//------------------------------//
// Of Noble Pursuits and Ends 
// Story: The Darkest Hour 
// by Anemptyshell 
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I stood knee-deep in something I hoped was water. I feared I was wrong. It was dark in all directions. There was only the vacuum. I felt my chest tighten as I mindlessly wandered the pitch-black pool. The slush of water and my breaths were the only things to distinguish anything. I could have been walking in place for all the good it did me. No matter how long I walked, nothing changed. My heart had sped up, and my breath hitched with every step through the thick, eerily warm liquid. Then the sloshing stopped. My legs held firm in place even as I writhed to move forward. I could feel the water rising up to my thigh, my chest, and it wasn't stopping. 

"No, no, stop, please, stop."

I railed and shook, but the water kept climbing. I could feel it brush against my lips. I wretched as the acrid taste touched my tongue. It wasn't water, and I had to hold my head as far back as I could lest it wrapped itself across my nose. I could feel the tears as they rolled down my cheeks. My eyes had been brought beneath the surface, though as blind as I was, it held little else than a clear omen of my encroaching end. 

"I'm sorry."

Those were my last words, in the dark, as I was pulled beneath and even deeper darkness consumed me entirely. I couldn't discern up from down anymore. I sunk my lungs burned my limbs flailed to no avail. There was nothing but me, and soon, there wouldn't even be that.

"Sir! Are you alright? Sir!"

I shot up from the tangled mess of sheets and the blush carpet of my room's floor. My heartbeat had my chest a piston as I gasped and heaved. The dark was back. I'd thought them gone since my first days in Equestria. I heard the knocking at my door but gave them little mind. I slowly managed to kick the heap of limb and cotton free and slowly crawled towards the bathroom. I was shaking even as I managed to stand. My chest hurt, and the streaks down my face, sweat, and tears complimented the bags last night had left. I was disheveled but alive and not currently dying alone, covered in who knows how much blood. 

"Sir, I'm coming in."

It was nice to hear Sabre was up and attem' this morning. I took several deep breaths and plodded from the bathroom sink mirror to my apartment's one and only entry. I undid the latch and let the door swing wide even as a charging Sabre ran shoulder first. 

Sabre managed to curtail his momentum before plowing right over me. I smacked my lips and stepped aside to allow my companion free entry. Even as he examined me, the look on Sabre's face had me groan internally. I was in for a nagging, fun. 

"Morning," I said as Sabre entered, and I shut the door behind him. 

"Sir."

I shook my head and let the guard leer me down. "Just a nightmare. The normal kind, not the queen of the land kind. Sorry if I concerned you."

Sabre looked over the mess I'd left on my bed and back to me. "A normal nightmare doesn't leave you screaming, your face caked in sweat, or your cheeks still fresh with tears. Whatever that was, sir, it was not normal."

"Well, normal for one may not be normal for another." 

I shrugged and watched Sabre swallow back his rebuke. I was taken by the ticking of my clock as Sabre, and I fell into a thick silence. It was just past seven in the morning. A bit earlier than I'd of liked, but not so early as to ruin my morning or new night. It was far easier to disregard it as was. 

"You're a bit early this morning," I said. 

"You had a messenger to receive. We were never given a time of arrival. So, best to be early than late, sir."

"Fair enough. have they arrived?"

Sabre shook his head, his gaze never leaving my own. My body was still shaking as the adrenaline I'd awoken to calm. I could still almost taste the blood in the dark. I needed something to rouse the senses before my mind became too fixated on what I'd awoken from. That thought pulled me from my stagnation and right for the coffee pot. 

"Coffee?" I asked. 

"No, thank you, sir."

Sabre was really on the sirs this morning. I really upset him. It couldn't be helped. So I started the caffeine machine and watched as it boiled and hissed. Several minutes passed, and I acquired my drink. Sabre stood against the wall and watched me like I might just up and fall through the floor. 

"What was it?" Sabre asked. 

"Hmm?" I hummed through a mouth full of coffee.

Sabre pointed to the bundle of sheets on the floor beside my bed. "What was the nightmare. What had you screaming?"

"The dark," I said, matching his wilting gaze with an apathetic one of my own. "Alone, in the dark."

"Just the dark?" Sabre asked. He didn't seem to believe me. I didn't really blame him. I wouldn't have believed it myself unless I lived it, or dreamt it, whatever the case.

"I drowned in the dream as well, if that helps." 

"No, sir, it really doesn't."

I had to cough back a laugh as I'd gone and nearly inhaled my drink. I offered a hapless shrug and nodded in Sabre's direction. 

"I didn't think it would."

Sabre seemed to mull over my words. However, before offering a rebuttal, a single loud knock on the door drew our attention. I waved toward the door. Sabre was the guard here. He certainly would need to check any new arrivals. I don't think he cared much for my dismissal. I didn't blame him for that either.

