I looked at Bebop. I looked at him hard.
From what I've come to understand, my father has a certain stare he uses. It's a stare that is said to look through a soul and lay bare the sins of gods.
Of course, these were exaggerations. But it should give you an idea of how hard I was staring at this earth pony.
"Answer me. How. Did you. Know?"
Bebop backed up, his head darted left and right nervously as I matched him step for step.
"I uhh, I'm not to sure. Ya see I'm not exactly allowed to say. I mean it's not really important is it?"
I wheeled on him. I took a decisive step forward, challenging this ponies knowledge of my dreams, and the plans there created by.
"It does. Talk."
"Well uhmm... A... Well..."
He stammered and stuttered as I backed him into a corner of the common room floor. I could feel a certain urge in my horn to split his skull with a focused shadow blast but I fought that back. It was neither ladylike nor friendly. Two things I tried to be as often as possible... Hopefully yelling and being threatening were friendly and ladylike.
"Tell me!"
"The dream princess visited my dreams last night and told me! I am a member of the resistance! Goodness... Y-You're... Y-you're really scary..."
I since had turned my back to him. The dream princess? Did he mean my dream guardian? I suppose earth ponies had a different name for things. I had to admit, I suspected I wasn't the only pony she visited. She knew too much to only have visiting my dreams. To ask some pony to help me though? I had a plan! It would work! Didn't she trust me? Didn't she believe in my capabilities?
"A-Are you-?"
"Silence! I'm thinking... If... If you're here to help me... How did you plan to do that?"
He looked at me oddly, at least... At least I was sure it was oddly. He seemed to honestly have no clue how he was-
"I have no clue. I figured I'd meet you first, then see if you had a plan."
...
"You're an idiot."
He just shrugged.
"Yeah most likely."
I sighed and began to pace. My father definitely knew he was here, he talked about the resistance allll the time. To think he didn't know Bebop was here was foolish.
I was not a fool.
"I... I think I know how you can help... How fast can you run?"
Bebop looked at me excitedly, then his expression slowly drooped as I told him of my plan, and his role within it.
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We returned to the party separately, I wouldn't risk my father seeing me with this revolutionary. I knew my father was watching me, he had to be. He always did. During these events he had someway of keeping his eyes on me. I needed to make it back to my-
"Nightingale, my dear daughter. Where is your friend? You took the young Ms. Lunamoon to the grove didn't you? I would think you would return with her?"
My father, in his dark splendor had stalked up on me. For a stallion of his stature, he was quite the successful sneak. His eyes were... Deeper, they were hiding something that I'm sure he would reveal to me dramatically; As was his way. I noticed that I was more or less in the center of the room, I had trotted myself into the center of the main hall in my hasty attempt to return to my room.
The only thing that gave this away to me is that everypony had backed away. Giving me and my father the room as the music changed.
Soon we were standing close. And we began to dance.
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I was a good dancer. I had been instructed by the ponies who taught my father, and those ponies were instructed by those who were instructed by the princesses of the old regime. This was always the song we danced to. It was dreadfully long. But it was my father's wish, and nopony would dare tell my father no.
He was a war hero.
He was King.
He was...
Terrifying.
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My hooves followed his as he led me in our dance around the room, the aristocracy falling in behind us. As the crowd joined the dance my father pulled me a little closer, and lay his head against my neck
"Gale... What have I done to deserve your ire?"
His voice was quiet. Hushed. Not that anypony could hear him above the music but something was lingering in his voice... I sensed... Hurt.
"What do you-"
"A commoner steals my daughter away from my gala? From two of the most talkative, sycophantic individuals to exist and you don't think I'd hear every detail?... I saw him when he entered. I saw how he watched you all night. I wouldn't react unti lI knew what he was up to... And in my temperance... I discovered instead, you are the one with the plan..."
I felt my face reel in shock or horror, I can hardly separate the feelings. My body moves to the music as it has since I was a filly, but I am now considerably less comfortable.
"I... I don't..."
"You don't need to say a word... You explained everything, when you thought I wasn't watching... You... You're very foolish, as my daughter you should know I never take my eyes off you... So you know then?"
I gulp and swallow the shock and fear in my throat and muster whatever courage I have. He wouldn't kill me... But... But Bebop... He could very well lead my father to every resistance member, and my father could and would do unspeakable things to them.
The tempo picks up, we've been dancing almost eight minutes and this is my favorite part.
"I know. You couldn't hide this from me forever."
I feel my father smile.
"My dear girl, I had no intention of ever hiding it from you... I was waiting for you to discover it yourself."
As our waltz increases in speed along with the tempo he adds flourishes that our new to me. He spins me around and around. I look up to stop myself from having to see the colors of the walls around me. As I do though, I begin to really look at the ceiling. As I spin I see that the dots on the black ceiling swirl with me, what I had always thought were just stars in fact told a story. The stars shifted an morphed into two princesses and a unicorn, telling a story in motion.
The story told was one where he tried to take their throne and failed, and in his sorrow turned to a dark power. With it, he would lead a war against them, using fear and greed to overwhelm them...
My father didn't just want to tell me the whole story.
He wanted me to watch.
So I did. I watched as my father fell in love with the princess of the moon. I watched him try to woo her, I watched as the stars spun to show me how those events had unfold.
She was uninterested, aloof, indifferent. Characteristics of the moon, things she couldn't change but he still blamed her for.
The stars whirl around and skip ahead; showing me the war.
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Bebop bounced from roof to roof, cursing his luck. It would be his luck that he had to help the psycho princess.
"Go to the castle she said! Help the princess she said! It'll be fun she said! Pfft... I'm just a crazy bitch magnet... I should learn how to say no to a crazy bitch."
Two guards drop silently, their bodies falling onto the ground far below.
"I don't wanna know why. Why is it I can't say no to a crazy bitch? It's gotta be something wrong with me. None of my dude friends deal with crazy bitches, it's just me. I mean... Crazy bitches are cool, I can only imagine what that prince-ass could do with a little lube and allllot of-"
"Hey you! What are you doing- AGH!"
Bebop had tossed a small knife into the guards neck. He too fell off the ramparts.
Bebop is like Rarity... But a ninja...
He continued bouncing and tumbling, making his way to Nightingale's room.
"The tallest room, on the top of the tallest tower... I heard that somewhere before..."
Her room wasn't hard to spot. The tallest tower was easy to see. But farther than Bebop had anticipated. He would need to climb the sheer face of the tower...
"Oh f**k that..."
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I returned to my father's embrace. I was trembling my mind shaken at what I had just witnessed.
Not a single pony here knew.
Not a one knew what he was...
I looked into the eyes of my father. Those cold eyes. The eyes belonging to a snake...
"You see Gale, you needed to find out yourself. You needed to find out on your own because you would never have believed me other wise... And everything you saw there... Is inside you as well."
My skin crawled. I knew he was right. But... But I could never do what he did... That... That cruelty...
"I... I don't... I won't ever be like you."
My words were venom. I kept it quiet, between us. He just chuckled.
"My darling girl... You're more like me than you'll ever know..."