___
_____

Within his reach, his luck improves,
A window opens, mother approves.
Numbed in body, yet he still moves,
Dropping lifeless in cobalt hooves.

_____
___

Chapter 14
Cobalt

With a rustling of fast clamoring armor, a regiment of royal guard formed a stalwart barrier around the Princess. Luna hadn't even opened her eyes by the time her form, her flowing astral mane, and cobalt glow disappeared behind a line of burly pearled pegasi with outstretched wings.

Of what little details he could make from his vantage point, Devon saw an elated Princess Celestia descend rapidly behind the guarded line. He could make out voices, shrill gasps and tempered hiccups of panicked embraces clinging to that which was feared lost.

Despite the joy of the situation, and of his own renewed life, a bitter taste shivered into the back of Devon’s throat. How cheated he felt, to be depleted of such an honor after all he did for the last two days. Of course, it would be the higher echelons to get their first hellos and welcome backs, and naturally it would be Celestia and her best student at the front of the line. By the time the usual bureaucratic order of Canterlot's towering hierarchy of class got to him, after giving audience to all the scribes, advisors, scribes to advisors, undersecretaries to scribes to advisors...well...considering his position, Luna’s hooves would've been ground to beryl grains of cerulean glitter by the time she even began descending the tiers of his department.

More and more curious ponies piled against the phalanx of royal guards, their brute supremacy prohibiting any hint of budging or signs of weakness. Devon trotted towards the gathering crowd, hoping to get one last look at Luna and maybe get her attention before being carted away once more.

He had to see if she was okay, he had to see if she was even herself. All sorts of grim scenarios played out in Devon's head. He shuddered at the thought of her losing her memory, his insides groaned with pained dread thinking she was hurt, his heart sank to his fetlocks at the very comprehension of her being angry at him, fearful of him, for inadvertently sending her back to the prison in the night sky.

In a brilliant flash of light, a rippling aura of white ascended above the crowd, even turning the shimmering pearl coats of the royal guards into a dark silhouette of shadow. The crowd lurched back in one united step, looking up as Celestia unfurled her wings above them. The music immediately stopped, and with a nod towards the lightning-cyan maned DJ on the stage, smiled.

"My esteemed pupils," Celestia spoke in an encouraging articulation characteristic of a millennium-long rule. She paused, letting the expected whispers and shushes to dart through the crowd. "My esteemed pupils," she began again, "we are gathered here on a glorious night, as we have all witnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony!"

A rustling of dazed voices arose, and Celestia outstretched her forehooves as if to embrace the entire gala with her beaming smile.

A surge of cheers thundered through the crowd. The six ponies, the Elements still flickering with residual magic, descended into the roaring crowd. The blue pegasus was the exception, taking to the air in a small acrobatic victory dance that immediately ended when Celestia spoke again.

The applause subsided quickly, leaving the echoing patter of a hopping baby dragon rooting loudly atop the flank of the purple unicorn at the head of the Elements. With a smack of her tail, he gulped down his rapture with blushed cheeks. "Sorry," echoed dejectedly through the silent ballroom.

"However," Celestia continued, "She must be taken to the castle immediately," a disappointed groan exuded from the rim of the gathering crowd, "to ensure she is still at her Canterlotian royal capabilities," a very disappointed groan broke forth from Devon's lips. A sudden glance of nuanced agitation struck him from the hovering white princess, his body immediately sealing all speech as if his speaking privileges were unanimously revoked by every force of the universe.

After all that Luna had been through, all that she had said. Her fatigue and apathy with the overburdened Canterlot system of royal decorum was what got her to run away in the first place, got her to first go to the library to just escape from the noise of it all. And now they were going to throw her right back into it, as if it's some way to properly welcome her home?

Despite the objections of logic, reason, and all manners of common sense, Devon needed to get a word in. He briskly trotted to the edge of the crowd, nestling his chest in between any gap he could find.

"-Be such a ruffian, oh for sure," he sarcastically jeered, waving his curled brown mane to the side.

A small space between the ebbing gathering of ponies aligned before Devon, showing just a few more rows of the gala's patrons before reaching the line of armored pegasi standing between them and Luna. Above their outstretched wings, Celestia continued to address the attendees, occasionally looking down upon where Luna lay.

"By tomorrow morning," Celestia resumed, "we shall have more to say!" She was finishing up her speech already!? "Until then, resume celebrating!"

-Firmly into the gray flank of a pegasus that appeared out of nowhere with astute spontaneity. She sauntered to the side, swaying her front hooves to catch her balance. She looked over her opposite shoulder, scanning the far wall looking for what ran into her.

"For what?" She slowly drawled, pulling her blonde mane to the side from her eyes, adjusting the brown paper headdress over her forehead.

"Oh, for so rudely...rudely..." Devon winced, slightly tilting his head reflexively seeing that one of her yellow eyes seemed to be drifting away from focus on him.

"Naww," she smiled, waving her head to the side, jangling a pearl necklace, the paper headdress bobbing back down. "Not as rude as that...that stupid column thingy there!"

"Yeah-hah!" She enunciated carefully pointing an accusing hoof at a random column sitting innocently in the corner, "Always sneaking up on me like that!"

Oh, great galloping galoshes, Devon didn't have time for this. "Sneaking up like...what?" He asked, shooting exploratory looks around her and the three rows of ponies still gazing up towards Celestia as she was slowly descending back to the floor.

"Just like...like it just did right now before you said 'sorry'-wuh-huh-hey mister!" The gray lazy-eyed pegasus called after him, "Where you going!?"

Ignoring her, he clamored onto the backs of two egregiously complaining unicorns, propping himself up to get a better look. With a sideways lurch, he wormed in between them along the floor, intruding into the second row. Through the pearl armored legs of the guards, he could see yet another ring of muscular pegasi tightly congregated around a dim cobalt glow, a single astral adornment snaked through the securely intertwined regiment.

"Luna!" Devon called towards her. A snarling pearl cascade of cross faces descended under the first row of ponies, the royal guards returning his call with irritated scowls. "Luna, m'lady!" Devon called again, ignoring the guards as best he could. "Answer me! Are you hurt!?"

A sharp gasp shot through the air above him as an orange mare above him nickered in despair. "The Princess is hurt!?"

"Really Daisy?!" Interrupted a rose-maned earth pony next to her, "Everypony! Daisy says the Princess is hurt!"

Like an avalanche of marshmallow boulders, the crowd stampeded forward against the pearled line of pegasi. Devon dodged and snaked through the careening onslaught of hooves, clamoring desperately to get his hooves solidly underneath him. His ears rang beneath the perpetually shifting wall of panicked kicking all around.

Behind him, Devon heard the frantic barking of orders. "Get her out of here!" Bellowed one of the royal guards. "Everypony please!" Exclaimed another, his shouting evaporating to irrelevant vapor in the stupefying pandemonium.

"Meester!!!" A drawling voice called out beneath the others' hooves. Through the flickering light shooting between the other ponies, a gray body wriggled and thumped against the others' terror-stricken stomping. "Heeey!!" She yelled a second time to him, but with a yelping swoosh of blonde, recoiled her head away as a thick stallion's leg broadsided her neck.

With a final look behind him, Devon saw through the pearl armor legs a rapid descent of aides, scribes, and medical ponies. Their formation broke just long enough to catch Luna's face, at rest, sedated...motionless.

Another pearl head descended to greet Devon's curious visage, a grating expression more than ready to bring murderous consequences for starting this whole mess.

"Meess-terrr!" A much more terrified cry echoed back to him. Devon whirled around, once again making eye contact with...

...The gray pegasus mare kicked haphazardly away from one set of lurching hooves into another, into another, and into another. A thin white leg from an unseen mare tripped over her, twisting and dropping a flank with floral adornments into her wings, twisting them into a sickening angle.

We can make it if we try...

In a flash of uncanny strength, Devon whirled his rear hooves beneath him. But before surfacing above the rampaging crowd...

...Time slowed, the desperate yellow eyes looking onto him glistened in telltale fear, the schizophrenic labyrinth of flickering light jetting through dozens of legs and hooves oscillated in a nonsensical rhythm.

Until, like the eerie astral alignment of the constellations, a perfect gap was presented.

Jumping with all his might forward, he rolled underneath a nickering body. With a rapid press of his forehooves, Devon launched again backwards, spine grazing the raised hoof of a large dark stallion. The dazzling lights of the ballroom danced above Devon as his momentum landed him on his rear legs, and with acrobatics comparable to the slick maneuvers he observed from Gina, he leapt skyward over three stout male pegasi, hooves digging deep into a basketball cutie mark as he jettisoned into the air looking downward.

With gravity and physics taking full control, Devon could only observe with helpless faith as the world spun and floundered beneath him. A mass of multicolored bodies, manes and tails rushed and pulsated below him, the lights above weaving disorienting webs of reflected strobing glows and teetering shadows. A rapid-fire gale of shape and indecipherable motion played out beneath him as he flew head under hooves over the crowd. Yet amid the ruckus and riotous tempest raging before him, a searing crack in the turmoil blossomed beneath him.

And the feeble glint of two yellow eyes gleamed back. Devon reached out his forehooves to make his daring entrance to save her.

With a sharp crunch, Devon landed chest-first against the hard ground. "Hrrrnnnnk..." he groaned, getting his hooves beneath him.

"My ankle," the gray pegasus shifted to the side, dodging another homicidal round of stampeding hooves barreling around her. "I think...my ankle, it's-"

Devon extended a forehoof. Craning her neck out, dragging body in tow, she gripped onto his hoof with a sharp clamp of slobbering jaws.

"Rrumph," she pleaded between her pressed teeth. "I said-ff, I sorr-y-fmf, my ank-lmff!"

"I know, your ankle, whatever, let's just..." The stampede parted, presenting a clear shot towards the ballroom wall. "Now! Right now!"

With a rapid tug, Devon pulled backward, lifting the swaying gray pegasus to her feet. She stumbled forward, but with a labored flap of her wings, caught herself while hobbling forward on three legs, cradling a bruised forehoof against her chest.

Still pulling backwards, Devon kept his eyes fixated on the pegasus mare behind him. The density of the crowding onlookers began thinning as they made their way out, away from the cacophony of noise and chaos still rampantly surging out of control to get a glimpse of the princess. While they clamored and fought to see if Luna was okay, Devon finally broke free of the mob, away from the spectators and emerged gasping for breath with the injured pegasus in tow.

"Your...ankle," Devon breathed heavily, resting a hoof against a column. "How...how is...it?"

She frowned slightly, easily resting it against the floor. She narrowed her eyes, doing her best to keep at least one of them angled to see her hooves. Flat on the floor, she slowly rested her weight on it, her face slowly receding from clenched panic to calmed relief.

The stupid column thingy snuck up on the entirety of Devon's aggravated face. Repeatedly.

"Mister!" She called out to him, tapping him on the shoulder. "Hellooo, what are you..." She chuckled. "Wow, just what happened back there!?"

"Well, consider yourself lucky," one of the royal guards replied to him. "At least it wasn't a complete disaster. Doesn’t help that Captain Armor’s away, nopony was really in charge."

