//------------------------------// // Chapter Two // Story: To Swoon the Stars // by LucidTech //------------------------------// Celestia sighed to herself, shaking her head and trying desperately to forget the massive collection of paper that had formed on her desk. It was an unfortunate after-effect of the gala to overflow her work station with useless requests, pointless attacks from one noble to another that was as shallow as a pond on a sunny day, usually caused by some small thing that had brought them to anger. It would have been nice to merely burn them all in the fires of the sun, but that wasn’t how she ruled. She ruled fairly. And occasionally, a fair point was brought up in the attacks, even if the demanded reprimand was severe. It was something Celestia would have gone without, but required to make the status remain quo. Like cabbage. Her eyes drifted to the towering stack of unsigned and unread papers that formed the army of her current enemy, and then towards the very few papers she had managed to force her mind over. Celestia shook herself from her thoughts and grabbed the next paper in line. Her eyes drifted over the words, keeping a record of their meaning while the vast majority of the immortal’s mind went unengaged by the work. That was when the knock came to her door. She silently thanked the forces of the cosmos and stood from her desk. Pausing a moment, she waited until after her mind was back in full working order before proceeding. She made to speak, but took another moment to force a small smile onto her face—as was regular practice. “The door is unlocked,” Celestia said in a noble and regal tone. She stood to her full height and faced the door, knowing very well who was on the other side. His presence with Luna had been far from subtle and it had come to her attention almost immediately after they had walked off together. She had, of course, heard from Luna about their reconciliation, about their plans to be with each other more often, but she had suspected Hendrick to do as she had told him. Instead, she had gotten damning evidence to the contrary. The door swung open, allowing Hendrick to enter the room. After he had passed the threshold, he slowly closed the doors behind him, then turned to face Celestia. His eyes seemed full of a passive-aggressive anger, but the alicorn decided not to comment on it. “Hello, Princess. You asked for me?” His words were stiff and stale, empty of emotion. But that wasn’t anything new; she heard that from nobles every day. Rather, it was the empty hatred behind them that caught her off guard. “Yes, Hendrick. I did ask for your presence. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.” “Nothing that you would care about,” he answered passively, the anger disappearing and his eyes returning to normal. “Enough of the filibustering, though. Let’s get to the point.” “Agreed,” Celestia responded, taking a breath to let all the anger-filled comments leave her head. “As you may or may not recall, I once informed you not to meet with my sister ever again in a romantical matter.” “I remember something closer to you suggesting that I don’t do it, because of some important reasons you never told me,” Hendrick responded, eyeing Celestia with contempt. With a mighty exhale, she let her entire facade die away. She looked at Hendrick with half closed eyes and couldn’t help but let the feelings of exhaustion enter her voice. “What do you think this is? Do you think Luna is just some toy you can play with and throw away when you get tired of her? Do you think this is all just some joke?” “The only thing here that’s a joke is you, Celestia.” Hendrick looked at her as he spoke these words. And, to a lesser degree, through her, as if he were speaking to someone directly behind her that only he could see. “And I mean that with all due respect,” he added quickly, his gaze ducking to inspect the floor at his hooves. Slowly, he managed to summon his courage and overcome himself, raising his gaze to meet Celestia’s eyes. “With all due respect...?” Celestia repeated, softly insisting he continue with his thought as well as deciding it would be better to bite her tongue at this junction. Hendrick had a habit of using small sentences that would pique your interest. Something that it had taken a while to get used to. But once you did, he would explain himself, without question or hesitation. And he would go in depth. Very in depth. “You’re a wonderful ruler and you care about your sister,” he said, looking into her eyes with something Celestia hadn’t seen in a very long time. He looked at her with pity. “You are trying, however, to be the wonderful ruler over your sister. Which, as you need to realize, won’t work. You can rule the nation wisely, you have proven this again and again, but you can’t decide what choices a pony should make in their personal life. That’s why it’s called personal. It’s for them to decide.” He paused here and seemed to collect himself together, power beginning to flow through his veins. “We are such miraculous creatures, able to fully experience the world around us, and as such are the sums of our actions, our decisions, and our emotions. And they are as entangled as a messy pile of string which can’t be separated. The minute you try and decide things for them, they fall apart. “That’s why you’re a joke, with all due respect,” he continued, his voice calming down as a pleading look filled his eyes, begging her to understand what he was saying. “You’re a wonderful pony. But in the thousand of years you had to rule, you never seemed to understand that fact.” The air was filled to bursting with tension as the stallion’s tirade came to its end, leaving Celestia to stare at Hendrick, her mind thinking carefully about what had been said. He looked back with his eyes full of emotion. “Perhaps some time to think about this is necessary,” Celestia finally said, frowning. She