//------------------------------//
// The Fools and the Assassin 
// Story: They Never Knew 
// by SilverEyedWolf 
//------------------------------//

I opened my eyes slowly, feeling softness on my back and under my head. I moved my hand out from underneath a blanket and stroked the silk I was laying on. I encountered something warm and I moved my head to look at the sleeping girl in the chair beside the bed I lay on.
“This is the first time she’s been asleep since you passed out.” I turned my head slowly to the other side and looked up at princess. She smiled down at me, and I noted that her eyes didn’t seem nearly as sad as the first time I’d looked into them. 
“You passed out. It was mostly from all the energy you used yesterday, not only to hatch but also to transform.” She stood up and moved to a set of drapes I hadn’t noticed. As I pulled myself a little higher on the bed, she opened them to show a night sky that glittered with stars.
“Tonight’s a new moon,” she said conversationally. Her voice wavered a bit, and I pushed myself away from Twilight, who still slept in her chair. I was dressed in clothes that were too big for me. They tangled in the bed and I nearly fell on my face getting out from beneath the sheets. I rolled up the pants to my shins and walked over to the princess, leaving the sleeves to hang to my fingernails.
She looked around at me as I padded over to her in my bare feet, and I saw the tears pooling in her eyes. I reached up and used my sleeves to wipe them away. “You miss your sister,” I croaked, my voice dry and cracked. Celestia nodded, then walked over to a table. She came back with a cup of water that I drained. The water was cold, and I shivered as it washed down my throat and chest.
“Thank you, milady.” She smiled and put her hand on my head, slightly ruffling my hair. “I thought I would have to teach you to talk,” she told me. I smiled back up at her, saying, “I didn’t have much to do besides listen, my princess. The courts aren’t the most interesting of things, but they are definitely a wordy place. I tried to pick up what I could.”
Her smile dropped. “You… were awake during those thousand years?” I nodded. “But of course I was. The Nightmare awakened me, and we spoke as you took care of me.” She nodded. “I remember doing so, but I always assumed that you went back to sleep after that?” I nodded. “I slept every now and then, but mostly I absorbed whatever was going on around me.” I leaned forward and pressed my forehead to the glass, staring up into the night’s sky.
I saw the black circle of the new moon, standing in relief against the bright stars. I looked down into a bright courtyard, watching guard patrols crisscross the cobblestone. I drummed my toes up and down on the wood floor, then looked back up to the princess. 
“May we go outside? I’d like to feel the air on my face.” Celestia smiled and walked over to a wardrobe. “Of course we can. Let me see what I can find in the way of real clothes and some shoes.” I wiggled my toes and push a foot to the floor. “If it’s the all same milady, may we skip the shoes?” Celestia laughed from the standing closet and tossed a silky shirt to me, followed by a pair of trousers. I pulled of my pajama bottoms first and quickly slipped into the trousers, buttoning and zipping them around my waist. “A belt may be necessary, highness.” Celestia eyed my waist for a second, then dug into a drawer for a second. “You needn’t refer to me in such a way, Spike…” she said thoughtfully, pulling out several belts before she found a thin black one with a plain silver buckle.
“Celestia will do just fine, between us three.”
She closed the drawers and doors to the wardrobe, then walked over to me with the belt in her hands. “If you’ve been aware as long as you’ve claimed, then you’ve lived beside me for much too long to call me anything besides my name.” I slipped the shirt over my head and reached out for the belt. I looked at it for a second, than looked at Celestia. “I have no idea how this thing works. I heard of them through my egg, but I’ve never seen one put on before…” Celestia stared blankly at me for a second, then covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.
“Just put it through the loops on your pants, dear. Buckle it in the front, over the zipper.” Doing as she said, I threaded the leather through the loops and pulled it so it seemed even. Celestia stifled another giggle and pulled at the belt, flipping it in the loops. She buckled it for me, making sure I watched the process. “The darker side goes on the outside.”
I tugged at the shirt to settle it better onto my shoulders, then walked over to the sleeping Twilight. I pulled the top blanket off of the bed and set it around her shoulders. The princess nodded and walked to the door, slowly opening it. “Mil…” A guard started, drawing himself to a salute. Celestia quickly drew a finger to her lips, pointing at the sleeping figure in the chair.