Sabre, however, proceeded to the door and opened it to whoever was a knocking. I would be amiss if I didn't give the courier credit for his duty. When tasked by Her Highness and all her bipolar demands, I'm sure one does as told. I took the chance to tame my mane. Bedhead would be most unbecoming when one is to deal with a noble or ex-noble. I could have gone the day without playing politics, but that was not my say at this point. 

"Sir, a messenger from Her Majesty to lead you to a meeting you have scheduled."

I could feel the unamused sarcasm like a jackhammer to the skull. If the messenger did, they certainly didn't say anything. I couldn't see them from my spot by the bed, but I doubt they cared one way or another. 

"I'll be there in a second, thank you, Sabre."

I could play the pompous ass if Sabre played the disillusioned vet. I was lucky my mane hadn't been that messy, to begin with. I took a deep, agonizingly slow breath and walked to the door. 

The messenger seemed antsy, bright yellow coat, dull blue mane, and wings brought in so hard he might be straddling the line of self asphyxiation. I offered the colt. I don't think he was a stallion. If he was, he was the most baby-faced pony I'd seen yet. I didn't have much to compare, outside of some pictures in the books I'd read. Most of those were hoof drawn, do even then, it wasn't precisely a glance, and you'll know it deal.

"I hope I didn't keep you too long," I said, offering the messenger a hoof.

The colt took a step back, eyes shifting between Sabre and myself. I didn't respond just stood my hoof still out. It took a minute before the colt seemed to realize what I was doing. 

"Oh, geez, um, I'm sorry, sir."

The colt shakily lifted a hoof to gingerly tap mine. The second he withdrew it, he seemed ready to faint on his hooves. It took Sabre gently placing his own hoof on the scared colt's shoulder to rouse some semblance of a spine.

"It's fine. Thestral as he is," Sabre looked in my direction. I shrugged. "He's not going to hurt you."

"A glowing endorsement, thank you, Sabre," I said and stuck my tongue out in response. 

"I'm, uh, sorry?" The courier said. 

We had the poor lad confused. I shrugged and pointed down the hall. 

"I'm ready as I'll ever be," I said and walked past Sabre and the courier who scurried to get in front of me. A meeting with Blueblood without even a shower, this should be interesting.

"This way, sir," the courier said and was off like a light. The colt was quick, if nothing else. Both Sabre and I had to trot just to keep up. 

The walk itself wasn't anything of note. The lower we went, the less immaculate Castle Night looked down one hall down a flight of stairs. I at least came up with a name for the place, saying the area lacked the grandiose style Nightmare made sure to cast across everything she touched. Everything, except here, in her deepest nethers. We came to a stop in front of a large iron door. The two guards, neither thestral, seemed about as alert or interested as the wall behind them. 

The courier came to a stop and waved at the door. "Your stop, sir."

"Thank you…"

I looked at the colt expectantly. It took him a second, but his mile-a-minute hurry seemed to catch up with him, and he actually scuffed the floor in realization.

"Speedy Step, sir."

"Well then, thank you, Speedy. You've been a wonderful guide."

I leaned over to Sabre and whispered. "Do you have any money on hand? I left the bit bag I was given when I got my room, well in my room."

It was at that moment I thought I saw something die in Sabre, even as he reached into a small inlet on his armor and offered a few bits to the still waiting Speedy. 

"Thank you, sirs." 

Speedy was off, though his step seemed a little peppier. In front of our destination, the guards still seemed relatively impartial to our arrival. I wondered if they'd taught themselves to sleep, eyes opened. I waved at one of them and watched as he slowly looked in my direction. I offered a chaste smile and watched him turn to Sabre, his brow creasing just a bit tighter. 

"The Queen has alerted Blueblood of a meeting with one Stargazer."

"Aye," The guard responded. 

"Is he in?" Sabre asked. 

"Aye."

"May we enter?" Sabre asked, taking a step forward. 

"Wait."

The guard held a limb up blocking Sabre, who seemed rather bored with the trivial pursuits of the morning. I think he was still mad about the nightmare thing.

The second guard reached out and hammered on the metal door. There was the sound of a chair falling and a series of curses as a slit near the top of the door pulled wide. A set of bright blue eyes, complemented with bags that even I thought were unseemly, looked out and stopped on me. The owner of said eyes muttered something before the visor closed and a heavy tumbler turned. 

The second the door was wide enough for us to enter, an exasperated voice called out. The guards stepped wide, and Sabre went for the bar serving as a latch on the unseemly chunk of metal. It was, if not directly, prison adjacent. I'd need to ask about that.

"Hurry, I don't have all day."     

I nodded as I passed the guards, who had fallen back o the facade as statues, Sabre at my heel. To say the accommodations, Nightmare had so graciously offered Blueblood were sparse would be an understatement. It wasn't a cell. It had a window to the stars, a reasonably plush bed and rug, and maps. I don't just mean one or two, or even a single wall full. The entire room was mapped on maps, land, sea, and sky. I blurred them together as the thousands of hoof-drawn mountains, rivers, and plains made a tapestry of pinpoint precision. 

