//------------------------------// // 10. Black Sheep // Story: The Last Nightguard // by Georg //------------------------------// The Last Nightguard Black Sheep “Service in the Royal Guard can be stressful at times, so your personnel office has contracted with several support agencies in the area such as Sand Creek Associates to provide assistance when events get difficult to manage. Counseling is confidential, and all sessions are kept private.” —Support Services Cares - When Difficulties Arise, We’re There For You Fear was stronger than steel, more powerful than rage, and inescapable when the monster you feared was your own self. Unable to move even the smallest muscle, Luna stared at the monstrous consequences of her actions so long ago. If the bat-winged creature had been an adult, Luna might have been able to fight off the paralysis that gripped her to the bone, but to see one so small and innocent engulfed by Nightmare Moon’s cursed spell struck directly at her weakness. Luna had never done well with children, even when she had been young herself. She loved the night and all that it hid enshrouded away from prying eyes, while others shied away from the darkness and insisted on light to see what did not want seen. When she had become a princess, it had only gotten worse. She became larger than even the largest normal pony, and totally terrifying to the smallest. The tables were certainly turned this evening. An awed Peanut Brittle looked back at her with wide yellow-slitted eyes while Luna’s heart pounded in her ears. They held their respective positions for a short time until Peanut stretched her neck up over the edge of the bedrail, leaned over to her faithful Guard, and asked in a loud whisper, “What do I say?” “You thank Her Highness, then you leave,” said Ebon Tide in a similar whisper. “Princess Luna has never been good with foals.” “But she’s the candy princess!” hissed the young pony before slowing down and blinking several times. “Maybe she doesn’t like that part. But we still get candy, right?” Eb winced. “Sugar?” “Yes!” declared Peanut. “Last year, I ate so much I was sick!” Ebon Tide seemed to have something in his eyes because he was blinking rather slowly until he braced himself and asked, “So, did you bring a gift for Her Highness?” “Pop!” declared Peanut. “Not candy?” asked Eb hesitantly. “No, you wash candy down with pop,” said Peanut, who had turned nearly bottom-up to root around in the paper bag she had brought into the room. “And I got a moon pie, and a can of mangos…” She abruptly looked up from the bag and locked eyes with Luna, who still had not moved, then glanced sideways at Eb and asked out of the corner of her mouth, “Does she like moon pies?” “Are they candy?” countered Eb. “No, they’re like cake,” said Peanut. “Let us put them to one side for now.” Eb looked down from the bed at the growing collection of items on the floor that had spilled out of Peanut’s paper bag. “What is that?” “Mangos!” declared Peanut, holding the metal container up. “The can has a picture of a mango on it so you can tell.” Eb took the ‘can’ from the young pony and gave it a shake, then peered at the colorful label. “Fruit, inside a sealed metal container. Does it prevent decay?” “Mangos can go bad?” Peanut looked puzzled, but only for a moment until she dug into the parchment bag and produced a strange metal device with levers and gears. “So how do you extract them?” asked Eb, still turning the can around in search of some opening. “Mama uses a can opener, and then you have to share them with your little brother and be careful not to get cut on the can.” Peanut opened her sharp-toothed mouth wide and stuck out her long tongue, pointing at the underside next to her fangs. “Eee, ight ere? At’ ere eye got ah cut.” To his credit, Eb gave his own sideways glance at Luna before bending over the edge of the hospital bed to examine the proffered object with all the sincerity of a court presentation. In the few minutes since her first dramatic impression of the monstrous little child, Luna had managed to relax enough to think, although not so much that her heart had ceased its frantic pounding. It was partially due to the relatively small size of the threat, but mostly she was able to calm down due to Ebon Tide’s actions. He was representing the role she should have as an example of her station in life, and that irked her somewhere painful deep inside. Then again, the two batponies were acting so much alike despite the relative newness of Ebon’s creation. After all, Luna had not known what Nightmare’s magic would do to her ponies, only what the poisoned words of the fiend had promised. It made her wonder how many years the creatures lived, or if any