didn’t like what she had been told, but when a pony comes to the most powerful being in the known world and states with such ferocity his beliefs... it’s usually a good idea to at least think about what they so bravely defended. The boldness of the statement, without apology, stating that she needed to just back off, if very eloquent, seemed wrong as she let it take root in her mind. It made her feel awkward in her own castle. Not lonely, like she had been before. It was like... one corner of her chair wasn’t the same length as the rest and she had to constantly sit a certain way. “And that’s why you’re the best leader I’ve ever seen, Celestia,” Hendrick said with a smile. “Because you’re willing to not only entertain ideas of others, but also to actually, legitimately, consider them. It makes you strong; it gives you power, power that you use very rarely. To face that without becoming corrupted, it shows... muchness,” He finished with a smile.  He had been struggling over the last word, but had given up on it. Then, with a bow of his head, Hendrick began to head towards the exit of the room, leaving Celestia with another compliment. Luna had stated he gave them rarely, so Celestia found it odd that he had given one to her. But she didn’t linger on the thought. After all, the odd stallion had given her other things to think about. On his way out, Hendrick was slowed by an after-thought from the princess, forcing him to stop to make sure he heard everything she had to say. “Hendrick.” Abruptness and interruption were the defining characteristics of the call. “I’ll consider what you’ve told me, but I ask a favor from you first.” The odd stallion turned to face the princess, partially out of respect and partially to show he was engaged in what she was saying. “Please, Hendrick. Please think about what I told you before.” Shining Armor’s hooves moved his body over the ground, as they were prone to do, and his mind began to wander slightly, the routine inspection of the castle perimeter dulling his mind with its beige-ness. He was removed from this state of idle thought when the approaching form of Hendrick caught his attention. Having seen the stallion around the grounds, he had become a normal installment in the castle, but Shining hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to him in quite a while. Things had always gotten in the way, whether because Hendrick was in a hurry to get somewhere or Shining Armor was in the middle of guard duty. And now, more than ever, Shining Armor was particularly looking forward to talking with him. A recent problem had arisen and the captain of the guard was completely befuddled by how he might solve it. He’d thought about getting some other opinions on it, but he wasn’t sure who to talk to about it. The princesses, certainly, would be able to solve the problem, but they had so much on their plates already that he didn’t want to burden them with anything else. Perhaps, though, Hendrick would have some free time at this particular juncture to help solve the problem. With this hope in hoof, Shining Armor changed his course and set himself in the direction to meet the odd stallion, who might be able to shed some light on the situation. Hendrick saw him approaching and changed his path slightly to meet up with the captain sooner as well, a good sign for Shining that he did, indeed, have some time to spare. As the distance between them lessened Shining Armor was able to clearly see hesitation lingering on the facial features of Hendrick. Yet, behind them, only partially hidden, was a clear sign of curiosity. As captain of the guard, learning to read ponies had proven essential, and it had advanced to the point that he had trouble ignoring what he saw. Several situations were made out to be awkward for the stallion merely because of this fact. Reading his wife’s innermost feelings at a glance made him uneasy, like he was uncovering secrets she didn’t want him to know about. However, he had never voiced them to his significant other, partially because of his own hesitancy and partially because he had never really felt like it was necessary to do so. This same feeling took Shining Armor as he looked at Hendrick, reading his emotions. He hadn’t really experienced it with Hendrick before. His emotions had been so closed before the day he broke out of jail. Now it was just the opposite; they seemed open and exposed, and it made the captain uncomfortable. “Hello, Hendrick,” “Hello, Captain. How goes the watch?” “All’s calm and good.” It was an odd set-up of phrasing for the both of them; it reeked of old age and the pacing was different, but it didn’t feel particularly wrong on the captain’s tongue. It was merely something they had started to say, at Hendrick’s insistence, and it hadn’t bothered any of the guards to indulge the quirky suitor of the princess of the night. “No it isn’t,” Hendrick answered abruptly, looking at Shining Armor. “You have something on your mind that’s bugging you.” “What gave it away?” Shining Armor asked with a small smile. “You came to talk to me.” Hendrick’s voice seemed broken as he said this, and Shining Armor decided that before he asked what was on his mind, he needed to follow this first. Priorities, after all. “That shouldn’t automatically make you think that I need something from you.” “It shouldn’t, but experience says otherwise, Captain.” Shining Armor didn’t have any response. He was so surprised by Hendrick’s statement that they spent the next few moments in silence while the captain of the guard struggled to get his words together. “You know that I see you as a friend, right, Hendrick?” When there was no immediate response, he decided on another question. “Are you okay? I don’t want you to think no one is there for you. I’m willing to listen if you’re willing to talk.” “No, it’s not.... It’s not like before,” Hendrick reassured, though he