The guard nodded, we slipped out of the room and the princess closed the door gently behind her. “Make sure that my pupil is not disturbed,” she whispered to the royal guard. “If she awakes before I return, give her directions to the royal library and instruct her to enjoy whatever book she desires.” She pulled a scroll out of her sleeve, almost seeming to summon it from the air. “This is a scroll giving her free reign of the books; please make sure she gets it.”
The guard bowed, and took the scroll. “I’ll be heading into town, along with my friend here. I should be back in time to raise the sun, but my steward knows the process if I’m not back in time.” Once again the guard bowed, then pulled a wand from his hip and pressed it to his lips. I heard him whispering into the wand-tip, nearly word for word everything Celestia had just said.
When finished he paused for a second, listening. He nodded and said, “All units informed, instructions are clear. Enjoy your night out, ma’am.”
Celestia and the guard bowed to each other, then she walked down the, beckoning me to follower along with her. “Impressive bit of magic, long distance speech. And to multiple people too,” I said. Celestia nodded. “I developed it… a long time ago,” she said quietly. I patted her arm. “Sorry, princess.” I shook my head. “And I’m even sorrier for what I need to say now, but…”
“I know,” she said quietly. “I’ve been a little sensitive to things concerning my sister lately.” She looked at me and a small smile appeared. “You make me think of her. The way we met.” I nodded. 
We had passed a few hallways and an entryway by this time, and had come to a set of huge double doors. The princess walked up to the left side and knocked on a part in the very center. A smaller door opened, and a guard bowed us out. “We really need to put a doorknob on the inside,” Celestia said in passing to the guard. “Sorry ma’am,” said the guard. “We haven’t figured out how to get inside the door without breaking it…” 
Halfway through the courtyard, a thought occurred to me. “No one seems to think it’s odd you’re not asleep. What time is it anyway?” 
“It’s around three in the morning.” Celestia waved at a patrol group on the wall, and they signaled the group controlling the front gate, and a smaller door was once again opened in a much larger set. “They know that I don’t sleep often, or long. Whenever everyone else is asleep, I usually walk around the city. It’s got enough people that there’s a lively enough night life, which equals out to a large amount of businesses staying open all night. Right now I’m heading to a deli I like, do you mind?” 
“Princess, even if I minded, I wouldn’t know where else to go anyhow. Lead on…Celestia.” She smiled as I finally used her name, and we walked to the front gate together. “I have to pick up a couple of guards here, they won’t let me leave without two,” she whispered to me.”
As we approached the door a group of six guards lined up by the doors. Without stopping the princess pointed at two of them. The other four groaned under their breaths and filed back into the door, while the other two put themselves directly behind me and the princess.
We walked out the doors and were immediately immersed in the city. The two guards turned and closed the door, then relaxed and took position a little further back, talking quietly between themselves. “Most of the guards have seen me cast magic before,” she explained to me, “so many of them know I can defend myself well enough alone. These two behind us are for show. Most view my escort as a respite from the castle, extra free time to walk around the city. Before now I would usually be talking with them, mostly about their families.”
“Sometimes though, I get one who has ideas above his station,” she said in a slightly louder voice, and I turned around to see one of the two guards blushing furiously. I stared at Celestia, dumbstruck at the idea of anyone even making a pass at her. “He came to work still intoxicated from the night before,” she whispered to me. “I was trying to make the night easier on him, so I took my escort and bought them both some coffee.” 
“W-what did you do?” She smiled and said three words. “Magical rapid detox,” she said simply. I shuddered, saying, “Well, at least no-one will come in like that again.”
“No one on my personal guard, anyhow,” she said smugly. 
She opened a wooden door to one of the shops we’d been passing for some time, and the warm smell of fresh bread steamed out. I walked into a small room, with white walls and six tables. A tired clerk came in out of a side door, that lead out into an alley. Throwing a cigarette butt into the trash can on the way, he started what was obviously a memorized spiel.