It took a few minutes for order to be restored. As Celestia made her exit by Luna's side, the throng of desperate onlookers started thinning out as word circulated that there was unfortunately nothing to see. A line of pearl armored pegasi still held rank before the rear double doors of the ballroom, but if there was anything to be seen beyond, it would've departed ten minutes ago.

The music started up again, and the lightning-maned unicorn spinning the records up front led the charge from panic to celebration.

Shuffling the reflective tile floor, Devon leaned against a wall in the shadows. The crowd that had surrounded and bombarded Luna was only growing in volume and headcount as more joined in to catch up on whatever gossip ricocheted between their dancing. With fresh mugs of cider in tow, more and more Gala patrons pressed into the pulsating halo of frantically energized ponies clamoring for more hearsay of the princess's return. As is the habit of ponies of all sorts, wishing for the best beget assuming the best, and the originally intended flurry of jovial festivity churned onward into the night.

The music continued to swell, the lightning blue haired DJ captured the moment by complementing such a triumphant reunion of ponies with an uplifting pop anthem from Sapphire Shores.

Low-hanging spotlights descended a hundred multicolored sabers of arcing luminescence into the center of the augmenting crowd, casting a black pulse of rippling dancing shadow against the wall.

Everything played out so differently in Devon's head. Luna was supposed to descend like an angel from skies in a ray of glittery moonlight, sheer in wispy vespers of retreating haze, landing softly before a hushed gathering of dignified onlookers...onlookers who part in choreographed grace, heads bowed in reverent submission, making the perfect aisle of cadenced admiration towards her as she slowly traversed the distance towards him in a succession of thankful steps...steps that gradually increase in speed, in excitement, in adulated joy as the gap between them closes, her eyes tear-filled with jovial exclamations of raw multi-faceted emotion running rampant from her heart to her hooves as she finally makes a final enigmatic bound with outstretched arms into his...

Everything played out so different. Through the rising waves of excited squeals and clattering hooves still mobbing the dance floor, the words in the music cut through festive measures and heightening intensity with a whole new meaning, as the dream of her return dissipated within his own head, fading away with dizzying curtains to reveal the maelstrom of awe-struck ponies preventing him from his due reuniting.

"Hey, uhh..." Devon called out through the perpetually thumping air. "Is this...? Are you guys...?" He took a few steps towards the middle of the ballroom, looking through a skylight to the crepuscular expanse beyond the glass. "Is this still your doing?"

The night sky responded with an old familiar ambivalence, reassuring in its dignified silence of defeat, but now seemingly a prisoner of Devon unwilling to give any further detailings of a diabolical plot. Were they ignoring him, now? Or spiting him?

“I did everything you obligated me to do!” he snarled, his rage burning, but impotent. "WELL!?" With energy propelled to the heavens, Devon bounced off his front hooves like a yapping dog. "Gyugh," he heaved, another wave of dancing shadow enveloped around him as the celebrating lights descended like opalescent rain.

"Well what?" Replied an uncomfortably close pair of yellow eyes intruding just over his shoulders.

"NYEEE-HEE-YEE-EEESH-" Devon whirled to the ground, grinding every fiber of his coat against the tile floor. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry, mister, I didn't mean to." She slumped her head down, swaying it softly to the side. The gray pegasus then shook her neck, flicking a bushel of her blonde mane over a timid eye looking up at him. "I just never said thanks right."

"Oh, you did," Devon recalled. It took about ten minutes to get her to understand he accepted her thanks for pulling her out of the stampede. It was the least he could do. Always glad to help anypony in need! Really, it was nothing. All in a day's work of an...assistant undersecretary...to the undersecretary...to the treasurer of the lieutenant scribe of the secretary of the chairman of development of state. All in a day’s work for a Bookmark, the ones who made things right. "You already did, plenty, and I bet those muffins you promise will be exquisite!"

"Princess Luna," the mare recalled, her eyes contracting to brace with a sudden wave of recollected clarity. "You were calling for her."

Devon looked up through the skylight above, giving a quizzical look to the stars beyond. They were up to something, they had to be. They had to be!

"Ah," Devon shook his head, blinking hard. "Right, uh, yes." Cough. "Why yes, miss, I was. You see, she's actually a very good friend of mine and-"

Okay this was bad news. Luna decided to run away from them!? After all that, she just took off on her own!? Something had to be wrong! Had to be! Hold up, wait. Wait. Devon whirled his ear skyward, listening intently through the throbbing pop music. Cackling? Taunting? Anything?

"Because, mister, after you pulled me out, I went to go fly around to see if my wings are okay and I remembered they were taking that Princess lady out." She flapped her wings, stretching them out before him. "So then, I got good and high up, and saw her jump off that flat carrying thingy-"

"That um...offic-...um...captain...jangling guy ran up to her and started talking, then she just ran off!"

Okay, definitely something is up, and it can't be good. What would compel the princess to leave them all behind like that? He had to go find her.

"Miss, now it's my turn to thank you!" A sudden grin of hope stretched onto Devon's face. "Did you see where she went!?"

"Tried to but..." the gray pegasus mare suddenly shook, her quivering yellow eyes narrowed and darted around in all directions but the same. "...but...I kinda backed into that column thingy again…”

Sing with a Canterlot voice!
Sing because we can rejoice!

Leaving the ballroom floor behind, Devon bounded quickly for the double doors. The pitched laughter of a passing group of older mares perked up his ears.

"And then, I said's to 'er, my son's gonna be'it'ha Hearth's Warmer's gala tonight, an' he's all ready to stick up for his momma and-!"

Instinctively, Devon ducked out of sight beneath a pile of balloons. His mother's loud chatting continued swelling over the rising laughter of her friends. Her duty complete in setting up the gala, Sara indulged in the rewards now, enjoying it in a deeper sense than anypony in the gala, probably.

"And so's then, she's all, she's all...get this, Miss Carrot Top, she jus'about went rainboomin’ over it!"

After all he said, all he did, all he promised, how much was in the balance, she couldn't find out he was suddenly ditching her massive gala celebration early! There was too much at stake, way too much on the balance, if she even got wind he wasn't even in attendance, she'd probably go nuts again and undo all the work they did. He’d have no good explanation and she'd probably go crazy.

"Ey'ladies, I know'I's ah shouldn't, buuut it’s Hearth’s Warmin’, who’s up for another cider!?"

Staying low to the ground, keeping the pile of slightly deflated balloons between them, he slithered towards the exit to continue his search for-

"HYYAAGH!" Devon jumped, clamoring backwards over his hooves kicking up a wake of surprised-to-be-airborne balloons. "Woah, woah, Woah!" He arched backward, unable to recover, his weight flinging him careening backwards, "PYOOFT!" landing firmly vertical against a column.

"Hyee-hee-hee, ha-haww-haw-hawww!" A pink filly laughed at him, slumping back into the pile of balloons. "Beware the Loch Ness Pinkie," she growled playfully before rolling back into another fit of giggles. “Now YOU’RE it!”

Devon quickly ducked his head low, shooting an eye back to his mother. She was still chatting with her companions vociferously. "Gyech," Devon sighed. This wasn't going to be easy. He couldn't just sneak out, she had to be completely preoccupied to even forget he was completely gone.

"Oh, come now," the pink pony cooed toward him. "You're at a paaar-taaay! Why do you look all sadder wadder pooper dooper doopey poop?"

Her friends could only hold her for so long. Sweet Celestia, that cider could only hold her for so long. If memory serves right, it's usually about mug five or six by the time she starts getting all weepy and needs Devon there to reassure him he's her only light in the world or something.

"And why are you so quiet? Why, I think everypony should be loud, and dance, and sing, and be loud! And not loud like that frackas when we finished our Elements thing. But loud like this song and dancing and..." Devon threw a glance back at his mother’s knot of ponies, even as the pink pony rattled off a longer and longer list.

Ten o'clock. Yipes. She was probably on mug four by now. This plan of his needed something more ornate.

"Wait, I said loud twice. HEE HEE HEE, silly me! You know how many words rhyme with loud!?"

"Cloud, proud, allowed, shroud, plowed-" the pink pony suddenly gasped, "GYUUUUH-HEY! Speaking of rhymes, we've gone through this whole gala thing for the last twenty minutes without a single Hearth’s warming song!”

Devon's face suddenly contorted, his consciousness making an effort to purge what traces of the pink pony's words seeped through. Looking back at her, he scratched a hoof against his shoulder. "You sing?"

"Huh?" To avoid any attempt at inadvertently making sense of the bouncy pink pony's words, Devon's brain divided by zero.

"Hyee-hee-haw haw haw, you're so silly! Just like Twilight! Except, you don't even need to tell me to call you silly to call you silly."

Back to what was already set in motion. He needed out. But his mother, whose forgiveness he'd just won over, needed to be kept intact. Therefore, she couldn't know he was departing early, as it would absolutely devastate her. In order for this plan to come together, he needed more than just a stealthy escape.

Devon grinned mischievously, a thought percolating into brilliance behind his hopeful glistening irises. "You know, I think I'd like to hear you sing." Oh, and how well he knew exactly what would distract his mother long enough for the rest of the evening.

"See!?" She plopped on her back, wiggling her hooves upwards. "Knee twitch, leg wiggle, flank shake!" Squee.

"An' Miss Carrot Top," a voice crept through the muffled hollows of a raised cider mug, "She's just all sorts of hoppin' mad, hee hee!"

A chorus of dizzy laughter followed suit, before being promptly interrupted by a quick flash of white and pink whizzing onto the stage. With a forehoof...err, wing around the DJ pony's shoulder, the chicken-suited pony whispered into her ear. Her lightning blue mane twitched and her brows rose, and with a dipped head, she lowered her thick glasses in quizzical contemplation. The DJ's deep magenta eyes scanned every cell of the pink pony chicken's face looking...hoping for any sign of joking.

"Puh-leeease..." the microphone barely picked up her desperate pleading in the background, her feathers quivering with sincerity equivalent to her soft appeal for a favor. "It's for a super snooty spooty spoots spooter spoot who isn't laughing." Her string of adjectives kept beat with the music. With a quick spin of the record and clattering of buttons, she expertly remixed her imploring into the song.

With a nod, the DJ smiled excitedly with her new sample, and bowed politely while relinquishing control of the turntables.

"Hyee-eee-hee!" The chicken squealed frenziedly. "Hello, everypony! This is yer' ol' pal Pinkie Pie!"

Devon slowly made his way for the double doors, keeping an eye on his mother and the chicken on the stage.

"Are you kidding me!?" Interjected an astounded crackly voice behind him. A blue rainbow-maned pegasus swung around him, looking towards the dancing pink pseudo-DJ. "I thought that knee twitch, leg wiggle, flank shake one was just her being random!"

The chicken wrapped both wings around the microphone, beckoning to the gala. "Come ooooon, everypony!" With a drop of the needle, a blaring of Muleican horns replaced the throbbing bass shaking the ballroom's foundations. A low throaty cry of inebriated celebration bellowed from the speakers as an ensemble of tubas, trumpets, and an accordion followed suit. "Sing with me now, you know it!"

Looking towards his mother, Devon saw her swing her head towards the stage in puckish delight! She clapped her hooves together, and whirling back to her friends, started flapping her forehooves at her sides.

