Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat

by David Silver


299 - Rhyming Past

Night thumped Silver in the side. "What do you do to draw the eyes of any princess you walk past?"

"For one I was a challenge she fell into," he recounted, thinking back on the strange and troubled start of his relation with Luna. "For another, a guilt-free release." Brief was the time that Celestia had... well, she'd used him. A convenient stallion she could use and set aside, knowing they wouldn't raise a fuss, nor would others think too long on it.


"And Twilight?" She reached up, taking off her glasses and setting them on the small desk that rested near the bed. "What is she?"

"Lonely." Silver inclined his head faintly. "She talked to you?"

"I talked to her," corrected Night. "I discerned what her motivation was before I walked into the room." She prodded him firmly. "She underestimated my ability to read a situation and run the numbers."

Silver leaned in, resting his chin on her forehead. "Running numbers is your specialty," he fondly whispered.

"The numbers aren't happy." She rolled over onto him, sitting up on him and looking down into his eyes. "She feels there is plenty of room for her to get involved." She narrowed her eyes at Silver. "And She thinks that room will only grow, given time. I forced her to reveal her side of things."

One of his ears turned back against his head. "What did she say?" He wasn't sure Twilight had told him everything, or even most of things.

"With enough prodding, she spat it out. She thinks you and her are unaging and eternal, while the rest of your family, to put it simply, is not." She brought her hooves together in a clop. "She had no idea how uncomfortable that idea was to hear."

"I... have nothing to prove she's wrong..." Alicorns at least had the capacity to live for thousands of years. He was one of those.

"I know you can dream of solutions better than simply accepting the deck given to you." She leaned in, pressing her nose to his. "Would it upset you, if I began to climb the very mountain you sit upon?"

Silver's ears danced. "You want to become a princess?"

"Wrong question." She bit gently with her long sharp fangs. "Do I want you to be alone? Do I want our family to one day not include me?" Her smirk grew in intensity. "Do I want Twilight being so smugly right about everything?"

"Easier said than done..." He rubbed one of his own cheeks with the flat of a hoof. "To make that step, you have to do something amazing that uses your magic, as a pony."

"Like reform the three creatures most capable of destroying Equestria; turning them instead into allies?" she proposed. "Because I'm doing that, right now. There is a missing step, however. One, I feel, you have the answer to. You mentioned briefly there was a pony, there was always a pony, to greet a new princess, or prince, and take them that last step... Who was it?"

"Reforming a few people can't be it on its own," argued Silver with a little frown. "Otherwise Fluttershy would have qualified ages ago."

"She reformed one person, and she didn't use her magic," argued Night right back, prodding her husband. "Besides, she didn't also introduce a new field of magic to Equestria... I've done my homework. I feel I am not that far off. Tell me, who was that pony?"

Silver didn't really want to fight with his wife, his friend... "I only know two times."

"Two? Ah." She nodded as if she had put it together on her own. "You know of Twilight's then?"

"I do..." He let out a little gust of air. "She was escorted by Celestia, celebrated for her achievements and taken to the last step. In my case, Starswirl had taken the role."

"I don't remember you having any affinity for Star Swirl." She spaced out his name, clearly with a space. "That must have been awkward."

"A little." Silver smiled at the memory. "Does that help?"

"Tremendously... You will be my guide." She nuzzled under his chin. "When I arrive at that point, you will be the one to take me that last step. You have seen what is done, twice. You know me. You can do it."

Silver was tense, uncertain... "I will do my best." An easy promise there. He'd always at least try that... "But that doesn't really resolve the whole... Twilight thing."

"If you want her, have her." Night nestled in against him. "But I'm not going anywhere."

He wrapped an arm around her, hoof pressing gently. "Precious Night Watch..." That tickled a thought. "Oh... Wow... Will we have to eventually watch our own children get old?"

Night sat up. "If they don't find their own greatness, yes. On the other hoof, if they do, we will be there to guide them that last step, together. They are too young to reliably run those numbers, or even reliably guess what sorts of ponies they will be."

"That is incredibly sad..." But those dice had already been thrown. He was already an alicorn, who had bred, creating that potential heartbreak for himself. There was nocreature else to blame. "We will be the best parents we can be... even if they get older than us."

"Even then," she sleepily agreed, hugging close. "Silver?"

"Hm?"

"Love you."

He smiled in the dark. It was nice to hear that, spoken without prompt, without reason. "I love you too." He squeezed her closer, nuzzling into her cheek. "Thank you, for being here."


"I don't think it's working out." Fast looked anywhere but at Silver directly. "I'll keep teaching the classes, they're fun, and the students are precious. I'm not like... ghosting out on you, promise."