“Welcome to Evander’s Deli and Sweet Shop, m’name’s Elliot, how can I help you?” The entire speech was called over his shoulder, for he had immediately walked behind the counter to a sink and proceeded to wash his hands. The princess turned to the guards and me, holding a finger to her lips. She stealthily walked up to the counter, and I saw her take a breath.
“Is this really how thou would treate the Princess, O uncouth youth?”
The poor young man froze and twisted in place catching himself on the counter, eyes wide and staring up at the princess. “By Celestia’s beard…” he breathed. Realizing what he’d just said, his face went pale and his mouth started moving soundlessly, like a fish gasping for air.
The princess smiled, and the guards were holding their faces suspiciously still. I leaned close to the one who had blushed earlier and asked, “Is she always this… lively?” The man shook his head. “She hasn’t been in this high of spirits for a long, long time,” he whispered, almost sadly. He smiled suddenly. “But she’s having fun now, and she’s happy.” He looked me in the eye. “And if it’s because of you, and you screw it up in any way, then I swear on every drop of water in the biggest ocean in Equestria that every guard in the Royal Forces will make you regret it.” I saw him tense his shoulders, and heard the cracks from his bones. 
I turned silently back to face the princess and clerk. Elliot had regained most of his composure, and he was shakily making up Celestia’s order. I joined her at the counter and looked through the glass, checking out the meats, cheeses, and sweets they had in stock. I felt my stomach gurgle and heard a growling noise. 
Celestia smiled and pointed at two different meats and a dual-colored cheese. “Those on wheat, baked until warm. And whatever my men in back want,” she said dismissively, waving her hand toward her escort. Elliot served the princess her food, a dark bread and light meat with a green paste and a slice of red. 
We went to a round table in the corner to wait for my food, and the princess’s drink. The guards were at the counter, discussing what to buy themselves, and we overheard one of they say, “I’m not sure, I don’t really have enough money for that fine…” The rest of his sentence was drowned out by the princess sighing. Handing me a small purse (again from the suspicious sleeve) Celestia asked me, “Will you please go hand this to the clerk? Tell him that it’s for the four of us.”
I did as she asked, passing the message on to Elliot. Shaking he opened the pouch, and glanced inside. He paled again and looked up, shaking his head. “This is way too much, even for all four of you…”
“Don’t forget, milk for my companion, a house ale for one of my guards, and tea for the other and me.” She looked pointedly at the man I spoke to earlier, who once again assumed a blank face while his friend chuckled. He still couldn’t hide his blush.
Elliot looked uncertainly into the purse again, and then looked helplessly back up at me. “Take the money,” I whispered conspiratorially as the princess returned to her food. “Pour it into your register and be done with it.” He nodded, did just that and handed the purse back to me. I squeezed it, poured the last five coins back on the counter, and smiled pleasantly at Elliot before I walked back to the table.
By this point Celestia had finished her sandwich, which I promptly picked up and took back to the counter. Elliot was busy making up the guard’s sandwiches, frowning unhappily the entire time. He finished building our three meals, all of which were much bigger than Celestia's, than stuck them on a metal tray and pushed them into an oven. On top of it he put an iron teapot that held the two’s tea, then grabbed a glass from a cupboard. Bending down, he pulled a bottle and a carton out of a small icebox. Filling the glass with milk, he handed it to me and the bottle to the guard. 
I took a sip, then a larger drink. We all retired to the table to wait for the three sandwiches to cook, and Elliot went back outside the way he’d come in. I saw him pulling a box out of his pocket just a second before he hit the door. “You two may join him, if you wish,” Celestia said to the guards before they sat down. They looked at each other, then back to the princess, who waved them away laughing. “You know I can take care of myself, you’ve both seen.”
They hesitated another second, then the blusher pulled his wand from its holster and cast a red web over the front door that disappeared after a second. Nodding his satisfaction, the two went to the side door and joined Elliot the clerk.
“Now, we can speak honestly between ourselves.” I pulled out my chair and sat, just as Elliot ran back in. I could hear the guards laughing before the door closed… most of the way. Someone had their foot in the door, keeping it open. Elliot grabbed a kitchen mitt from the counter as he passed it, sliding it on as he walked. He snatched the teapot off the stove just as is started whistling, grabbing a cup from the cupboard and pouring skillfully. 