The chicken pumped her wings to the air, a flurry of feathers descending before the stage. "You guys ready for some Mareiachi!?" With a pink swoosh, she leapt onto the front of the turntables, waving for everypony to congregate to the middle before her. Assembling in a quick flurry of excited steps, a flock of middle-aged mares and stallions formed across the dance floor with their forehooves flapping similarly. The younger ponies looked on.

In a rhythmic impulse of vestigial reflex, the dancers jumped to their rear legs, clapping their forehooves four times with the music.

Just a few haunches to go, and Devon was out the door. His mother had disappeared completely into the crowd of forehoof-flapping festivity, her own uncontrollable laughter and merriment blending seamlessly into the rest of the amalgamated chorus of raucous exaltation.

"Well, Ah reckon there ain’t no thing more unfortunate 'bout makin' this hoity toity gala hootnanny a bit more a string pluckin' hoedown." An orange mare stood beside the pegasus, adjusting her hat to the side scoping out the scene with a sarcastic bent to her smile. "Now, I do say so, this be one heckuva good way to keep em from knowin' ‘bout Luna wanderin’ off."

"Applejack!," a purple hoof jabbed in her apple cutie mark. "Shhhh! Not so loud!"

"Aww, shucks Twi', ain't nopony knowin' here," she smiled back to the purple unicorn, dusting off her cutie mark with her tail. "Y'all are makin’ a fuss over nothin’, she'll turn up."

Devon could feel the wisps of night air against his tail. The cold tendrils seemed to wrap around his legs like a snare, beckoning with chilled whispers, beckoning to remove him from the security of the gala where his presence solidifies his mother's allotment for his freedom. Come on, it hissed. Take the risk. For her.

If she found out Devon left without her, if she learned he ditched what she thought to be his own ascension to the chronicles of Canterlot's heroes, especially on her fourth mug of cider at minimum...it would all be for nothing.

"Well, I must say girls," a white unicorn with a finely curled purple mane slung in between them. "I do have to agree here with Twilight," she voiced herself regally, swinging a fine-knit pink and white scarf over her shoulder with a graceful sway of her neck. "Darling," she murmured to the orange mare, nudging her hat over her brow. "Ixnay...on the Una-Lay."

"Okay, now Ah'm quite serious ladies," the orange mare groaned playfully, trying to hide a chuckle. "No fair when y'all talk circles 'round me by speakin' in Fancy."

Devon could feel the cold sidewalk against his hooves, icy crystals in the cracks between stones seeped upward as if to ensnare him. It had grown much colder as the night progressed, and Devon couldn't keep the shivers at bay. With a final look inside, he could hear the pink pony in the chicken suit still leading the song.

It was the perfect plan, after all. Make up a story about how he only smiled after two hours of the "Chicken Dressage." Request it. Press play. Laugh and watch Equestria burn. The fillies in attendance will have emotional trauma for years, acceptable collateral damage. With a final relieved breath, Devon impulsively directed a message of heartfelt thanks to the heavens.

With a rogue gust of violent wind, the gala's doors slammed shut before him, the metallic clanging reverberated into the alleys and back out again in a continuous cycle of echoing sound as if the door had let another out, a familiar voice.

"Ok-k-kay," Devon shuddered in the cold air now embracing him, huddling against him like an old friend. "Y-Yeah. Yeah, so I d-d-d...do."

"To m-m-m...me, sh-she is-" He quickly shuffled his hooves against the icy ground, rubbing his forehooves together to generate any sort of warmth. He coughed laboriously, fighting the icy night's tendrils from interloping down his trachea.

Another flurry of coughs snuck up on Devon, his convulsions carried through the silent alleys, traversing back to his own ears a few seconds later. This definitely was a bad idea.

Just what would drive Luna to suddenly perk up and run away from it all like that? Was it something Devon did? Something he said? It just didn't line up, and with a slow canter down Canterlot's major streets, he make a thorough contemplative lap around the gala ballroom.

Even the stars were keeping their quiet. Instead of the orchestrated ensemble of goading, bragging, and attempts at dissuading him from pursuing further, they had now unleashed their most vicious verbal attack they could sling at him.

Suddenly, Devon's ears perked up. A stifled clattering of hooves danced through the ice-kissed streets, and a dim orange lamp illuminated a pegasus mare across the street.

From above, the thudding wings of three royal guards quickly swooped down and confronted her. With clumsy hoofsteps rapidly sauntering backward, she bounded off balance with flapping wings against a column.

"Ma'am," commanded a pegasus stallion, the rim of his armor gleaming with jets of furious orange light glinting off of it. "By orders of Captain Stormblade, curfew has been enacted, you must remain off the streets!"

Slowly, Devon crept an eye over the brim of the bench, before hearing an odd sounding gust of wind above him-Oh pony feathers!

Whirling into the narrow space beneath the bench, Devon tucked out of the aerial view of a passing wing of royal guards. Peering carefully through the narrow gaps of the seat, he watched as one wing of Canterlot's toughest fliers graced across the skies in a well-drilled search pattern. A longtime citizen, Devon knew what a guard patrol looked like, and this looked nothing like a guard’s normal patrol. It was more aggressive, less disciplined and completely erratic.

“Stormblades patrol pattern delta!” A voice barked above him and the wing of guards splint in various unlikely directions.

How it would ruin his mother if she discovered he not only abandoned her at the Hearth's Warming Gala, but also got busted for curfew as well.

"Hey!" Devon hissed through the bench's woodwork. "I thought you were going to be quiet!"

Sigh. While listening to the beating wings and hoofsteps to recede into the distance, Devon carefully ascended from the bench back down the sidewalk. He stuck close to the edges of buildings, making sure to keep a keen ear out for any pegasi making their rounds above.

He just couldn't wrap his head around it. Luna vanishes and Canterlot enacts a stringent curfew while they complete a search for her? Who even authorized such an action? How could such an action be authorized? From all his experience, Devon knew wholeheartedly that it could take weeks to approve a single crosswalk, but to organize and execute such a tightly-enforced measure on the entire city in the course of just half an hour?

It seems that despite all of Devon's experience working the deepest inner-sanctums of the convoluted Canterlot bureaucracy, there were had to be other inner-inner-sanctums he didn't know about. Just a couple sunrises ago, he emerged from-

Devon immediately bounded five steps back whirling over scuffling hooves into an alley. He ducked his head low, and with a swift flailing of his arms, flopped two large garbage bags on top of him.

Through the settling rattle of detritus resting atop him, Devon swiveled an ear into the air to listen for the metallic ring of armor flying through the air above. His ears were met with the usual reassuring drone of the twinkling breaths of frosty air. He was clear.

Sputtering, hacking the wet stench of garbage out of his throat, Devon pinched his eyelids in curious inquisition. "You're helping me, now?"

Huh? Oh, no no no, We were just telling you to pay attention. You weren't in any jeopardy.

The sickly odor of the alley meshed with the pungent rancorous offense the trash sticking to Devon's coat.

With a single wave of both forehooves through the air outstretched over his head, Devon taunted the celestial apparition. "Yyyyeep, yep-yep-yep-yep-yep!"

A sharp clanging of banging metal sounded down the alley. Though the frozen silence that ensued, the gradual emergence of frantic hoofsteps sauntering back and forth, pacing in long deliberate steps. Another rustle of plastic and skittering aluminum graced the hairs atop Devon's ears, causing them to swivel around him.

With a primal snarl, another raucous bang unsettled the ice lining the edges of the alley, small pools of dingy water rippled in response as a lone trashcan lid rolled in a wobbling strut from around the corner. Shadows played off the walls beyond that corner, a hunched figure searching, digging, scavenging and plodding.

Slowly rounding the brick corner, Devon peered tentatively down the alley. Disappearing into the frigid darkness, the alley ended abruptly into a chain link fence ten haunches away, a single light above a dilapidated wooden doorframe burned with a weak lemon glow. Four trashcans lay strewn across the alley, water from within still trickling out from being recently turned over.

Leaping excitedly behind him, a teal-coated mare with silver hair barked giddily before Devon. A white hospital jacket dangled loosely off her torso.

"Uhh..." If he hadn't previously befriended a mind-reading etching of glowing paisley with a ravenous appetite for sketching, Devon would've run the other way. "Sit?" Devon curiously commanded with no semblance of running in his decorum.

The teal pony's purple eyes suddenly contracted, her cheeks puffing out in surprise. After a second of contemplating, she plopped her rear legs down against the ground.

Her silver mane bobbed as she cocked her head slightly askew, contemplating that command. Her purple eyes drifted upward, following a fire escape to the top of a roof, then descending her glance back to the ground to a dumpster filled with broken bottles and worm-laced pita chip muffins.

"Hey wait, I bet you know where she is, don't you?" Devon glared up at the sky with an accusing glance towards the stars, only to see the same unsteady and awkward wing of patrolling pegasi swoop in just over the rooftops.

Of course. We’d love to work out something to help you.

With a rapid spin to ground level, Devon flung the same garbage bags back over him to conceal himself. A jagged glass tooth pressed menacingly against the plastic membrane just inches from his snout. "Oh, no, don't you even..." More clattering refuse within the bag shifted, pressing even more weight against that glass, the black bag's dermis turning translucent around the bladed glass dagger. Splotches of fetid thick lumpy water started to fill up against the side of the bag, blocking the alley's refracted light passing through it in the shapes of spoiled fruits, wadded napkins, and shriveled sprouts.

All you have to do is ask.

From above, the barks of an examining pony explored through the garbage pile, seeking the stallion hiding beneath. To Devon's shock, he felt a tampering pressing atop his hiding place, each tap pressing that glass tooth further through the breaking bag's membrane.

"Hey!" Came the muffled voice of a burly stallion above. There was a succession of heavy flapping wings, and three clamoring rattles announcing the arrival of a wing of royal guards. "You there, digging at the garbage!" With a startled yelp, the mare took off down the alley, her hoofsteps descending rapidly down the echoing corridor of Canterlot's back streets. Following in pursuit, three more sets of heavy hooves. One of these sets landing right on top of the pile of trash Devon was under.

Feeling the hoof plant firmly in his gut, Devon exhaled with his mouth agape as the wind was knocked out of him. Then the bag broke under the strain, sending a torrent of multicolored fluid pouring off a broken glass funnel into his mouth.

"KRREYA-" Devon began to scream before clasping his hooves against his face to keep his mouth shut, "-nrrrryrrrr-hrr-ynrrrrrrgh!!" He finished his apocalyptic warcry within his shuddering frame, the caustic sentiment gargling the malodorous water at the back of his throat, burning fetid like dragon perspiration. "Nyrrrrrr-hrr-hrr-hrrrrrn!" Devon howled again within, waiting an agonizing eternity for the three guards' hoofsteps to disappear from his hearing.

The moment silence reassured him to come out, Devon rolled out into the alley, heaving massively into the chilly night air. With his tongue out and flailing for any semblance of freshness, Devon bounded to a nearby fount and promptly slammed his head into the pool of hypothermia.

With a shake and a severe case of shivers, Devon left the horrid alley of bizarre horrors behind him, the amused cackling of the stars following suit.

