serves me right, Kenzoka had something to do with the foxes of Inari . . . I was a follower of Inari-Sama in the human world, and now I’m wondering how that sort of thing carried over? Sure, Equestria had a strong vibe of Greek and Roman mythology, but certain parallels to the Japanese mythic cycle are uncanny. In the retelling of why the sun and moon occupy day and night, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto who was the divine Kami of the moon had been banished by Amaterasu for the murder of Ōgetsu-hime, though some tellings have it that it was Susanowo who was responsible for the murder. Susanowo had also been banished, but he’d ended up on earth. Plenty of people know of Amaterasu’s connection to wolves, but how many know of the importance of white horses in Shinto? In Shinto rituals, a kami’s presence is often signified by the introduction of a white horse. But enough of that. “Nova?” mom asked. “Are you alright?” “Who me? Yes, I’m fine. I was just contemplating the implications. Can he seriously not use the divine fire?” One implication that while Night Light was indeed both a nine tail and an Alicorn, he carried not the rank of Kūko or Tenko. As in, while matching the basic requirements to be an alicorn, he hadn’t fully ascended. “Divine fire?” Scootaloo asked. “That thing you need to keep quiet. Night Light Sparkle who is Twilight Sparkle’s father is my son and he’s Nova’s brother,” Mom informed Scootaloo. “And Nova, he said that he can use it, but it took years. It never came naturally to him the way it does you. I kind of get the feeling that he looks up to you too.” “Wow.” Ya, that was about all I could say. “Haruki, that’s brother’s Neighpon name is it not?” “Harukiko,” Luna offered, her face lighting up at the recollection. “Little Haruki. Haruki-hiko. Night Light’s name was his father’s name.” “Heaven's light,” I said with a smile. “Only it was translated to its old ponish equivalent of a light in the night,” mom offered with delight. I can remember his name. Prince Haruki.” “Hang on one apple-bucking minute!” Scootaloo protested as the wheels in her head turned. “Are you telling me Nova’s Twilight Sparkle’s Aunt?” “And I’m her grandmother,” mom offered with a big smile. “So, do we dare tell her?” I asked with a sly grin. “Oh sweet harmony, no,” Celestia admonished. “She might break.” “Who’s going to break?” Sunset asked as she entered the room. “Twilight Sparkle. She’s a bit too high strung to be told that Luna is her grandmother,” Cadance offered. “Ah… excuse me?” Sunset asked as she stopped in mid-stride. “I’m gathering you missed last night’s reveal?” Celestia asked. “Maybe you should come sit, before we say anymore.” “Alright then,” Sunset said and moved on to an empty place at the table. “I was studying the outlay of magic that had been used in Nova’s little battle.” She sat down and then announced, “I’d found out which room Nova would be testing in, and placed a number of recording devices, and yes, I made copies available to the investigators. They began recording the moment Nova entered the room. And that’s when our alleged reporter entered as well. My spells were passively recording and picked up two active spells right from the start, a cloaking spell, and another to silence his hooves.” “He should have silenced his mouth,” I offered. “True. The audio picked up everything. It doesn’t reveal his initial intentions but my recorders did pick up his spell that he cast to block your manna flow. That in itself is a very serious offense. If you’d been trying to force out a large amount of manna the backlash could have rendered you a vegetable, or even killed you.” “Well that’s reassuring. Just why did you want to record my test in the first place?” “To check a hypothesis. You have four types of magic. At one point in time during that fight, you were doing something that should have been impossible. You were independently accessing all four manna pools at the same time. - Now, why is Twilight going to break?” “We found Nova’s brother,” Celestia offered. “Or to be more precise, he revealed himself to us.” “Oh-kay, not sure why that would break Twilight?” Sunset questioned. “Twilight’s father is Nova’s brother,” mom supplied. “He’s an alicorn. Don’t say anything to anyone though. He wants to keep it quiet and I think we should respect his wishes.” “Father was kitsune,” I supplied. “I’m guessing that has something to do with Night Light’s transformation to Alicorn. I mean, he’s got the full nine tails. Not of any of the higher ranks associated with that, I’m guessing. I’ll have to ask if he can do self-transformation magic as that could place him at the level of a Kūko.” “I don’t know what that is,” Sunset replied. “Have you heard the term Tenko? It’s one step lower.” “I’ve heard a few things about what a Tenko is,” Sunset offered. “The general consensus is to never upset such a creature.” “So tell us what Nova’s four forms of magic are?” Celestia prompted. “Well, there is Earth, Unicorn, Pegasus, and one other I’ve never encountered.” “Alicorn magic perhaps?” Celestia asked with a smug grin. “You recall when I asked to get a recording of your alicorn magic?” Sunset asked. “I’ve gotten readings off Aunt Luna, and Cadance. Cadance isn’t display anything I could call Alicorn magic, and you and Aunt Luna seem to be mixing your manna pools. As in Alicorn magic is just all three forms of magic which an alicorn possesses being mixed.” she let that sink in a bit. “I just wish I had a larger pool of ponies I could test.” “You’ll have to ask Night Light, but you’ll probably see the same arrangement of manna that I have,” I offered. “When it comes to producing that Alicorn magic, Aunt Celestia hasn’t taught me how to do it yet,” Cadance offered. “Speaking of teachings,” I prompted. “Are we still going to Flight Camp, or has yesterday’s attack forced a cancellation?” And to be true, it was a question that had been weighing on my mind from the moment I’d awoken in the clinic. “You and Scootaloo will be going to Flight Camp,” Celestia proclaimed. “Luna, Cadance,” Celestia continued. “I think it best the two of you stay here. That will make it easier of the guard tasked with security.” “You know, I’m loath to let Nova out of my sight,” Mom replied in a contemplative tone. “But I do understand your reasoning.” “I’ll be making the royal air yacht available to them as well,” Celestia offered. “There’s a royal air yacht?” Lofty asked. “I’d had it commissioned a few years back,” Celestia offered. “It was named Firefly after the pony who founded the air team now known as the Wonderbolts. You will be loading up after lunch so make sure you have everything you want to take with you ready to go. Nova, are you alright?” I’d undoubtedly had a strange grin on my face, no doubt brought about by the idea I’d be riding aboard an airship named Firefly. “Sorry, it’d be too hard to explain.”