“Milk or sugar, your highness?” She shook her head, and he brought the pot and cup over to the table. He set the pot on a ceramic square he pulled from a stack on the way to the table, and the cup in front of the princess. He walked back to the icebox and pulled out a bottle of water, then was back out the door with the escort.
Celestia sighed and put her chin in her palm, elbow on the table. “I think I’ve made him nervous. Was I too harsh on him?” I shrugged. “I thought it was funny, as did your escort. Maybe that’s just the sort of person he is?” Celestia nodded slowly, perking up a little. “Anyhow, you wanted to discuss something… private?”
She smiled and said, “You speak as if you were so old, Spike.” “I learned from lawmen and royalty, highness,” I pointed out. She nodded, then let her gaze drift to the window. “I’ve been thinking of bringing Princess Luna back.”
I felt myself stiffen and forced myself to relax. “Has she returned to her normal self?” Celestia shook her head. “No way for me to tell,” she sighed. I leaned in close, and whispered, “Maybe I’m just biased, but I need you to remember what she did to my parents, and what she tried to do to me when she… ended them before the process could complete.”
Celestia’s face quivered for a second, then a lone tear fell from her eyes. She wiped it away and nodded. “I’m just… so very lonely.” She looked me imploringly in my eyes. “No one should be this lonely for this long.” I leaned over and grabbed her hand with mine. Her fingers were longer and narrower than mine, like Twilight’s. “But Celestia, isn’t that what me and Twilight are for?”
She nodded, face quivering again. I rested my hand on her shoulder and rubbed, as she had rubbed my head only an hour or so ago. She grasped it and put it back on the table, squeezing it. “While I appreciate the sentiment,” she said, grabbing a napkin and swiping at her eyes quickly, “I can’t let anyone see their princess having a vulnerable moment. Work will spread that Equestria’s leader if weak, and the nations might try to take advantage of it.”
She looked me in the eye and said, “I’ve ended too many nations already, I’ve no desire to kill any more governments.”
Thinking back to all my time in the egg, I could remember one or two times that I’d heard Equestria go into a war, and most of those times the war lasted only a week or two after we’d entered. Only once had anyone attacked us directly to my knowledge, and I remembered that only lasting two days.
“Are we so surrounded by enemies? I’d assumed that the ones surrounding us had learned better over the past ages.” Celestia shook her head and sipped her tea. She frowned at her cup and stood up, gesturing me to walk behind her.
“We are surrounded by countries and fractures of old foes, tenuous ties keeping us out of war but our nation’s prosperity keeping it a close prospect. I don’t know how ‘awake’ you’ve been the last few weeks, but the assassination attempts have gotten bolder for some reason.” 
We’d walked into the kitchen in back, and Celestia was going through the cabinets, looking for something. I was looking at her in awe; most people would be holed up somewhere, hiding for their lives. Celestia was here, rummaging in this deli’s kitchen for who knows what, sounding annoyed at the very prospect of assassins.
“P-p-princess!” I turned and looked at the kitchen’s door, knowing who it was. 
Elliot stood in the middle of the door looking scandalized. I saw the guards looking over his shoulder, with panic on their faces. They saw what was happening, then one of them clapped a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Milady, can this lad help you with what you’re looking for?”
“Honey,” she said, going through her third cabinet. “They’ve moved it since I was last in here…”
Elliot took a breath, walked over to a shelf on the other side of the kitchen, and grabbed a jar from it. He turned and walked over to the princess’s side, pulling out a drawer and taking a small spoon from it. He held both out to the princess, who took it and smiled, glancing at me and the guards. One of them sighed, and the other elbowed me gently in the side.
“Thank you so very much for your assistance,” she said, staring straight into Elliot’s eyes. I could see his ears burning red, and heard the guards on either side chuckle. She put her hand on his head and started to muss his hair, then the smile dropped from her face.
“Reconsider, and I’ll let you walk out of here with your life.” I saw the color drain from Elliot’s ears and neck, and my entire body tensed, my legs bending by instinct. The guards both reached for their wands, drawing them as I bent my legs until my heels almost touched my thighs.