Why did he even put up with all this? Why was he being subjected to so much pain and torment just to seek out a mare who may not even feel for him, might even be resentful towards him, he could never know for sure at this point. After all Luna's been through, Devon thought it was no wonder she felt so overwhelmed. Probably left the whole of Canterlot altogether, or at the slightest hint of being slapped back into her royal duties, fled the planet entirely to go back to making sandcastles on the moon.

Her flight away from the overburdened Canterlot system of government was only perpetuated further, and with the bonds of the stars released from her, she could now move about freely to only be shackled further. How ironic. Win your freedom, only to have said freedom immediately pinned down with the bevy of exciting new forms of obligation now available for the picking.

Devon contemplated, are we ever truly free if the base definition of "freedom" is "the ability to do anything we want?" Because with that ability at our hooftips, do we then suddenly become obligated to do everything we can do, simply out of the necessity of some mandated royal decrees and decorum or the relentless obligations of the stars themselves?

Even with his own relinquishment from life's obstacles like paying rent and tending to a family, Devon still felt the pressure. Living with his mother, though liberating on the fronts of certain responsibilities, actually held him down further. How she demanded so much of him, and through the sporadic whims of the stars taking advantage of a desperate youth seeking only the greatest for those he loved, how she almost destroyed him.

Yet even in the face of such destruction, how blessed he was. Walking down the silent street, the echoes of the pink chicken pony's song continued to blast through Canterlot's back alleys with the augmented acoustics of a saxophone into his ears. Her excited squeals melding against the Mareiachi ensemble, weaving and reverberating unto itself into being a melancholy echo of its former self. A distant soundtrack to complement this run-on stream of consciousness Devon plunged himself into.

How blessed he was to even have this moment. To have a moment at the forefront of great risk to himself and those he cared for, to ascend and mature and prove himself capable finally. For when he lacked the strength previously, he wouldn't dare take the risk. He had no reason to take such a risk. He wouldn't dare contemplate a path with potential consequences dotting the path like the beads of dripping water freezing behind him against the paralyzingly hyperboreal sidewalk.

The street spun lazily like he was traversing the sidewalk atop a succession of hammocks. Devon’s head drifted to the side, slunk far behind the motion of his body and drooping limply low to the ground. In each crack woven between stone, pavement and brick, beads of ice scaled the cobblestones’ edges, wrapping the stone like a lucid blanket mirroring the world above. For an ever so insignificant moment, the ice’s reflection occasionally expressed the tired expression of a fatigued and shivering unicorn within; the rippling glint of orange eyes wrapped in wavering tendrils along the glassy edges of the sheeted ice.

Another wave of crippling shivers ricocheted through his frame, like a vacuum permeated within his ribs, sucking in the paralyzing night air through his tense skin. Small crystals of ice clung to his pelt from the impromptu bath with the fountain. With each step, the slick cobblestones beneath his hooves faded deeper into obscure numbness, frigidly descending further and further away as his steps deadened into lethargic floating plods echoing off the fibers of his ears.

The soft howl of the frost-kissed breeze faded into the background as the telltale shrill whine of airborne metallic armor whirled through Devon's ears. Another wing of Canterlot's guards flew low overhead, upsetting the loose tiles, gutters and underpinnings of the closely huddled rooftops. Spotting a narrow alcove between a door and an empty vending cart, he darted quickly out of the bright cyan moonlight, wedging himself into the narrow darkness with his back pressed against the frosted masonry of the structure. Like a thousand clay jaws, the ice-coated bricks lashed out, chewing with frozen canines against his back as he pressed against the wall to remain concealed in the chilled embrace of shadow and ravenously devouring the tiny scraps of warmth that his body still held.

The same pegasi guards passed overhead, fading into tepid silence as the pitched song of their armor slicing through icy breeze receded to a distant irrelevant whisper in the starry darkness.

Heaving a relieved sigh, Devon leaned forward to continue down the moonlit sidewalk to the Canterlot library...

The presence of another wing of royal guards circling overhead reminded Devon to get a move on. Though the ethereal grasp of the wintry wraiths of night air hardly leeched a breath of heat as Devon bolted into a frenzied dash toward the Canterlot Archive.

"You there!" An aggressive voice commanded overhead. A higher pitched screech of metal cleaving through the air signified the rapid descent of the guard. "Stop where you are!"

In a stretched blur of pearl, a pegasus dropped with a heavy, clanging thud to a forbidding pose. He stretched out his wings, narrowly staring down Devon through his helmet's scintillating rims bordering his eyes. "I said stop!"

Stumbling over his hooves, Devon darted to the side, finding a narrow back alley twisting madly between the twisting brickwork of two eroded houses. He bounded rapidly towards the inviting darkness-

-Another pearl streak dropped before him. The guard's pupils sunk away in surprise, gasping with a sudden twinge of familiarity upon seeing Devon, and impulsively shot Devon a murderous glare. With a bolt of memory lashing across his expression, his mind recalling a particular similarity to such countenance, Devon blinked to find himself on the ballroom floor in a forest of stampeding hooves, the same murderous glare looking firmly upon him. The memory's chaos blurred and gradually diminished into fading wisps of swirling embers, but the guard's murderous expression carried over seamlessly into the dimly lit street before him.

Devon turned again, facing back to the way he came, only to find himself muzzle to muzzle with a third royal guard looming with commanding imperviousness before him. In a stout grunt, an exacerbated puff of irritated steam punched into Devon's face, forcing him to step back. The large pegasus stallion took a long saunter forward, lowering his head eye to eye with Devon, when he suddenly rolled his eyes backward in a shocked gasp.

“Hyah!” The guard’s partner called. “Nice catch, Stormblade’ll give ya a medal fer sure!”

"Don't worry," the robust stallion smiled, speaking in Devon's voice. His words bypassed his ears, throttling straight for his mind as if they were coming from his own thoughts. "She's coming." The syllables echoed eerily with each utterance, carrying a ghostly hum following like they were echoing off the speckled membrane of the night sky.

"Sir, stand where you are! Don't run!" The first guard quickly navigated in front of Devon.

"Yeah, you's." The second guard growled, aggressively lowering his shoulder at him. "I know's ya, kiddo. From that’a Gala stampede we had all back there, it was you's that got's that mess stah’ted!"

"Hey, yeah, I..." The other guard nudged the second in the shoulder. "Of course, I'd recognize that ornate cutie mark of yours anywhere, yeah." The agitation slipped from his voice, elevating to a tone of amused sincerity. "The statue garden! I was there!"

"Hey wait's, this guy was at the statue garden too?!" Though his expression veered into a semi-smile, it easily spilled back into a ravenous scowl. "You caused a whole lotta trouble, huh?" He stomped a hoof on the ground, sending a sharp jostling ripple up Devon's foreleg, amplified by the numbness that hung from it. "Because if you dids, I swear's-"

"Ey!" the second guard nickered, jabbing a forehoof into the first with a clanging shuffling of armor. "I told ya to never call me th-"

"Take's it easy!? Why are you suddenly on their side?! Stormblade said to bring in anypony breakin’ curfew. Don’t you wanna be one of his best?!"

An echoing voice cut through the arguing guards, pressing their bickering into the recesses of muted obscurity. "Duck," commanded the tall stoic guard.

Devon immediately dropped downward, flinging himself as flat as possible against the ground, as an orange and red blur of flailing hooves screamed strenuously over his head carrying an envelope of encapsulated wind buffeting against the back of his ears and through the vacant tufts of missing fur along his back.

A succession of meaty smacks and metallic racket pulsated around the street. Devon pressed down as close to the ground- "Hey, you gy-AAAACK!" -as one of the guards bounced and sailed over him, his metallic armored wings slashing like a fan of feathered razors half-a-haunch over his head.

Devon propped his chin up off the ground, his mind racing. "What are YOU doing out!?" He huffed deeply, coughing, the cold air taking a firm hold on his throat causing him to wheeze through his words. He cleared his throat, his voice receding to a regular lower pitch. "And just how did you-Behind you!"

"I see'im!" Gina groaned, bucking the first guard in the chest with a single hoof. He took to the skies tail first, careening through the air. He rolled along his spine, attempting to regain his footing, but slipping on a patch of ice he continued flopping backward over frantically waving rear legs, helpless under the combined wrath of physics and gravity...

"Pyoof!" ...flopping sideways against the front chestplate of the large guard stallion.

Gina raised her rear hoof forward, giving it an approving wiggle. "Yeah, yeah, I know you're wondering. Why am I out?" She loomed above him against the shimmering starlight. "The creep in charge of these two mules kept blabbin’ about Bookmarks.” She chuckled, letting loose another trademark maniacal smile. "Kyeh-hff-heh, heh! Thought it was me, or he had a crush on me or somethin’ all I had to do was listen for him to say what he was up to! Figured it wouldn’t be long before he found ya."

"-Now, you's missy bett'uh," groaned a faltering voice behind Devon, the screech of dragging armor accenting the wobbling clatter of recovering hoofsteps, "you bett'uh...bett'uh-"

In an orange flash, she jumped over Devon's prone form, carrying forth a swiftly delivered volley of crashes and thumps into the second guard, tossing him against his backside on the ground. With a downward twirl, Gina wedged her rear hooves in a drilling motion, wedging them firmly into the ruts between his armor and proceeding to lift him flailing helplessly.

"Told me...hyurngh!..." Gina forced all her weight upwards, bucking to the skies with the flailing silhouette of a ranting guard, cannoned like a pearled meteor arcing with shimmering flecks of reflecting moonlight into a pile of two other armored pegasi moaning in pained displeasure. "Told me what?"

"That unicorns don't need their horns!" He smiled gently towards her, conveying his best encouraging words. "We always find a way somehow."

"What!? Oh come on," Gina groused, pinching her nose in agitation. "Now go! You're clear!"

"I got this!" She wheeled back towards the third guard, his towering figure dwarfing her, his encompassing shadow swallowing her with ravenous darkness. "I think..."

Devon leveled his forehooves against the ground, looking up to her. "Why are you helping me!?"

"Oh, for the love of..." Gina leaped over the guard in an acrobatic forward flip, planting her forelegs squarely around the neck of the large guard. "Because!" She wrenched back, planting her rear legs into his neck, attempting unsuccessfully to wrestle his head towards the ground. "That Stormblade guy told me!" She pulled again, only able to rustle the hairs on the back of his pearly coat. "If you...Hnnyk...Dev's, if you don’t get to Luna first he’ll-"

"What? I was there, Dev’s! Don’t you even remember that he’s up to something?!" Gina bounded off the guard's back, and caught a glimpse of Devon's face, the bewildered expression conveying the telltale realization that he was marvelously unaware of yet another threat to his and Luna’s future. "Oh seriously, really!?" She hollered, bounding to stare down Devon nose to nose. "So you didn't think messing around with the stars all willy-nilly would not get some creep with a power fantasy’s attention!?"

"Seriously!?" Gina reeled on her hind legs, spinning her forehooves maniacally before crashing them loudly into the cobblestone Devon's chin huddled against in sudden terror. "Really!?" The cobblestone cracked dejectedly. "You selfish, inconsiderate..." she seethed. "...Loathsome!" Grimaced. "...Vile!" Raged. "...Wasteful sack of festering STUPID!"