Silver inclined his head quietly a moment, trying to figure out what happened. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you adorable idiot..." It was what he hadn't done. "I want this to be a friendly break, friendly." She sat on her haunches and brought up her hooves to cup his cheeks. "As in we'll be friends, good friends even. No drama..."

"No... drama..." He sounded so very uncertain. "There is some drama." He reached out, resting the flat of a hoof against her chest. "And I'm sorry, for helping make it."

"You don't even know what you're apologizing for..." Despite that, his worry and care put a little smile on her face. "This is why I fell for you in the first place, doofus. Look, I need to... find my own way forward, on my own hooves."

"You are loved, even if you walk away." He grabbed her ear with a dart of his head, nomming it gently.

"I know that," she sighed, allowing it even as she grew tense. "I know... but I still have to go."

His ears danced as he let her go. "How is it going?"

"How is what going?" She ceased being a changeling, in a rush of flames becoming the ruddy red unicorn he had originally met.

"The class, the magic," he prompted. "Did you learn anything?"

"So much," she smiled as she said that. "Those students are teaching me things, and we're digging into the mess, really shaping it up! Oh, you want the most recent notes?"

"You have it in a book or something?"

"Yeah." She bobbed her head quickly. "I'll bring it over. You'll like it." She turned away. "We may not be married, but let's... still be friends, alright?"

"One thing." He held up a hoof. "Did you talk with Night about this?"

"No." Such a small word, but it pressed on him with awful intensity. "Don't tell her either... Part of me thinks she won't even notice without somepony bringing it up."

"That's sad..." Why did his wives have to subject him to such sad thoughts of late? "She's... trying something new and involved." And would likely result in her becoming hornier. "But she will be crushed if she learned, way after the fact, that she missed this happening."

"Probably... Don't tell her." Fast trotted off without further delay, vanishing around a corner.

Silver snorted slowly, a contradiction. "I didn't promise..." But she had asked, which was a powerful rope around his heart despite that. "You're being stupid!" He drove down a hoof and turned away himself to return to what business awaited him. His duties did not pause for familial issues.


"Tirek?"

He looked up from his chair, throwing aside a newspaper that didn't really exist. "What is it now, woman?"

Night smirked at the ridiculous image of it all. "I brought a special guest with me, if you don't mind?"

"Even if I did, you've proven you can get past my petty discontent." He crossed his arms, scowling at her.

"This guest will not come without your permission. She was very specific about that." Night adjusted her glasses. "I think you want to see her."

"I doubt that." He met her gaze in a quiet moment. "Well, go ahead, bring her in."

"With your leave." She extended her left leathery wing, withdrawing it to reveal the tall form of a biped that couldn't have possibly fit behind her wing, but such was the nature of dreams. "Tirek, do you re--"

"--Mother..." he cut in, not allowing her to finish. "Is this a trick?!" He rose to his hooves so quickly, the chair under him was sent bouncing away.

Queen Haydon smiled gently, lines of age drawing at her features, but she was still regal, tall, and composed. "Little prince, this is where you ran away to..."

"You and father chased me away," he huffed. "Blast it all, are you in front of me, laughing at the statue?"

"Laughing is the wrong emotion." She ran a finger just under her right eye, wiping away a tear. "I'm so sorry."

"What are you sorry for?!" he stormed, growing large with anger.

She looked aside at Night. "Can you... give us privacy?"

Night inclined her head, glasses going faintly askew. "You don't know the way out."

"Come back then, but leave us alone, just for a time." She held two fingers up close together, not quite touching.

Night ran the numbers with a look of concentration. "If I see any obvious signs of distress, I will return."

She vanished, awakening, and leaving Tirek's mother to speak to him privately. "I did what I thought was best, at the time... which is no excuse for how poorly it all turned out."

"Why are you here?" he asked, acid in his tone. "You don't care about me, just the image I made on the family."

"Forget that." She waved it away. "There is no royal family here. Just a mother and her son, who didn't get what he needed, and should have gotten." She smiled faintly. "Why do you look older than I do?"

Tirek shrank back, suddenly smaller than her, emaciated and weak. "I... The more I..." He grunted with obvious frustration. "The more you drink from the well of power, the more... you need to."

"You're hurting yourself." Queen Haydon approached her child with wide arms. "I'm so sorry... You don't need that."

"How can you even say that?!" He shoved her back a step. "I was never good enough for him!"

"Your brother came back to us. He..."

"--told you about me," concluded Tirek. "And now everyone hates me."

"I would not be here to hate you." A little smile touched her lips. "I could have done that from the comfort of home, you silly thing. Tirek, you have walked so very far and long... It's enough... come home."

"Home?" he asked in a soft haunted voice. "I don't have one of those."

"I'm sorry you ever felt that way... but it's not true. Give me a chance." She got an arm around his front, hugging him gently. "I miss you. Your brother misses you."

"He doesn't," Tirek got out in a hiss.