didn’t seem too certain of it himself. “Just... questions that I don’t have any answers to.” “I see.... Do you need me to answer one of them for you?” “Perhaps, but not right now. We should address your issue first, then we’ll talk about mine.” “You sure?” “Yes.” “Alright.” Shining Armor paused in his speech for a moment as he changed topic. “Well, it’s just a small thing; I didn’t want to bother the princesses with it. I could probably take care of it myself, but I just want to make sure that I’m doing the correct thing.” Hendrick nodded to show he was following, so the captain of the guard decided to fully reveal his problem. “The other day, in the training grounds, I was watching a group of new recruits. I was a bit out of the way and the trainers didn’t know I was there. I paused for a moment, wanting to see how the training was going and taking a moment to reminisce about my own time I spent as a rookie. Well, it turns out, things have changed a lot, especially since the changeling attack. They’re brutal now. They’re overworking the recruits and it’s a miracle any of them are even on their hooves half the time.” “And you think that’s wrong.” “Of course I do!” Shining Armor said, his anger at the situation making itself known as he talked. “We need to respect each other. That’s what we ponies do. It’s what makes us different from the monsters of the Everfree. That we love, or at least tolerate, one another. That we can respect our differences and work towards a common goal. But what I saw then, none of the recruits had an identity. Their talents weren’t important to the trainers like they should have been.” Hendrick allowed the angry captain a moment to calm himself before speaking to him, wanting to make sure that his target audience was in its right mind. “It sounds to me like they’re scared.” “With all rights, they’re being treated like cattle.” “No, not the recruits. The trainers.” A confused look came to Shining Armor’s face and Hendrick continued. “They’re scared to death because of the changeling attack. They almost lost everything they knew. They’re scared that one day an evil will show up and they’ll completely lose, that because of the fact that they treat soldiers as individuals they have a disadvantage on the enemy who doesn’t.” “But if they give up everything, it won’t matter anyway.” “So tell them that, Captain. We, as living creatures, have a tendency to forget that sometimes. We’re willing to put everything on the line because we think it’s necessary. You need to show them that it isn’t, to show them that each individual is important and not merely marks on a roll call, to show them that the cost of losing the uniqueness of even one pony is too great a cost.” “I...” Shining Armor couldn’t quite phrase what he was trying to say. “Wow, that was very insightful. Thank you, Hendrick. I don’t suppose you could tell them that for me.” The jovial tone of the words and the smile on the captain’s face was a welcome change from the preoccupied glare he had entertained before. “No, it has to be you, Captain.” The smile softened to a casual grin and Shining Armor reflected on the importance of pulling rank. “Yes, I suppose it does.” The warm moment hung in the air for a little while longer before Shining remembered that there was another part to this conversation. “So, Hendrick, what’s the problem you’re dealing with then?” Hendrick didn’t answer immediately—he didn’t respond at all, in fact—and Shining Armor thought for a moment that perhaps he hadn’t heard him. “It’s stupid, but you're the only one I could think of to come to about it. I hope you don’t mind.” “Not at all. Just ask the question and I’ll answer it as best as I can.” “Well, I was just curious. What does it feel like to be in love?” The unexpected suckerpunch caught Shining Armor right in the jaw, leaving him stunned. “Well, uh, I suppose it’s like...” was all he managed to get out before Hendrick glanced at him, and cut him off. “Take your time and think about it, please. Several minutes of hasty rambling helps no one.” So, with a nod, he did just that. He thought carefully on the subject, reflecting on his own relationship as well as those that he’d heard about from friends. His mind caught a snag and decided to quickly ask for clarity. “Family or Romantic?” “Romantic,” came the quick reply, and Shining Armor offered a brief nod before he went into his own thoughts once again. After a few minutes of this, which Hendrick had spent perfectly silent, the captain put together what he wanted to say. “Well, it’s a lot like wanting something really bad. But, you respect the thing way too much to just take it. You need it to like you before you’d feel right about having it,” the captain said eventually. “I see.” Hendrick’s voice sounded disappointed. “Is everything alright?” “Yea, yea, just... hoping for a different answer, I guess” “Oh.” “Don’t worry about it though. I’m just glad you answered my question at all.” “Okay. Well hey, you ever need help, you know where to find me, okay?” “Okay,” Hendrick said with a smile. A smile that Shining Armor instantly realized as fake. “Oh, and don’t worry, Captain. I won’t tell your wife you compared her with a genderless object.” “Much appreciated,” Shining replied, a genuine smile on his own face. “I just hope you get the answers you’re looking for.” “I don’t. Heaven knows they’re probably the wrong answers to want.” Before Shining Armor could question the words, Hendrick was already walking away, barely giving him time to give a hasty goodbye before the stallion completely left the castle grounds. With a sigh and a glance to the sun, the captain let his emotions leave him, giving his heart a rest. The sun was setting peacefully behind the mountains and, before too long, Luna’s moon would rise from behind the other horizon as it chased the sun through the sky. By the looks of things, it would be a wonderful night.