of them had survived the thousand years since she had slain so many of her kind. Peanut was a child, and to have children, there needed to be at least some adults, so therefore Nightmare Moon’s cruel act of reclaiming her power from the transformed ponies had not resulted…. No, she did not wish to think of it. In particular, her mind skittered away from a terrifying realization that no matter how horrible it was to have transformed hundreds of ponies as Nightmare Moon, she had used the same corrupted magic to do it again to Ebon Tide without even thinking of the consequences. It was a betrayal of Celestia’s trust, an abomination thrust upon her trusting Guard from so long ago, and… Without it, he would be dead instead of peering oddly at the modern mechanical gadget with the small monstrous child offering suggestions as to how it was held. No, she could not think about her acts any more, or at least until she had more time to recover. And perhaps one of the mangos in that can. She had tasted a mango once on a journey with Celestia, although she could not remember just exactly where they had been, and that had been in the Discordian era, so their location was most likely different now. The mango was a delicious fruit, but not so much that she would take the entire contents of the can as her due when it was opened. Perhaps half. Once the mysteries of the ‘opener’ were revealed. As Luna watched the two batponies puzzle over the workings of the intricate mechanism, she could feel the simmering anger beneath her surface. Not just anger at herself and the tragic decisions of centuries ago, but anger at her sister. Luna was not a child, and to have Celestia hold back the knowledge of these creatures’ survival was… a betrayal of her own claims to trust Luna as the sisters they once were. Did they know of her role in their creation? Did they still despise her over the tragic deaths she had caused? Did Celestia do anything to preserve that knowledge over the centuries? They were questions which would best wait until later, since the greater temptation of the ‘can-opener’ device was an easy distraction for her troubled mind. She had always loved puzzles, conundrums, and mathematical formula. Children were far too complicated and did not respond to rational arguments, although Ebon Tide was having no problems with Peanut, and that gave Luna enough strength to add her own suggestions to their discussion. Her sage advice did little to help, of course. This modern world had changed so much, symbolized by a simple metal container of fruit. It could be decades before Luna could catch up with her sister’s knowledge at best, and yet Celestia had publicly put her forward as an equal, in charge of half of Equestria without a single clue how to manage it. It was a task doomed to failure, although it was impossible that Celestia had planned for Luna to inevitably face-plant in this fashion. That would require a level of devious subtlety that Celestia had never shown before, although she had changed over the years, so perhaps… No, her sister would not let half their lands suffer merely to undo what the elder had taken such great pains to do. Much like when Luna had learned how to fly, Celestia had merely given a simple clueless push, and it was up to the recipient of the lesson to spread their wings and keep from crashing into the ground so far below. It was a confidence that Luna could not feel in her own heart when she could not even discern the workings of a simple mechanical device. “Perchance that top piece should be rotated to the side,” she suggested. “No, that places the ‘tooth’ in an upward location where it cannot bite into the metal.” Peanut perked up. “Maybe your sister could show us how to use it. My dumb big brother loves to show off how smart he is.” “Mine sister most likely has never used an opener of cans either.” Luna giggled as a sense of irreverent humor cut through her musings. “She has servants to do everything but wipe her bum.” “Eww.” Peanut wrinkled up her nose. “I had to change one diaper, and that was enough.” “I changed hundreds,” stated Eb, although he followed the quiet statement with a thoughtful look at Peanut, then Luna. The unspoken question had an obvious answer. If Ebon Tide’s children survived and thrived,their great-great descendents might be found in the palace today. It was yet another pertinent question which would wait for another time, because Dr. Hurwitz took that moment to prove he had a stunning lack of timing. The faint knock at the door was followed immediately by the doctor poking his greying nose into the room, looking around with seeming disappointment at seeing both his patient and royal caregiver awake. Although, when his