"Sabre, I think I might die of irony?" I said. 

"Sir?"

"I am utterly lost in a world of maps and atlases."

"Ha," a hoarse pronouncement of the jaded laugh had my hair on end.

There he was, at his massive wooden table, one that took up the whole sum of the center placement. A wooden table where the stallion worked, etched in markings and chipped fillings. A place where no matter how upper-crust our new acquaintance may have been, now or in times past. This instrument tossed away all formality and boiled the pony who wielded it down to who they were.

The stallion in question was far more collected and far less composed. A coat like ivory, sullied in ink marks, a bountiful golden mane shelved at the ends, and the same bright blue eyes bore the weight of tireless attrition. Blueblood was a stallion without a place, a middling of a prideful posh noble, and a stalwart, stubborn creator. I was left flat hooved on how to react. I had come in ready to taunt the apparent stuck-up brat. I don't think that stallion was here or had been for some time.       

"Well?" Blueblood asked even as he eyed his newest series of lines. He pressed his head to the table and watched the simple etchings without sparing us a single glance. 

"The Queen sent us to assist with mapping her stars."

I wasn't positive about what would come of this. I was less sure how I'd be any help at all. Yet, here I was bowing to Nightmare's will. That was to say, for the moment.

"Yes, yes, the Gazer stallion of her royal court," Blueblood said and finally drew himself up from his line, watching and casting an unamused look my way. "I have no need of your assistance. If the queen," the inflection present on the word was like a sledge to the face. It lacked any polite interpretation, something I could understand. "Wishes to send one of her flunkies to oversee my work, then please find the door. If you're still lost, it is back the way you came."

I sniffed, puckered my lips, and nodded. I would have to give him that one. His wit was still pristine even if the rest of his abode was not. A stallion might just respect. 

"Touche, you've bested me, sir. However, as much as it may pain the both of us, you know I can't just leave."

"Pah, fear is no means to an end."

Blueblood had returned to his line gazing and hadn't even noticed he'd said anything at all. A quick trip to the gallows, I'd no doubt. A notably good reason for him being here was far safer than amid Her Royal highness' servants and underlings. 

"I'd agree. Wouldn't you, Sabre?" I asked. 

"Yes, sir."

"Agree to…" The prince slowly turned back to his guests and tensed like a would coil. He watched the both of us, eyes suddenly dilated, his body shaking. "I see."

I rolled my eyes and ambled further into the room. "Calm down. I'm no rat. This wasn't a trap, and yes, I meant what I said."

Blueblood gave no tell. He was simply stunned one moment, then muzzle to muzzle with me the next. I didn't recoil even as the anguished eyes of the lost noble stared back into my own. Sabre made to separate us, but I motioned for him to wait. Thus for the next minute or so, there Blueblood and I stood. When he finally stepped back, he again looked all too tired. He limply fell to his haunches and shook in silent turmoil.

"A thestral?" Blueblood asked.

"An amnesiac thestral," I answered. 

"A thestral who has very poor survival instincts, sir."

I ignored Sabre and watched Blueblood as he sat deflated. Like the guards that kept him locked away, he looked like he would sleep eyes wide open. Though, unlike his 'protectors,' it was not from boredom. A state of fear stressed to the ends of his own sanity. The stallion before me was nothing like that of Sabre's warnings. He was far more and far more dangerous. When pushed to the edge, only then will even the most craven of souls lash out for survival. 

I walked up to the collapsed stallion and offered a hoof. "A friend if you'd have one."

Blueblood looked up at me. He blinked slowly, his shaking breath a little more steady. I smiled down at the broken pule of what was once Blueblood, the noble of Equestria. That stallion wasn't here, however. So, I waited for the new Blueblood. He could take his time. I didn't mind. Minutes passed, and he continued to watch me blearily. I continued to offer a hoof.

"Well?" I asked. 

"A friend, a thestral?" Blueblood asked. The word thestral cut thin as some semblance of sense was regained in the stallion's mind. 

"An amnesiac thestral, who could really use a map to find oneself. Up for that challenge, oh cartographer of the sun?"

"Are you insinuating there is a map I can't draw?" 

I reached out once more. "Prove me wrong."

Blueblood took my hoof and was pulled back to all fours. He leered at me and smiled. 

"Well, gazer of stars, I accept your challenge. I will not be made a fool by a noble of the night, mindless and hopeless as you seem to be."

I laughed as Blueblood made way for his table of wonders. "Have at it."

Sabre joined me. "Was that wise?"

I shrugged. "No idea, but one can't have too many friends, and I think that stallion could definitely use a few."

Sabre looked back over to the revived plottings of the noble that once disgusted him. Then to the noble he'd found not too long ago, lost and alone. Sabre shook his head and smiled, if only just a bit.

"Perhaps you're right, sir."

"Good, then let's learn to cartegraph."

And on that day, that is precisely what we did. Though it was night, Sabre did very little, and Blueblood kept yelling at me. It was fun. Even now, a light shines in the dark.