“I cannot,” Elliot whispered. “They have my family.” He tensed his arm, whipping it towards Celestia’s face. The princess shoved him backwards and ducked the spell he shot from his hand, green magic bursting forth and burning the wall where it hit. I pushed the floor and leaped at the clerk, hands outstretched to snag his shirt. I saw a red spell fly past me, and felt another sting my back, propelling me forward faster.
I hit Elliot and we both slammed hard into the ground. I pulled a hand back to swing, but I stopped myself when he didn’t struggle. The guard’s spell had hit him in the middle of his chest, and Elliot no longer breathed. I felt my own back stinging then, and reached around to rub it.
“Don’t!” I looked up and across the room at the princess. Her hair was slightly wind-tousled, as if she’d been in a storm recently. “B-but that spell should have…” I looked around at the two guards, who had fully entered the kitchen and now had both wands pointed at me. 
Celestia walked up to the nearest guard and took his wand away, an extremely angry look on her face. “Spike is not only a guest, but also one of my oldest friends. He is family, and the next time someone hits him with a spell like that, I will make sure they are hanged for treason!” She’d worked her way up from a dangerously low voice to a shout, nearly knocking over the man she was yelling at with the force of her voice alone.
She turned and strode over to me, wand still in hand. “That spell should have killed you, but it wasn’t designed for dragons,” she said to me, pushing my shoulder so that my back was to her. The two guards drew in their breath, and I understood now that only seven people knew what I was.
The burning on my back was getting worse, and I was starting to smell charred flesh. “Your skin is too thick for this spell to get through,” the princess was explaining as I felt her poke the wand into several places around my back, avoiding the burning area. “The magic just clung to you instead, creating a residue of the spell that’s now eating through your back.” 
The princess then stabbed the wand into the middle of the burning area, and I gasped and grabbed the counter I was sitting near. The area began to get smaller and more concentrated, burning like fire that was slowly being extinguished from the outside to the in. Just as it became unbearable, the last drop was erased and I collapsed, gasping for air from having held my breath.
“Get him off of that corpse,” I heard Celestia say. I looked down and realized I was still on top of Elliot. I groaned and pushed myself up, letting one arm collapse so I rolled away from the cooling body. The two guards picked me up, and one of them slid a nearby chair underneath me.
“One of you needs to go to this address, check on the owner,” said Celestia as she snagged a nearby piece of wrapper paper. She used the wand to write on the paper, then handed both over to the guard she’d taken the wand from. He saluted and left, speaking quickly into his wand. Celestia sighed, then went over to the large fridge and took out several bottles of water. She set them all on the single table in the room, cluttered with utensils. She curtly pushed several items out of her way and sat down next to me, motioning the left-over guard to do so as well.
“Morris, any idea what we’re dealing with here?” Celestia cracked the wax seal on one of the bottles and handed it over to me. I drank half the chilly bottle, my hand clouding the outside of the bottle. Morris was also passed one, which he also drank deeply from. 
“From what I could see, he sent a changeling spell at you,” said Morris, the remaining guard. “Which, in my mind makes it extremely unlikely that they’re behind this.” His voice had dropped its accent-less quality, and now sounded very northern. “I’d have to think it’s someone who wants you to do their dirty work for them, get rid of the changelings.”
“I thought the changeling were a myth?” I looked at Morris inquisitively. “And I thought all dragons extinct,” he said shortly, then flinched at Celestia’s look. “Sorry,” he said to me. “My grandmother was killed by a dragon; my father raised me to hate them.”
“I can understand,” I said. “I’m more concerned with the changelings, truthfully.”
He nodded. “They’re real, and they’ve claimed a crater far up north for themselves. Things can withstand the cold like nothing else I know of.” He shook his head, saying, “But when they send assassins, they send good ones. They would have killed and replaced me or Allain, they would have studied you for awhile and they would have known your favorite escorts.” He took another drink from his water. “But remember milady, Allain’s the one to ask this. I know almost nothing compared to him.”
Celestia sighed and nodded, leaning back against her chair and drinking out of her own bottle of water.