eyes lowered to Peanut, there was no hiding his reaction. “Peanut Brittle!” he thundered with a furious frown. “I told your mother to keep you at home! Now scat, you little pest! Fly home!” Acting before she thought was a bad habit for Princess Luna. This time, her habit proved useful. A quick adhesive spell kept Peanut from moving from her current location while Luna turned her chill gaze on the abruptly quiet doctor, who had not advanced more than a few steps into the hospital room. “The child is within Our presence,” she stated with enough restrained force that puffs of frost floated out with her words. “Do you think she is uninvited?” “I… um.. Dread Sovereign… Uh…” It was pleasurable to see the insufferable windbag deflate, but Luna belatedly remembered her visitor, the reason why she was being so uncivil. She canceled the spell keeping Peanut’s hooves glued to the floor and gently nudged her forward, keeping one wing half-curled around the child for both protection and a degree of restraint while she continued in the full cadence of a royal court introduction. “Doctor Hurwitz, trusted Personal Physician to the Royal Sisters, I would like to introduce Our subject, Peanut of House Glory, Clan Silversmith. Our invited guest.” It was possible that Doctor Hurwitz made some sort of noise in response since his mouth was opening and closing, but he spoke nothing that Luna could hear, so she continued by gently scooting the child in the direction of the door and around the immobile intruder. “Verily, since you are to conduct your daily examination of Our Guard at this late hour, We shall accompany Peanut outside of the room where we will not cause a disturbance.” * * ☾ * * Peanut was remarkably quiet out in the hallway with Luna for a time, but after a short period, the good doctor departed at a fair clip and the two of them returned to the hospital room. In their absence, Ebon Tide had covered himself with the sheet again, which was probably a good thing since Peanut was a young child, and to be exposed to that much hairless hide on a stallion was probably not good for her future mental condition. Luna tried not to comment on his lack of hair out loud because she had seen worse in guards blasted by dragonfire, although most of them died of their injuries, a lingering discomfort that troubled her mind on a deep level every time she glanced at him. “Guard, report on your examination,” said Luna the moment the door closed behind them. It felt good to take refuge in the trappings of tradition rather than return to their fruitless wrestling with the devilish ‘can opener.’ “I’ll live.” Ebon Tide took a deep breath, coughed slightly, and shifted positions. “I could use a drink, though.” “I got it!” Peanut dug into the parchment bag she had left in the room and extracted out an orange glass bottle with a metal cap. She held it up against the bed rails and gave it a sharp blow on the top to open it up, then held it out to the patient. “Here you go, Mister Tide. It’s orange soda pop.” “A moment.” Luna snagged the cool bottle with her magic and brought it over to her lips. “You forgot your Sovereign. It is our right to have the first fruits of your labors.” Luna took a long swig from the bottle, expecting something vaguely beer-like despite the odd color. She most certainly did not get what she expected. Not even close. Fizzing orange fluid coursed down her lungs and out of her nose in a mighty sneeze that sprayed ‘orange soda’ all across the bed in a fine mist. The explosion of orange flavor was far more potent for its distribution, and the sensation of strange artificial oranges was so powerful that she could even hear it gurgling through her ears somehow. Luna coughed and hacked, dropping down onto the floor and dribbling leftover soda into a growing puddle. “Oh, look,” said Eb with a snort of his own. “The Royal Geyser.” “That’s not nice.” Peanut Brittle frowned furiously at her guffawing guard. “It gets up in your nose and you get orange snot for days if you don’t blow it out. I was gonna say you should be careful on your first sip, not gulp it down.” Although Peanut’s intentions were pure, her words were far too late for all practical purposes, and Luna barely managed to float the remainder of the ‘pop’ over to Ebon Tide without further acid commentary. Due to the example set by his Sovereign, Eb took his drink of ‘pop’ much more cautiously and with less resulting drama. In fact, he paused with the pop half-drunk as if he were savoring the flavor, then swished it around in his mouth a few times before swallowing. “It seems—” urp “—rather orangy,” he managed through several polite belches. “A delightful bouquet which can be experienced several times.” Luna was