"Gina, listen," the dark unicorn shivered, his features retreating beneath his navy mane. "I'm sorry I didn't know-"

"-You apologize!?" Her pupils blazed widely. "I pulverize!" She raised her hooves high over her head, her forelegs quivered as raw anger pulsed menacingly through her muscles. A blind tsunami of rancor exploded, sending her limbs into a sporadic blast of charging death. "KYAAAH!!" Like a blazing orange bullet, she pounced twice into a sideways leap against the side of the large royal guard, torpedoing all four hooves squarely into his ribs.

"Pyook!" He sharply huffed, the inertia sending him toppling sideways at incredible speed. He flipped across his spine, carrying back over to his hooves, unable to find any footing as the momentum hurled him further back again into a screeching drag against the side of his armor, a sheet of sparks fluttering behind the fast tumbling hulk. "Kyuck!" He yelped crashing into a pile of garbage bags, launching him like a ramp into the air, his body spinning wildly with hooves outstretched, crashing with his back flat against a column.

"Woo-hoo!" Gina cheered, the homicidal tirade snapping instantaneously out of existence with a bright beam of joyous triumph taking its place. "Dev's, I'm so glad you're such a dope sometimes!" She sauntered happily towards him with an increasingly augmenting smile of tightly clenched teeth. "You know exactly what to say to bring out my inner berserker!"

"Oh, thanks," Devon groaned, huffing snidely. "I say, it goes quite nicely with your outer berserker, too."

"Haw, haw, Dev's," Gina peered over her shoulders, then reached a forehoof down towards Devon. "Get up. And go."

"-You want to find Luna?!" She lowered her head, similarly dejected in slunk melancholy like at the garden's porticullas. She attempted a smile towards him. "You got a dream to chase down, doncha? I’m not going to try and stop you. You're clear, just go." Her smile started to fade behind gently quivering eyes.

"-Devon I mean it, I..." she blinked heavily, noticing the pathetic dark unicorn pushing futilely against the cobblestones, his torso getting yanked back against the ground as he thrashed against the unrelenting icy grip that had frozen him in place. Water from the fountain and icy cold locked the unicorn snugly in place. She choked back a laugh.

"Pf-f-bt-Ha, haw haw haw!" She lurched forward, rolling on the ground. "Then allow me to help with that." She groaned in agitation as her cracked horn illuminated to life. "Ynnk!"

"You sure..." Devon observed quizzically, "...that you should be using your horn?"

"I'm more...Yrnngh!...worried about casting...Rrrnk!..." She coughed down a burst of pain, thrusting her head forward as the glow intensified and wrapped a thick orange aura tightly around Devon's shoulders and hips. "...About casting a memory erase spell on those...Yrnnk!...on those guards." Sparks illuminated and cascaded from between the cracked gaps now burning intensely where her horn fractured, wisps twisted ablaze in magical coils of leaking energy.

"Ah, jeez." Devon gasped, clearly seeing the pain in her shuddering eyelids as she plunged her magic into her cracked horn. He felt the telekinetic energies wrap firmly around his body, the wrapping tendrils clinching like thousands of determined pinches taking hold of every fiber of his skin and coat. "This is really going to hurt isn't it..."

"Celestia's going to get a few new middle names, yep." Gina grinned with smug reassurance. "Hynnngh!" She heaved, bracing her neck with her shoulders. She lowered her head, getting ready to pry Devon's frozen torso off the ground.

"Hold on wait wait," Devon turned his head to face Gina eye to eye. "Listen, if the shock kills me," Devon closed his eyes to a narrow gaze, a warm smile creeping onto his face. He exhaled deeply, softening his voice to a calm poetic tone. "If the shock kills me, I just want you to know...if I don't make it..."

Gina opened her eyes wide, her pupils expanding suddenly as the pain on her face receded to meek curiosity. "Yes, Dev’s?"

"Eh,” Devon dragged a hoof through the sporadic holes torn through his coat, still dusting specks of stone and dirt from around the edges. “It'll grow back."

The hairs on your underside? We were talking about how you left her to deal with those thugs.

"Oh, Gina?" Devon laughed. "She'd be more mad if I stayed." The unicorn grinned, "you're trying to guilt trip me now." With a slight stumble, he shuffled onto his hooves once more, the fading edges of his vision catching enough details to determine up from down and left from blue. "She'll be fine, she's just being herself you know, crazy crazy Gina."

And a lone stallion walking down the street in an inebriated daze from hypothermia...isn't crazy?

"Crazy?" Devon laughed. "Me?" He snorted condescendingly to the stars. "It's just really really, really cold out, I'm not losing it, not at all!"

"Am not, I'm...I'm..." He sauntered slightly sideways, his footing slipping off the edge of the sidewalk into a muddy tract running down the gutter. Catching himself, he righted upwards, attempting to keep his eyes as horizontally level as he could. "I'm not tired, just, well...I'm fine." The buildings at the end of the street faded into alien swirls of unfamiliar architecture, the signs and windows coalescing into a rapid fire whirlwind of color and shape.

“Th-th-then, m-maybe you should-d...” Were the stars really trying to coerce him to turn around, go home, give up? “Sing m-me a lull-ullabye.”

Huh? Later? What’s later?

And you missed the Canterlot library's turn two blocks ago.

"Okay so I'm a litt-t-ttle t-tired!" he drawled, dragging his body behind him as he spun around.

"I'm f-f-fine, I'm..." the street peeled away, the cobblestones at his feet dropped out from underneath him. A wave of soft summer blue descended from the skies, pouring over the horizon with an iridescent wave of glistening sunlight, washing away all of Canterlot's structures into an ashen haze of irrelevant dust. Puffy cotton balls warped in from the ashen detritus, and a sea of rippling green shadows washed over the ground. A wall of jade grass shot upwards, a golden path of dry hot dirt poured like spilled liquid under Devon’s hooves. A warm morning breeze licked against the back of his neck.

"Mommy," a dark unicorn colt called to him, his voice echoing gently into the rustling breeze gracing the infinite expanse of grass around him. He turned, but only met halfway before lurching his head back, looking down into a wispy quilt of platinum haze devouring the dirt road where it kissed the horizon. "Mommy?" He felt the warm thud of the young dark figure, his little shoulders nuzzling deeply against Devon's own. The colt looked up to him with shimmering orange eyes.

You promised.

"I'll always love you," the unicorn colt gulped softly. "To the sun," he smiled comfortingly, holding a hoof up to his heart. "To the moon."

We've always been here, Devon. Your refusal to compromise is bringing all this on you.

Staggering around another corner, Devon slumped heavily against the wall, panting and heaving. The adrenaline of the close call was slowly burning out of his body and he could feel the momentary strength and clarity fading, replaced with the peculiar mixture of pain and numbness brought on my extreme cold. Turning his head, he scanned behind him, fearing reinforcements or even worse, Gina coming in with more of her style of help. For a long moment, he looked across the empty streets before finally deciding he was in the clear for now.

Or not... Devon heard the sharp report of a guard’s voice just around one of the numerous corners of Canterlot.

Scrambling, the charcoal unicorn, dove towards the nearest alley, shock and fear driving him into a burst of speed he would normally never possess. In the dark alley, Devon pressed through, hoping to elude the voice.

“Captain, it’s me, Private Jetsream, where are you? Everypony is looking for you back at the gala!”

At least this one wasn’t hunting for ponies breaking curfew. Devon hoped that he could just get around and get lined up towards the Archive…

Devon recoiled slightly, reflexively seeking to avoid the armored figure of a guard, guards he had been ducking for the past sleepless nights. However, as he attempted to shuffle back into a darker corner of the alley, the chilled unicorn’s leg collided with a trash can, sending it clattering into noisy, metallic oblivion.

“Who’s out there…?” The guard stepped cautiously towards the sounds of clatter. Narrowing his eyes against the dark, the pegasus squinted in the direction of the noise. “It’s way too cold for somepony to be out here. Are you alright?”

Silence filled Canterlot’s side alley as the statement disappeared into the icy winter night. A standoff burning inside the hidden pony’s mind as he struggled with trusting one who he had just escaped from. On the one hoof, he had just escaped arrest, and thanks to Gina, it was no clean getaway. But on the other, this particular guard’s approach was nothing like the brutes from before. On the third hoof, well, the third hoof could not be felt for the stinging, biting cold that made every movement hurt and every joint scream in agony. Finally, from the shadowy murk, Devon spoke.

Jetstream balked. “Fight? What are you talking about? There was a fight out here tonight?”
Now, it was Devon’s turn to falter. He had started talking thinking all the guards of the massive machine of the Canterlot guard were aware of the other, but now had stumbled into the realm of self-incrimination. “Isn’t that why you’re here?” Devon asked through chattering teeth. “That whole ruckus when guards tried to stop me for breaking curfew?”

“Curfew?” Jetstream’s confused expression took root and blossomed. “I didn’t hear about any curfew tonight, who told you about this curfew?” The cyan Pegasus racked his memory for the last time a curfew of any sort had been enacted and found nothing. All he could remember of it was that a curfew was a frowned-upon, last-ditch, do-this-only-if-things-are-Discord-bad measure to keep control and order in the city during a disaster. It was certainly something he would have heard about, as it took royal censure to enact curfew, and Celestia was at the gala or parties all night. Unease replaced the confusion.

“Y-yeah…” Devon continued, his voice picking up an iota of stability as he found somepony just as confused as he was. “Two big pegasi, they had…um…” A moment’s pause. “One stripe on their…armor things.”

The confusion was completely gone now, now Jetstream was nervous. Worries about his friend and commanding officer rose through him. Definitely something amiss now. “Stormblade, you featherbrain, what did-“ Jetstream started to mutter under his breath before duty shifted his attention back to the figure in the shadows. “Sir, please come with me. I don’t know the reason behind this curfew, and I’m not going to punish somepony for something I didn’t know about. Let me get you to where you are going. If you’re with me, any patrols ought to leave you alone.” The Pegasus held his ground, waiting for an answer. “I can tell by your voice that you’re halfway hypothermic, and if you don’t let me help you get to where you’re headed, I’ll have to help you to the hospital. I assure you that you’ll be fine.”

Yet again, Devon faced down the perilous path of trust. He knew full well that he could walk right into a final ambush set by fate to end his quest. Yet just as well, he realized that hiding away could be fate’s trap as well. One path had a chance of disaster, another path guaranteed failure.

“Okay, I’m coming.” The unicorn started to shuffle back into the flickering light of the street.

“Thank you, sir. I’m glad you made a good deci-jeez what happened to you?!” Jetstream beheld a mangled pelt and legs quivering with cold. “Is this from those guards from before?!” The pegasi’s heart leapt to his throat for a moment. Curfew was one thing, but this was unspeakable!

“I’d really rather not dwell on it.” Specifically, Devon did not want to dwell on being torn off of the sidewalk like an old bandage.

“Fair enough, sir but…” Something else tugged at the guard. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital? You look terrible.”

“I know I look bad,” Devon breathed, taking a few gulps of wintry air in an attempt to steady his body. It would have worked were it not for the cold making all four of his legs quake. “But I have to get to the archive, I just…”

Jetstream coughed and held up a hoof. “Sir, you don’t need to explain yourself to me.” Striding forward, the guard helped align the unicorn towards the street. “If you think it is worth going through to get there, kinda a guard’s help to help you, right? Long as you aren’t planning a robbery or something, right?” Jetstream chuckled and jabbed a foreleg into the unicorn’s side, immediately wishing he hadn’t when his leg pressed into a bare patch of skin. “Erf, sorry.”