I sniffed the air and looked at Morris. “I think those sandwiches are done cooking. I don’t know about you, but I believe I’m starving.” He nodded and stood up, grabbing an oven mitt on his way to the stove in the other room. He brought the entire pan back with him, shoving the food onto two random wrappers that looked clean. He tossed the metal pan into a sink and sat down in front of his food.
Celestia cleared her throat and pulled her wand from her hip. She waved it over the food, and we watched as green liquid streamed up from the three sandwiches into the tip. “Sleeping agent,” Celestia said as she wiped her wand on another sheet of paper. “Would have knocked you,” she pointed at Morris, “out long enough for the clerk to try and finish me.”
Morris and I ate quickly. He was famished from the spell he’d cast, and I simply from not having eaten yet. We split Allain’s between us, and finished our bottles of water. 
When we both had finished the last scraps of our food, Celestia stood up and looked out the kitchen’s window. “It’s nearly six; we should head back to the castle.” Morris nodded and stood out of his chair, talking to Allain and letting him know that we were heading back. “Let Celestia know that the owner and his family’s fine, they were in a stasis spell when I arrived here but they’re all revived. The owner’s been paid for the damages and told that the deli’s gonna have to be closed for the next few days, and he’s okay with it.”
Morris looked at Celestia, who nodded. “Received, see you at the Castle.”
Morris was the first out the door, looking everywhere he could before he stepped out the door. He waved me over, and grabbed my shoulder, bringing me close. “Stay behind her, stay close, stay watchful. Our life for the princess, boy.” I nodded, and he tore one of the badges off of his right shoulder and stuck it to my left sleeve, attaching it with a quick word and his wand. “You’re now an honorary member of the Royal Guard. Act with honor and hold yourself with pride.”
He turned and left the building, heading down the side of a brightly lit street heading towards the castle. Celestia followed close after him, and I after her. It was a tense few minutes, but we arrived quickly and unmolested. The door was already open, and Allain stood at the side, ready to close it. It slammed as soon as I was clear of it, and I heard many leavers and gears inside the gate turning and closing.
“I’m needed here milady,” Morris said, turning to the gate and holding his wand to it. “Spellproofing the gate and such. Goodnight, and pleasant evenings until next we meet.” He turned to the door, and as we walked away, the other four that I’d seen earlier came out and joined him and Allain, casting a shell over the gate and a large portion of the wall that disappeared after an instant.
We walked into the castle, taking the very same route by which we’d left. When we’d entered the castle proper, and the door was closed, Celestia leaned against the wood and sighed. She seemed very tired all of a sudden. “Will you see if my little guest is awake yet?” The guard by the door bowed, and spoke into the tip of his wand. He held it against his ear, and then nodded to the princess. 
“She’s in the library, as you instructed. Went straight to the Starswirl wing, as you said she would.” Celestia nodded, smiling to herself. “Would you lead Spike there? I’m in need of some rest.” The guard bowed, then looked at my clothes, my tattered shirt in particular. Celestia laughed softly. “To the tailor first then. A wise idea.” She reached out and touched the badge on my left shoulder, almost thoughtfully. “Make it a uniform, different from the others, but still with these badges. Spike’s now part of my Royal Guard, and I want everyone to know.”
The guard looked a little surprised, then bowed. “I’ll have the tailor make him up an honorary Uniform, fit for the courts…”
“No no no,” she said, almost laughing. “I’m making him a full member, and I don’t want him to have some fancy silk suit to strut in front of the Royals. He needs something useful and rugged.” 
The guard looked me over, obviously wondering what I’d done to deserve such treatment. Slightly behind her, I shrugged and mouthed, “I don’t know either,” to the guard. He stared at Celestia for another moment, as if making sure she was joking. He then bowed deeply, saying “As you wish, majesty.”
He motioned me to follow him, and turned to walk down the hallway. Celestia stopped me as I passed her, and said, “Not a word of tonight to Twilight. Let her think you’re newly born. If you need me, ask to be taken to the garden.” I nodded, then jogged to catch up with the guard.
I turned to wave at Celestia as we turned a corner, but she was already gone.