going to reclaim the bottle and break it over his head as soon as she finished sneezing and coughing. “It is good we have such a wise guardian to inform us of this modern era,” continued Eb with another short belch. No, hitting the frail stallion over the head with a bottle was too likely to kill him, and Luna wanted him to suffer for this indignity. Not in a hate-filled kind of vengeful suffering, but somehow the presence of the small child muted her expected rage into wanting something she had last experienced so long ago with her sister. Those carefree days were long gone, cast away by her actions. Still, if one of Nightmare Moon’s creations had survived to the current era and remained as innocent as the bat-winged foal, perhaps there was a glint of light in the overcast sky of her past. After all, Peanut Brittle had called her the candy princess in a voice just one step away from divine worship. Dominion over Moon, Stars, and… candy? It did not seem to fit into her mindset, particularly with how disgusting the modern era of candy had become. A few caramelized sprinkles of rich brown sugar over a fresh apple or the sweet/bitter taste of dandelion wine was more to her liking. Then again… She took the bottle back from Ebon Tide, regarded the last drips of orange in the bottom, then drained it in a single swig. If she were the Princess of Candy, it would not be all bad. “We declare this beverage acceptable,” she stated solidly, passing the empty bottle back to Peanut. “Suitable for rare occasions and celebrations. From this point onward, my Guard shall sample such offerings first. Speaking of which…” Luna thought her vision superior in the dimmest light, but even her eyes could not find the elusive can of mangos they had left behind in the room just a few minutes ago. An envious whisper in the back of her mind blamed the devious Dr. Hurwitz, who was determined to thwart every action she had taken so far. To steal the can of mangos from the trusting and clever foal was the mark of a dastard most certainly, but the faintest glint of metal from the small ‘trash can’ put a quick halt to that line of angry thought. “Empty,” she mused as she floated the opened can up from the trash. It did not seem in the doctor’s observed behavior to consume an entire stolen container of fruit in front of an invalid, but as she slowly turned to her trusted Guard, his guilty expression explained all. “The doctor opened the can for me,” confessed the thief to the loud gasp of Peanut. “Once I got started, I couldn’t stop until…” Ever so slowly, the bedraggled stallion lowered his head until he was looking at the glossy tile of the hospital floor. Luna’s temper may have been at a low simmer due to the presence of Peanut, but the foal had no such constraints on her ire. “Unfair!” she called out, stomping one little hoof. “I always have to share mangos with my bratty little brother, no matter how much of a pain he is. He even gets half, even though I’m bigger and older and deserve a bigger piece! What good is it to be bigger than him if my mother treats him better than me? Sometimes, I wish I was an only foal!” There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess will be me! The faintest of icy breezes rustled through Luna’s mane and kissed the back of her neck. Her words were spoken in anger so long ago, but they had been true. Bitter, spiteful, and filled with far more bile than Peanut could muster over a mere can of fruit. Her hate had nearly cracked the world and condemned all of her beloved ponies to death. A foal could say such things and mean them with all of their heart. Princesses could not. “Thou art an older sib,” said Luna carefully through the lump of ice that clogged her throat. “It is your responsibility to care for your younger.” “I know,” muttered Peanut, who was looking at the floor tiles as much as Ebon Tide now. “He just makes me so mad, all demandy about what I’m supposed to do and say, and he doesn’t do anything that I tell him.” “That does seem to be the role of the younger,” admitted Luna reluctantly. The relatively cheerful air of the room had drained away by now, which Luna still wanted to blame on the doctor even though she knew it was mostly her own fault. After a short time spent trying to recapture the mood, Peanut gave up and headed back to her family before she was missed and got into even more trouble. It left the hospital room cold and quiet, with a frigid blanket of silence between Luna and her victim. Ebon Tide turned his back to her, curled up on his bed, and vanished under the thin sheet without a word while Luna settled down on the cold tile floor for the rest of the evening. The morning nurse found her there, still quietly sobbing.