“No, don’t worry about it,” Devon squeaked, proud that he managed to silence the yelp before it left his chest. “But thank you, and no, it is nothing criminal, but it is important.”

“Wait...you’re serious?” Devon muttered. If his shaking lips could muster more of a dumbstruck look, it would be all over his face. “Just like that? I thought all of the guards were...”

“Somepony is up to something,” the pegasus responded before Devon could finish. “Not sure what it is all about, but since I haven’t heard about it, technically I’m not in anypony’s orders. Besides, I have this feeling that even if I took you somewhere else, you’d just keep at it anyway.”

Shouldering the unicorn, Jetstream turned them to angle towards the Archive, mere blocks away. “Nothing I know about. But it wouldn’t surprise me.” The pegasus let out a long sigh, pausing to watch his breath whirl out of his nostrils in rapidly fading steam. “The politics and leaders here really chafe sometimes. I wish it was better. I don’t mean to ramble, sir, but I think the guards should be spending more time helping ponies than following the orders of a captain. We don’t need orders for that.”

Turning, the guard expected confusion, or at the very least a feigned polite interest. Instead, he found a face full of empathy.

“Preaching to the choir here,” Devon responded with a pained smile. “I work for the whole bureaucracy, all we do is push papers because somepony tells us to do it. We could do more if we used our heads more, but...”

“Doing that would mean that the person in charge is not officially in charge,” Jetstream finished Devon’s thought with precise accuracy. For a moment, the two laughed in the bitter cold before the guard composed himself. “Yeah, but I’m hoping I might be able to change that. All of that fame that award brought me might be my ticket to getting some ideas to Captain Shining Armor when he gets back. He’s way more understanding than the...” A moment passed to aerate the gulf between Captain and Second Captain, “acting Captain.”

“To say the very least.” Another laugh rippled through the icy night, drawing ever closer to the Archive. Soon, the two swapped stories, each cringing and sympathizing in mirth of one another’s bosses. It helped Devon ignore the cold hanging onto his joints, and it gave him a surge of optimism. For Jetstream, it was a sympathetic ear from somepony with similar experience that heartened him.

As for the charcoal unicorn, it was a strange sensation, something he had forgotten about in the past few days. After dungeons, battles and trying to resist the stars, optimism seemed just so wondrously out of place. Things were working out, at last! Not even the stars could throw anything to stop them now as the pair rounded the last corner.

Before them loomed the plaza of the Canterlot Archive, utterly still in the winter chill. No lights burned in any of the windows and the fountain at its entry plaza lay silent, its surface stuck by a thin skin of ice. Pausing, Jetstream turned his attention to the unicorn, whose shivering was, if anything, worse than before.

“P-positive,” Devon replied, breaking the close stride with the pegasus to close on the archive door. With slightly regenerates strength, the unicorn staggered off of Jetstream’s shoulder to approach the door. “Just need to get in here and...”

A voice snapped, followed by a melodic jingle of dangling medals dragging against his chest. His voice cut with a surgical edge, only leaving the subtle jangle of metal hanging onto his words. Clearly its owner was in no mood for trifling.

“Sir!” Jetstream pressed on, ignoring his superior’s posturing. “What in Celestia’s mane has gotten into you? Did you just call curfew without any orders or consultation?!” While the private had long been used to the second captain’s antics and self-inflating grandeur, this action took it to a higher level than it had ever seen. “Sir, please tell me this was not your idea…”

“What it was, Jetlag,” Stormblade leveled, gaze fixed on the wavering unicorn who had found the wall of the archive to brace against. “Was a risky move to secure the future of Equestria. And, thanks to you, it was a complete and undeniable success!” Rather than the expected irritation with Jetstream’s questioning, he seemed pleased at the situation. “The ‘Bookmark’ who has been keeping Luna from me walked right into your ambush, just as I had planned.”

“You’ve done more for Equestria’s future than you could possibly know. This is going to look very good on your record and your career.” Lowering his head, Stormblade walked closer, his smile tinged with a desperate urge to complete the deed. “This would not be just some little gold star in your record, this is the kind of heroics a career is built off of.”

“You won’t be ‘sir’ing anypony at this rate. This will be the first of many promotions for you.”

“Just taste it in your mouth…Lieutenant Jetstream.” The private wavered. Did he say Jetstream?
He roamed his memory, searching for the last time he said his name in full and with such respect, or even the idea of moving upward in the ranks of the guard. Swallowing hard, the cyan Pegasus turned to look back at his charge. What Jetstream saw was the unicorn shifting backwards, using his brace on the archive wall to slide and grind towards the door, still a painful distance away. Devon froze under the guard’s look, locking eyes with him.

“Now Jetstream,” Stormblade’s voice rose behind him. “Let’s just make things nice and official. Hand him over to me, and return to the barracks so you can start the report that’ll lead to your promotion.”

“Hop to, private! Hey, this is your promotion on the line. And my future here. No pressure or
anything on getting it right.” Stormblade’s voice hummed with a new growl, impatience manifesting as an angry growl, emphasized with a hard stomp into frosty cobblestone. “What are you waiting for anyway? This unicorn was responsible for all of my Luna’s troubles! Arrest him if you want! Drag him down into the dungeons for me later. It’s all the same to me.”

Jetstream turned and took a step towards Devon and he felt a cold twinge, not from the weather, ripple down his spine. Everything about this seemed wrong, from the curfew, to his captain and even the strange, battered unicorn who apparently was the malevolent architect of all of Canterlot’s recent woes. Or at least that was according to Stormblade. The cyan Pegasus took another step forward, closing to lower his voice for Devon.

“I don’t know about any of this, sir, but please…” Jetstream turned to look back at Stormblade, who let out another snorting growl. “Please come with me, I know this officer, if you go with me, I promise you that I’ll get things sorted out. I have no idea what he is up to.” Devon shook his head and continued his agonized trek closer to the door. “Sir, I know I promised to keep things safe for you, but I can’t really stop him if he decides to go after you. Let me help you.”

“I know you are trying to help me,” Devon huffed, dragging his body another step down the wall. “But I’ve been running and escaping for too long. If you have to stop me, stop me, but I’m not going to go back on this.”

“Sir,” Jetstream turned back to his officer, swallowing a breath of arctic wind as he squared around to him. “I agreed to escort this unicorn, I don’t believe he means any harm. Is this reall-“

“JETLAG!” Stormblade roared, stomping over until his breath washed over the Pegasus’ face. “Did I just stutter or something? Or did you just tell me what you think about this case?” The earth stallion’s medals jingled with his aggravated motions and gesturing. Turning, the Second Captain slammed his hoof against a fountain that stood outside the Archive, the thin sheen of ice over the water disappearing in a thousand cracks. “After all I’ve done for you, you are not going to do this for me? Not going to do this for Canterlot?! What happened to your priorities and level head, Jetlag?”

“My level head…” Jetstream repeated, heat entering his voice. “What about you? Ordering a curfew on your own for no reason? I want to be on your side on this, Captain, but what is going on here?” The question only incensed Stormblade further, his hoof slamming powerfully down onto the fountain’s ice.

“That is none of your business, Jetlag!” Wheeling around, Stormblade closed the gap between him and the unicorn, shouldering him away from the Archive door. “What your business should be is following orders. This criminal has gotten into your head, Jetlag.” With a shove, the earth pony threw Devon against the fountain. “Everypony is getting a little too hotheaded, I think.”

“Agreed, sir!” Jetstream barked, circling warily as a shadow of doubt crept into his mind. Maybe he was aiding a criminal act and he just didn’t know it? “Sir, let’s not do anything hasty. He’s doing nothing wrong that I know about.”

Stormblade laughed. “That you know about. Precisely, Jetlag.” Stormblade proudly held his chest high and turned his attention back to the unicorn, still propped against the fountain. “But what you don’t know...” He lowered his eyes to Devon’s level, pulling his proud posture low into a sneaky arc that slithered around Devon. “...is that this pony has a duty to do for Canterlot.”

“Y-y-you...you n-need me...t-to...” Devon scraped his hooves in a scrabbling attempt to get leverage against the icy fountain as his lungs struggled to get coherent words out.

“Your job.” Stormblade repeated. He then saw the look of worry creeping on Devon’s face as the officer slid sideways, blocking the view of the Archive door. “Oh! Don’t you worry, I haven’t let anypony else know, but I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately.”

“Sir!” Jetstream called. “Sir what the hay is happening here? What are you talking about?”

“Can it, Jetlag!” Turning his attention back to the unicorn, the pony grinned. “Yep, well, it was more or less a few scraps.” The large dark guard leaned in even closer, the heat of his breath glazing against Devon’s wide, wavering eyes. Stormblade eased his glance upward, reminescing. “You made a mess in that tower, Bookmark. And using an innocent mare as your cover? Shameful. You left that bag of yours behind,” He waved a hoof before his face, turning his head to the side. “Awful lot of evidence there. And a lot of knowledge that...” he leveled his face to him. “...can’t fall into the wrong hooves.” Stormblade guided a searching hoof into his jacket, the familiar tin ringing of its contents pierced through the ruffling fabric. A dagger of reflected moonlight stitched across Devon’s vision as the metallic lip of Stormblade’s prize crested into the open air.

A clanging of hollowed brass echoed through the night air as a shimmering gauntlet rolled across the cobblestones to Devon’s hooves.

“You know what I need.” He quickly got to the point, skipping the necessary sugar-coating Devon expected. “You, Bookmark, are the right hooves. I need a contract. You’re going to provide it.”

Stormblade didn’t even give Devon the chance to respond. “You’re in no position to disagree with me.” Didn’t even give him the chance to think over a retort. “And I know you’ve got that power just waiting to be used.” Like he’d rehearsed his whole spiel the whole night.

“Sir!” Jetstream interjected again, his hooves clattering on the frosty cobblestones until skidding to a halt. “This is getting out of control, let him g-”

“Both of you seem a bit hot-headed, though, how about you cool off a spell!" Before the pegasus could speak, or even react, Stormblade wrenched a foreleg forward, driving Devon’s head down into the freshly exposed fountain.

From his perspective, all Devon experienced was the icy, engulfing embrace of water. Voices melted into unrecognizable blurs and his vision. The shock of the cold forced a reflexive gasp from the charcoal unicorn, which drew more water into him and another shocking burst of cold before he was yanked back, sputtering into the air.

"Captain!" Jetstream interrupted, "that's enough! I have to stand up for myself on this one, let me handle him sir!"

"Standing up for yourself? Oh, no no no Private, you are standing up for this criminal." Stormblade slammed his hoof down, forcing the unicorn into a thrashing struggle under the fountain water again.

"Want to save him?" The stallion hauled the gasping, shivering form from the water again. "Stand up for him, do the right thing, and walk away without another word."

“Sir...what are you doing...” Jetstream panted, fear more dominant in his expression. Hotheaded was one thing, overly aggressive was another, but this was well beyond anything that he seen from his friend and fellow guard before. The betrayal of all of their vows to protect and serve the ponies of Canterlot tasted bitter, and he was obligated to intervene. But if he did...

