//------------------------------// // The Start // Story: A Beautiful Night // by bakersong //------------------------------// As he walked across the grass he couldn't help but be depressed even if his special somepony was with him this time. They were in the Ponyville cemetery a place where he wanted to avoid for a long time, but felt like he had to let her meet them. He couldn't put this off, he would tell her everything about what happen in his life. "Hey are you alright? Why'd you ask me here if it'll only make you depressed?" She asked concern in her voice. "Because it's time for you to meet my parents my princess of magic." He said putting on a small smile as he looked at her. "Oh, you mean..." She trailed off looking at him to which he just gave a nod in response. "But how? You're about the same age as me, if you don't mind telling me that is. If it isn't to personal for you I mean, oh i'm so sorry if I upset you!" "Just calm down, I think the expression is it's better to talk about things." He said putting a hoof up to her mouth, and he looked into her eyes. "Let's just get to where they are." "O-okay, but why are they buried here though?" She asked, he had grown used to her curiosity getting the best of her. "They were never really city ponies, my dad was a mechanic. Could fix anything from a simple wagon axle, to the engine on a boat. My mom..." He closed his eyes to prevent the onslaught of tears that was trying to get through. "My mom worked at the Royal Treasury as one of the tellers, she just started to work there before something happen." "Oh, i'm so sorry please don't cry." She said moving in front of him and wrapping her forelegs around him. "You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to my little stargazer." "Thank you, but I promised myself that when I take you to visit them that i'll tell you what happened to them. Besides I always see one star that I can gaze upon all day and night." He said breaking the hug wiping away the tears that started to roll down his snout, and gave a week smile. "W-well if you promised yourself then I guess I can't stop you. But please don't say things like that, not when we're in public." She said blushing. "Why not? We are together now, and we're all alone here so why can't I say stuff like that?" He asked giving a playful grin, though she could tell that it was being a little forced. "Not here, not in a place like this." She said looking around at the tombstones, and he gave a small nod. They walked in silence for the most part of it, though they would come across somepony who was visiting their lost ones. But other than them the cemetery was empty, mostly due to the fact that Ponyville was still just a rural town. He slowed when he saw two tombstones in a small corner of the cemetery, one had the emblem for an earth pony and the other had one for a unicorn. "Is that them?" She asked in a soft and concerned tone. "Yes, that's them." He replied in a hushed and pained voice. "Let's go." As they walked up to the tombstones the names became more clear to them, the one that signified an Earth Pony read 'Here Lay's Thick Effort, Husband, Father, And Friend To Many.'. The second that signified a unicorn said 'A Mother, Friend To Many, And Wife, Wild Passion Will Not Be Forgotten.'. When he read them he felt a leg wrap around him once again. "It's okay, i'm here for you and never forget that." She kept whispering into his ear as he finally broke down and heaved heavy sobs. "Let it out my stargazer, let it all out." They stayed like that for what felt like hours as she kept whispering to him, though part of the reason why he cried so much was from the guilt of not visiting for three years. From the guilt he still felt for what happen to his mother, his father he knew there was nothing he could have done. But eventually he started to calm down enough to where she released him. "Come on, let's go." She said trying to pull him away. "Twilight, I need to tell you what happened to them." He said in a horsed and strained voice. "You can tell me some other time, but if you being here makes you this upset then please come on." She said in a concerned and begging voice. "It's my fault." He managed to say, and when he looked at her she had a look of confusion on her face. "What's your fault?" She asked, but he saw that she put the pieces together. "Onyx, your parents death isn't your fault. It's just apart of life that everypony has to deal with." "I know, my father died of a cancer he developed and I know I couldn't help him. But my mom, I could of..." He trailed off when she put a hoof on his cheek and guided him to look into her eyes again. "Onyx, there is nothing you could have done so don't blame yourself." She said in a soft but stern voice. "Twilight let me tell you what happen." He said pushing her hoof away and looking away in shame. "Do you remember that incident four years ago at the Royal Treasury?" "Yeah, I do but what does..." She trailed off remembering he had just told her when they just entered into the cemetery that she had just began work to work there. "You mean she was the one that..." "Yes, she was the one who sacrificed herself for every other pony that was there that day. I was there that day." He said his voice full of pain and sadness, he was on the verge of uncontrollable sobbing again. "Onyx, i'm so very sorry. But you know that it isn't your fault, that pony was declared insane. He would have