“Sir, please don’t do this, we can sort this out.” The pegasus’ mind solely turned to his former companion now. The cold had done a terrible number on him already, and repeated dunkings into the frigid water were taking a further toll. “If you keep this up, he’s going to be in serious danger of...”

Devon’s eyes fluttered, consciousness phasing a bit before Stormblade stomped his hoof, rattling his leg armor with a heavy metallic sound that jarred Devon’s attention back to the looming captain.

"So what's it going to be, Bookmark?" Stormblade snorted, calm and cool as the icy plaza outside of the Canterlot Archive.

Devon heaved, his legs unable to support his weight and he slumped against the library fountain. Cold had numbed his body, and it longed to simply fall, whether it was into the warmth of the library or the blissful sleep of unconsciousness did not matter. But his eyes remain locked on the guard captain.

"Are you out of your..." Devon spoke, icy water turning his last words into a soaking cough and drawing new daggers of cold into his body. "If you know then you saw the statues..."

"Yes. Of course I saw them and the journal." Stormblade approached menacingly, an ominous rustle of chains and metal augmenting the solid thump of each slow step. "You have a family history of this, Bookmark.” Each slow step...jostling a circular ripple in the watery cracks between the cobblestones. “You have a gift, a duty that has been stashed away for a thousand years. And now you have a pony wanting you to perform your duty."

"Th-the statues!" Devon hissed, pushing himself off of the fountain as as indignation washed into him, overwhelming the aching numbness. "That's wh-what...that's what bec-c-ame of..." Just as Devon tried to press his point, he slipped into a cough as cold re-asserted itself. “What’s the matter with you?!” he shouted with a burst of renewed strength.

Stormblade waved his hoof in a condescending arc. "That's what became of those who couldn't seize control of destiny," he huffed dismissively, reaching out to the convulsing unicorn. With a disdainful shove, he sent Devon stumbling back against the fountain. "I am stronger than all of them combined. I am one truly deserving of my destiny!” His black foreleg jabbed precariously close to Devon’s brow, the ebony hoof seeming to stab away at his aura. “Servant of Canterlot, servant of the stars, do your job!" His eyes narrowed into maniacal recession. “Fulfill your obligation!”

Devon scrambled at the icy cobblestones, relying on trial and error to find his footing as his hooves had gone completely numb. But through his dulled senses coursed a new strain of betrayal and horror. How could a guard who witnessed the battle NOT see the results? How could he NOT see the dangers?

Growing impatient with the unicorn’s silence, Stormblade exhaled. “Right.” Looking up, Devon glanced upon him leaning back away from him. "I understand."

Wait...he understands? Devon's heart fluttered, maybe he had a change of heart? Wait, no, too easy.

"You think that because of your little adventure with the Princess,” a muffled chuckle throbbed in his throat, “that you have some future with her, right?"

Devon's stomach twisted. Yep. Too easy. As the unicorn tried to haul himself off of the ground, a hoof planted into his shoulders and forced his head back down for a momentary return to the icy water before yanking him back, sputtering into the air.

"Forget it, Bookmark,” he grumbled in a low tone. “My destiny is with Luna, you don't even know of the work it would take to get her heart. She needs a hero, a decorated upstanding beacon of Canterlot’s greatness. Not some...” He turned his face away from him, looking up to the softly cackling specks of light hanging nonchalantly above the library. “Whatever you are."

Jetstream stepped forward, trying to close the gap between an increasingly heated Stormblade and himself. He was rewarded with a sharp growl and the ebony hoof grinding down, pressing Devon mercilessly into the fountain, grinding patches of exposed skin to the ice and relentlessly crushing the warmth out of him like a sponge. Immediately, the junior guard backed away.

"Ponies like you don't understand the value of destiny.” Stormblade's voice continued, as if he were lecturing a child for misbehaving. “I do. Luna does. You?” He scoffed, his tone quivering with a soft cackle that blended seamlessly into the taunting chorus from the heavens. “At most you are a useful...tool...for it.” He spat. “Deal with it.” Stormblade’s hoof eased as he took a step back, swinging around while whipping his tail against Devon’s face. “I will have Luna. I've earned her."

"If..." Devon fought for each word between swallowed water. "If that's true...wh-why take a shortcut now? Don't you..."

A black blur shot into Devon’s shoulder, and like a torpedo, a flash of ebony planted between his ribs. Squeeze. Grind.

"Because!” Stormblade exclaimed. “Because I know a good opportunity when I see it!” He heaved through tightly clenched teeth. “Destiny put me here! And put you here! Now are you going to fall into your proper place and weave my fate?!"

"Funny sermon coming from the family who tried to seize power!” Heave. Heave. “And who had the Princess sent back to the moon!" Stormblade hooked his hoof around Devon's pendant and hauled upwards against his throat, dragging the unicorn to his hooves. "But I! I can do things your way, too!” Stormblade’s eyes warped, darting aside in contemplation. “Heh, okay, okay. You Bookmarks always play the angles, so let's play angles." The crazed eyes narrowed into vicious green and blue slits as he leered into Devon's face.

Stormblade twirled back around, a menagerie of rattling chains fluttered alongside the scraping motion of his regimented step. "Here’s my angle. It’s simple.” He cleared his throat, the proud boisterous diction of the esteemed captain boomed forth in dignified words. “You make this little contract for me. Just one contract. You guarantee that Luna is mine...and...” he sternly leveled his irises upon Devon, the sibling blue and green eyes gouged clear into his mind. “And I might forget to let Celestia know about just how deeply involved with this whole...star contract, star pact, whatever mess you are."

Devon wrenched backwards, stumbling until he hit the door of the library again. Celestia's worried face danced into his memory. The mere sight of his pendent had nearly caused the graceful princess of Equestria to panic. If his family history was laid out before her, and his connection to all of the events of the past days alongside them, his fate was sealed! Devon gawped, struggling to summon words.

“Stormblade!” Jetstream barked, having managed to slip around onto the stallion’s side during his tirade. “Let him go! This has gone on long enough!” Lowering his head, the pegasus dug his foreleg against the cobblestones. “I don’t want to have to do this, sir, but I will stop you if I hav-”

“You, Jetlag?” Stormblade wheeled around, letting the unicorn crumble to a panting heap to the ground beside him. “I know you were sympathetic and soft towards criminals, but you’d actually turn on me after everything I’ve done for you?” The captain let out a devilish sneer, confidence hanging off every word. “Please, Jetlag, I know you wouldn’t even think about it. Why don’t you run back to the barracks and let the real guards work, eh?”

The pegasus grit his teeth and dug his hooves into the dirt as Stormblade dismissively turned away and put his focus back on the down unicorn, stooping down to speak.

"Your choice, Bookmark. And you're lucky you're getting a choice at all. Give me the contract, or I'll make sure the only destiny with a Princess you have,” Stormblade pointed a threatening wave of ebony at him, “is when Celestia passes judgment on you for your role in this entire...star affair."

“Like yer one to talk!” A new voice sliced through the frosty air with all the controlled grace and subtlety has a buffalo stampede. “Get off of him!”

Slumping down from the fountain, Devon managed to crane his head in time with the other two ponies, all of their gazes falling on a panting, maniacally grinning orange mare. While he had hoped to see the officer's expression falter, it only held more confidence.

“See?” Stormblade smirked, not even turning to look back at Private Jetstream. “Now you see his accomplices coming out to help him? And I thought there was no honor among criminals. She’s a special one, I admire her in a strange wa-”

“Don’t even flatter yerself, creep!” Gina hissed, cutting the Second Captain off. “You’re the only one with plans here!”

“It’s tragic, really,” the black stallion said, rolling his grip on the unicorn’s neck “I thought we could have grown closer, but then you are stubbornly refusing to help me get to the actual goal. Luna.” His foreleg shunted forward and drove Devon under the water again. “Tragic. I’d think anypony would be worthy of redemption.”

“It’s two on one, chump,” Gina snarled, circling to the stallions far side as Jetstream instinctively matched her movements, the two tightening a gradual circle around the earth pony captain. “I’m not gonna ask anymore.”

“By all means,” Stormblade smirked. “Just try and stop me. All of this combat training needs to be worked anyway.” With unflappable confidence, he released Devon to the ground and turned slow circles. “Which one of you is going to make the first move?” Each turning step punctuated with a jangle of medals. “A unicorn with a broken horn and a weedy private who I trounce daily in training drills?” The scorn was undisguised. “Come on.”

“If that’s what he wants so bad...” Gina’s body tensed. “You going?” Her eyes flicked momentarily to Jetstream, then back to the second captain. Finally, for a moment, her eyes fell on Devon, who now that he was free from the fountain, heaved on the ground, shivering and sputtering for breath.

The jangles were superseded by soft cracking sounds as he rolled his neck in preparation. Jetstream’s wings beat, building momentum added a rolling percussion. Gina’s low growls and scraping hooves completed the tense medley.

“Oh, before you get to three,” the second captain interrupted. “Just let’s keep one thing in mind.” With a back leg, Stormblade dug his hoof into Devon’s back, pinning him to the ground with a grunt. “I’m still holding the cards here. I got what I want and I can break him just as easily.”

“Oh be quiet, the both of you. I see neither of you have the courage to risk it, so if you don’t mind...” Turning back to the prone unicorn, Stormblade leaned down to speak to Devon, only occasionally twisting his hoof when he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. “Now, I’ll stop wasting time asking you, Bookmark. You’re giving to give Luna to me.” Feeling the unicorn attempt to writhe free, Stormblade tightened his hoof down on him, punishing him for daring to break from his planned script. “You never had a chance, so just give it up and be happy that you helped put Luna where she belongs.”

Every bit of logic implored Devon to give up and end the torment on himself. The voice behind fate itself commanded his surrender. Surely the pain would cease, and his own future secured if he bent fate to the will of this captain.

It was the smart thing to do. Finally collapse to fate’s insistence and accept his fate away from Luna, scraping out what he could while she is inevitably made the plaything of the stars. To be sent off to this stallion whose only interest in her is his own ego needing such fulfillment. The gauntlet rattled onto the cobblestones before him, its sleeve an open path to safety and relief.

“Got this from your bag, I know how important it is. So put it on and give Luna to me. Maybe something admiring of my combat skills.”

“Brrt! Wrong answer, unicorn.” Stormblade’s foreleg shot out, expertly aimed at the bruise on Devon’s shoulder from the first guard. Pain snapped through his body, made all the more stinging and electric by the gnawing cold. “Wear it!” The Captain dug a knee onto the unicorn’s shoulder, squeezing last bit of warmth, the last droplets of feeling out of his back. Through the numbing chill, Devon fought to right himself, not knowing if his muscle memory was letting forth the proper convulsions, but hoping that his unfeeling tendons and blurring vision was insinuating some semblance of fighting back.

“You’re not going to..” Devon panted. “Get it from me.” Even with bruises and icy cold rampaging through his body, the unicorn smiled. He could have given up, but he didn’t. He never felt better. The combined fury of Stormblade and the stars washed over him, the only warmth he had another onslaught of kicking hooves landed upon his chest and neck from all angles. An unfamiliar wisp of frigid air crept into the deep recesses of his underarm as Devon spat to the ground, looking down to see his right foreleg forcefully extended by a red jacket sleeve. A green eye peered at him balefully, and in the Captain’s mouth...