killed everypony there." She said putting a comforting hoof on him. "I know what he was declared as!" He yelled his anger starting to boil, but she didn't back down. "It's my fault that he got into the Royaly Treasury in the first place." "What do you mean?" She asked in a comforting tone that actually calmed him down a little, something only his mother could do. "H-he used me as a shield, and when my mom saw she...she..." He fell to the ground covering his eyes. "She told him that the only way that she was willing to hoof over any money that he would have to take her and leave me." "O-onyx, that's not your fault. Sounds like a mother protecting her Colt." She said rubbing his back. "D-do you r-remember what kind o-of magic I do?" He asked his voice stating to crack from starting to cry again. "Illusion magic, why do you ask?" She replied in a more soothing tone. "I-I could have casted an invisibility s-spell. N-no pony could have gotten hurt that day, especially not my m-mo..." He couldn't get out the word feeling like he now didn't deserve to call her his mother anymore. "Onyx, even if you had cast that spell even with your impressive magic skills you would not have been able to cast the spell on everypony in there. So don't blame yourself for what your mother thought was right, she not only did it to protect you but to protect everypony. How many lives do you think she saved that day by giving herself up?" She asked sitting down next to him. "E-even s-so, I should have been the o-one that s-should have died and not her..." He was stopped when he felt a slap across his cheek. "Don't you ever say that again! Your mother gave her life so you and every other pony in the Royal Treasury could live theirs! Do not let her sacrifice ever be taken in vain by saying you should be the one that died that day! Other wise, other wise..." She trailed off and when he looked he saw tears running down her cheeks, and he felt more ashamed that he had been the one to cause her to cry. "I-i'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you as well.." He was stopped again after standing when he felt an even weaker slap. "Stop blaming yourself! Don't ever blame yourself for something like this again!" She said trying to yell but couldn't because of the tears as she weakly pounded him in the chest, and he pulled her in wrapping her in a tight embrace. "Alright, i'll stop blaming myself for you." He said through his own tears, how much had he cried today? Though they only been together for a month they had a good strong connection, one that had lead him to show her his parents. One that made him tell her what happened, one that made her slap some sense into him that made her cry for him. Why did she care for him so much? He was nothing special, he was broken from his experience that happened years ago, mixed with his condition he was damaged beyond what anypony would want to try to fix. "L-let's go home." She said in a weak voiced that was a bit muffled from him still holding her close to him. "Twilight, why did you agree to be my very special somepony?" He asked as she pulled away, and she looked at him with sad and confused eyes. "Many ponies would have given up on me because of how...broken I am, with this.." He gestured to the graves. "And my condition, why are you still with me?" "Because I don't see a broken stallion. I-I see somepony who just n-needs a shoulder to c-cry on, a kind and loving one that just had a ruff life." She said her eyes still watering a little. "As for your condition, as we d-discovered i'm immune to it remember? B-beside I like your eyes." "But why though? Why me? You're a beautiful mare who could have anypony she wants." He said looking away. "But I just don't have anypony, I have you now." She said guiding his head back to look at her. "Because I love you, and only you." He couldn't respond to that as he couldn't help but look at her in shock and his vision blurring but he blinked away the tears. Though he couldn't form the words he responded by leaning in and giving her a nuzzle and kiss. When he pulled away she nodded in understanding and they started to make their way back out of the cemetery. --- Song laid in bed trying to rest as it's one of the only things he could do, that and it was night time. But sleep would not come to him this night for some reason. But he quickly opened his eyes when he heard the click clacking of somepony's hooves on the floor coming towards his cell. "Whose there?" He called out in the darkness, wait why was it so dark in the halls? "Don't worry about who it is Song." A voice called out from the blackness, and a torch near by was lite to reveal a pink mare. As he looked at her she seemed like a normal unicorn that might be from Canterlot, maybe Manehatten. But as he looked over her he realized that she had wings as well, and on top of her head was a crown. It was then he remembered that he had met her, she was Princess Cadence. "W-what are you doing here princess?" He asked in surprise. "Oh I heard about what happened to you and decided to drop by to check up on you, and to see if it really was true." She answered. "Yeah, it's true all right." He said trying to stand up. "Don't try to stand up on my behalf,after all you'll need that energy for what I have planned." She said and he gave her another look of confusion. "W-what do you..." His eyes widened as her horn charged with green energy. "No, please nooo....ahhhhh!"