A familiar tin ringing permeated through Devon’s ears, and a warmly inviting sensation throbbed up his arm. Even without his horn tapping into the brass gauntlet, the artifact immediately recognized its host.

A foreleg wrapped around his chest, and in a single wrenching motion, attempted to yank him up to his feet. Devon’s head slunk down, lurching to the side. His forehead collided into the ground, dragged forward by the imbalanced momentum of his body attempting to regain its footing. His horn snagged on the edge of a cobblestone, and his body having nowhere to go, toppled into his neck. He felt a harsh tug on his jaw as his neck curled at a sickening angle, the horn just letting go in time for the strained bones in his neck to compensate and whip his head back into a natural angle on the ground. Moments later came the whole-body pain that his neck transmitted all over.

“Oh come on,” Stormblade groused, impatiently stomping to the downed unicorn. “You finally get shown the way to fulfilling your ultimate destiny, to ushering in the greatest era of Equestria history. Don’t you want credit as the architect of...” the Captain extended his hoof to the stars, waving an imaginary weave of magic through them, “...The Age of Stormblade? Admit it, kiddo, it’s got quite the catchy sound to it, doesn’t it?” He paused to brush off the chest of medals. “All it needs is somepony to grease the wheels.”

Devon’s rear legs attempting to push away across the cobblestone street, making way for the library door while the captain circled around him. Battered and aching, teetering on the border between consciousness and unconsciousness, Devon found strength in his conviction.

The stars’ rage in his head was mirrored on his body as Stormblade vented his frustration. Neither of them liked losing, yet as their growing rage showed Devon, neither could do anything else. Every shove or scraping fall down the snow, battering as it was, bolstered the unicorn’s resolve. For the first time in his life, he refused to break, refused to give in to the wills of others, be they pony or astral body. He would not shift, and he knew that despite the abuse they could level against him, neither stars nor guards could drag him from his fortress. And despite their force, despite their unrelenting pressure, neither pony nor astral body could break the unicorn's will.

“You get this opportunity,” Stormblade suddenly roared, “To be such a tremendous...” Suddenly his words exploded with sour malice, “...Hero!” The Captain kicked into Devon’s spine, the shock sending a charcoal foreleg flailing into a metallic clattering. “This moment is yours!”

“You’re right...it is mine.” The unicorn forced a defiant grin into the corner of his mouth. To everypony's astonishment, not least his own, Devon pushed himself up onto his legs. Physically shaking, his willpower held. “And I’m still saying no.”

Another kick. Devon twisted, finding the ground changing from cobbled street to the steps of the Archive. Something was finally giving up in his body as his vision clouded, and the hoofsteps of the approaching black stallion took on sharp focus. However, a mere length from him, they came to a sudden stop. For a moment, Devon assumed he had slipped into unconsciousness entirely before something else came to his ears.

Hoofsteps coming from the other direction, muffled by a wooden barrier, the regal, graceful cadence of hoofsteps that...that only...

The sound of creaking wood tumbled through the air, as the metallic ring of twisting locks sang with a chilled lapping of breeze. Stormblade quickly lowered his hoof and stepped back in surprise as the library door swung open, his wide eyes capturing a sporadic reflection of cobalt blue dancing on his pupil. He quickly shook his head from side to side, hoping to fling any semblance of guilt off of his face.

In a slumping flop, Devon fell against the side of the open door, one barely open eye catching a deep blue glimmer reflected in a spiked shine caught on the chrome of the door frame's large hinges. A regal, majestic aura stepped forth, looking accusingly down onto the earth pony guard captain, his armor clanging in tune with his panicked yelp as he dropped to a reverent bow before her. In utmost royal splendor, she assumed a staunch poise, a strong-postured silhouette against her sparkling blue presence.

Like a thunderous squall, her voice rippled down the rows of structures, shaking windows and sending hanging signs on a swaying dance of synchronized swings. Both Gina and Private Jetstream stopped in their tracks, eyes locked instantly onto the new arrival, and both wisely said nothing, aware of the tsunami of rage about to crash into the plaza. A few curious windows illuminated to life from the inquisitive, while many more extinguished into hiding from the wise.

“Oh th-thank Celestia!” Stormblade bleated, not as wisely. “I was so worried that when you ran off after you saw me that I-”

"And pray tell, Second Captain Stormblade." Another pulse of sonic onslaught rocked the ground, causing pebbles to dance into the gaps between the streets cobblestones. "Are these thy orders?! To assault our subjects?!"

"This was not just an order," he recovered, that grin returning, “I was hoping to catch, err uhh, recover you...find you myself, eh-heh-heh, well, I mean punish the ones responsible for-” an uncomfortable laugh broke free, betraying Stormblade’s faux countenance of pride. “Princess, heh-hyeh, there’s just so much I need to sa-”

"Speakest as if thou art to speaketh to a princess!" Luna exclaimed in sheer aggravation, the fire in her eyes made Stormblade's tirade seem pitiful and halfhearted.

"M-m-Miss Luna, err, Princess Luna, I was trying to get you safe from this...this unicorn! He was trying to do some horrible magic to you!" The captain coughed, getting back onto his feet to collect his thoughts. "We had declared a curfew to ensure that you were safe, I had stopped the city and mobilized the whole guard, well a special task force, for yo-”

Luna sighed, rolling her eyes back. Of course. The bloated Canterlot system of irrelevant checks and balances were overriding one another to declare martial law. She felt a pang of raw malignity venture through her veins, but couldn't even draw the strength to summon it forth. So common it was for those with the slightest grasps of authority to tear open loopholes as to declare their own brand of utilitarian law. Luna had been an overseer of Canterlot's varied assortments of sideshows and petty political carnivals to understand and acclimate to such a despicable practice, but also couldn't let said apathy be detected.

Luna breathed in deep, already knowing the answer to her question. "And who doth ordered such curfew!?"

Stormblade caught the shining opportunity to deflect responsibility. "C-C-Cel...Princess-"

"-Celestia!?" Luna reared, a blast of spontaneous thunder bolted in chaotic anger through the wintry sky. Her frame was masked in a flash of blinding light, only her eyes and clenched grimace blaring a definitive white upon her rancorous silhouette. The captain pushed himself back, pulling his jaw back to an imperturbable sneer as he shielded his eyes under a narrowed brow. She dropped back to her forehooves, the impact causing a frozen puddle of water to leap before her into thousands of airborne shards. Moonlight arced through the precipitation, enveloping her in a ghostly aura like a poltergeist. "Impossible, never, mine sister be thoughtful and caring. She hast absolute love and trust to me.” Luna growled. “In fact, we believeth that she doesn’t even know of this.”

Luna approached the guard, and with a coy smile, faced him eye to eye. "Telleth me, Second Captain Stormblade. Just whom do I thank for providing Canterlot with such an order?"

"Well, Luna," Stormblade saw another opportunity to salvage his pride and his standing, “it was me, as acting guard captain while Captain Shining Armor is away! I felt it was in my...our...” He coughed. “Your best interest to ensure that there were no threats...and that I could get to you.” His face seized into immutable shock. “I mean! That I could get...to you...as quickly as, umm, possible to make sure...make sure you were unharmed by-”

With a lunge, Princess Luna loomed before Stormblade. “Is that so?” she asked, her horn illuminating. A cloud of telekinesis wrapped around one of the stallion’s medals and, with the smallest tug, separated a single object from the jangling mess. “We hath heard otherwise,” she continued, a new pulse of magic lifting an item from her ear and floating it alongside Stormblade’s prize.

Gingerly, Luna floated one piece to rest near Stormblade’s ear, while whispering into the other. “Thou would make a puppet of me. And I will not complement thy ‘combat skill’.”

He heard her perfectly, judging by the way his face drained of color and his eyes bulged.

“Thou would turn me into some little dancing dream filly who would for forced into devotion with thee!” The shout bursting from the echothyst sent the stallion stumbling to the street, clutching his ear. Floating one piece near the tottering stallion, Luna glowered at the captain while he gawped.

“But Princess! I mean I was just...well I was going to make him let me be able to...um...protect you! I just didn’t want to to fall into it ag-”

“And thou would endanger the ponies thou swore to protect to get thy mincing ways!” As much as Stormblade tried to escape her voice, Luna’s magic kept the shouting, raging echothyst crammed near him.

“I needeth not thine prattling dressage of some obnoxious showpony to giveth shelter upon me!” Luna’s booming decrees gradually softened, as she peered idly to the shivering dark coated unicorn curled against the library wall, the dotted marks of bruises and matted dirt spattered against his quivering exterior. “Mine life hath been long and rife with many tales, we needeth not protection from nopony. We need...” She smiled, focusing intently upon Devon, feeling a tide of words emanate from within.

“Somepony to see me as one who needs their own tale to live. And who does not wish to change me.”

“But, Luna, Princess, m’lady!” The Captain lurched forward, waving a foreleg in protest, his tail whipping in a panic as he attempted to reason with the Princess of the Night. “I can! He’s just..! I mean, sure, I’ll listen, I’ll do what you say, I’ll...I’ll let you have your own story sure, ah-eh, heh heh heh! Right!?” He fumbled with his tongue, a clumsy onslaught of jumbled diction bellowed forth. “I can watch over you, and let you be my own, uh, erh-umm, your own-”

"Were we in thy horseshoes, we would look into explaining thyself to Celestia and myself before we decideth to enact justice right here. Unless thou wishes for it now.”

The disgraced captain skittered away from the library plaza, leaving the petrified Jetstream and Gina behind. He shot a look at Devon, another familiar murderous stare slung around the shoulder of a dejected gait. In Devon's eyes, the world suddenly flashed away to a wispy bouquet of white flurries, as his old supervisor's memory of a similar walk of shame surfaced.

“Guardspony! Gina!” Command returned to Luna’s voice, focus and drive. “Get thee to the castle quickly. I do not trust that wastrel, he may have some further scheme or he may attempt to poison mine sister’s thoughts with his tongue.”

Cutting through the numbness and permeating cold now ravaging every cell within his core, the fading hallucination of reality giving way to the familiar glimmers of recognizable memories, the true sense of rare appreciation whisked and caressed Devon's perception. He knew, unlike the malevolent apathetic stars cackling nonchalantly from the astral expanses of an unfeeling cosmos. Unlike the brutal lengths his fellow ponies would enact on others to get a wish.

The shrill tin ringing the last coherent noise before enveloping it all into a single tone note of an everlasting song, his hoof making one last feeble attempt at shaking off the gauntlet before his hoof drooped like a ragged fabric out of his sight. With a final satisfied smile, Devon dropped to his side. The final photons his eyes absorbed was the fervent shuffling of cobalt hooves approaching him, before blurring into obscurity between the hazy edges of succumbing eyelids.

Part of him longed to speak, but all that came from his mouth before darkness engulfed him was a ragged, shallow exhalation that drowned out the desperate pleas of a Princess running towards him in muffled echoes.

Starstruck

by Vest

Chapter 14: Cobalt