Vespertine

by Orthios

Prologue

A lone mare stood atop her tower, her gaze upon the city once again.

The faint echoes of childish laughter from the streets below affirmed the reasons for her nightly vigil. The night had gone without it’s guardian for far too long. Not that her sister hadn't performed the task well, she truly had.

Her sister… Luna shook her head sadly. Her sister had suffered just as much as she had herself in the last millenium. And still the elder alicorn had welcomed the younger back with a open heart. Even going so far as to offer her personal student, also bearer of the element of magic, as a guide for adjusting to the modern era.

The corners of Luna’s mouth involuntarily twitched upwards. It had been the same mare, Twilight Sparkle, who had helped her on this very night. Celestia had suggested attending this holiday, this Nightmare Night, as a way to reconnect with the public. Suffice to say, not all had gone to plan.

At first she had been hurt by her subjects’ reaction to her visit. The screams, cowering, and outright terror at her appearance reopened wounds she thought to have begun healing. Truly, they had been just as raw and painful as they had been after the return of her mind months ago.

Thankfully, the younger mare seemed to understand this and quickly set about to reintegrating the lunar princess into Ponyville society. Luna met a few of the other element bearers as well, Kindness and Generosity being the most prominent in the ordeal. Eventually,the situation worked out effectively bringing the the town to accept her.

Magic, or Twilight as she asked Luna to call her now that they were friends, continued to be a surprise. Luna had observed the trials the elements had be faced with and had been pleased as each one was taken care of. Her sister had groomed the young mare to change the world for the better and it showed. Even if she didn’t know it.

Luna wondered about possibly taking a page from her sister’s book. Maybe she should take a student of her own, it wouldn't be the first time. She would have somepony to pass on knowledge that had been lost, somepony to help her be more accessible to the public, and maybe, just maybe, somepony to just befriend.

It had been a lonely thousand years.

The reasons to take one far outweighed the excuses not to, she would have to speak about it with her sister in the morning. She even had the perfect pony in mind for the position, the only problem would be if the pony accepted.

A wave of guilt brought a heavy feeling in her stomach. She hadn't seen them since the day of her return but Luna wouldn't be surprised, nor could she blame them if they hated her. She deserved it after the horrible things she put them through.

But, still... Perhaps this could offer a chance of redemption. She might be able to begin to apologize for her atrocity.

Luna returned to her chambers feeling much more hopeful than she had in months.

The clock on the wall ticked again, the second hand moving to the next marker. Each gear inside made to accurately measure the eternal passage of time. And measure time it did.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

It was a good clock. Measured time and everything. It even had the right number of hands. An hour, a minute, and a second hand for the consumer’s viewing pleasure. Hands… Wonder why they’re called that. Was it a minotaur that invented the clock?

Sigh.

I stared at the empty mug perched on the desk before me. It had been ten minutes since I drained it and now I was just stalling. It had been an extremely slow night in the archives, no new artifacts or books to study and catalogue since I had finished the collection from some archaeological dig site out in zebra territory. So, I had retreated from the archives and settled in the actual library’s reception desk. My gaze flicked up to the clock again. Not that anypony visited at three forty-seven in the morning.

Noctis, nocturnal, bat-pony, all the same name for the my subspecies. Those are just the least offensive names normal ponies have for us. Shared characteristics like slitted pupils, tufts of fur standing at the tips of both ears, dark fur, fangs and sharp teeth all mark us for ridicule from normal ponies. Even our tribal characteristics, wings, horn, or nothing at all separate us from other ponies. noctis pegasi have no feathers, instead their membranous wings seem to be bat-like at first glance. Unicorns have sharper, curved horns with no spiral instead of being straight and spiraled.

As a noctis unicorn, my boss had my schedule from seven at night until four in the morning. Unfortunately, also because of my species, nopony else was willing to with me. Which is how I ended up being the only archivist for the castle at this Luna forsaken hour.

Archivists for the Canterlot castle library, the archive is technically part of the library, have two jobs. First, to study and catalogue ancient artifacts, books, and knowledge in general for the private archive. Second, we act as librarians for the library containing the archive.

A low groan escaped from me as I pushed myself out of the comfortably padded chair where I had resided for the last, I checked the clock again, three hours seven minutes and thirty-six seconds.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my job. But when you’re the only pony in the massive library, it gets old really quickly. Some days I wished that Miss Sparkle and Spike still lived in the castle. At least then the library wasn’t so lonely, even if they had passed out hours earlier. But no, since she had left I was the only one puttering around the shelves.

My hooves clicked against the stone floor as I walked in a circle to stretch my legs. I briefly wondered if the kitchen staff had come in yet so I could grab breakfast before leaving. Some days they came this early some they didn’t, probably according to some unknown schedule of events. Not that I really paid attention to that sort of thing in the first place.

Deciding that I needed to go down anyway to return the mug, the amber aura of my magic wrapped around my thermos and book before lifting them to my side. Thank the goddesses my magic had returned enough to do basic things like levitation. Those had not been a fun three months.

I never saw the door coming. One moment I was standing and thinking about how to function in society without magic, the next I was laying against something hard and I couldn't see anything. My back and muzzle immediately began reporting pain as I tried to clear my mind of the fuzziness invading it. It didn't really work, so I tried to clear whatever was covering my eyes only to find that all four of my legs were trapped under something heavy. That was about the time I realized somepony was talking.

“We’re so sorry Night Cast, we did not mean to injure you. Please be unharmed.”

The voice sounded feminine and very familiar as it repeated itself. I felt that I really should recognize the voice but the ruffling of paper and soft thump of something hitting the floor distracted me. The sound repeated, this time accompanied by the release of my legs. A squeal showed the voice’s delight.

“Do not worry, we will have you out in a moment.”

Now it was really bugging me, I really should have known who was speaking but my head’s fuzziness seemed to be blocking any attempt to figure it out. The owner of the voice did whatever she had before and suddenly I could breathe much easier again. With the intake of oxygen my head mostly cleared, some of the fuzziness clinging to the corners of my mind.

“We are going to pull you out from the rest of the books now. We will try to be careful.”

Oh, I was buried under a pile of books. The door must have thrown me into a shelf causing the books to fall off and on top of me. A slightly cold feeling washed over me, like sitting outside under the full moon in the dead of night. It felt wonderful in the stuffy library atmosphere. A quick tug that seemed to pull my entire body and I found myself hovering in the air, upside down, and wrapped in a midnight blue aura. I searched for the source of the magic and found a lighter blue horn surrounded by the same aura holding me. My gaze moved down to the pair of striking, you guessed it, blue eyes. Recognition hit me like a ten ton weight.

“Hi Luna. Long time, no see.”

She seemed unsure for a moment but covered it up quickly, if I hadn’t seen the expression on her admittedly smaller face at the time I would have missed it. Ah, so she must have thought I disliked or even hated her. I didn’t. I couldn’t, but I could guess why many ponies would reject her after what happened between us. While she recovered from my unexpectedly friendly response I quickly looked over her.

Luna had grown quite a bit since I had last seen her almost two years ago. Before she had looked to be in her teens, a little shorter than I was and I was on the smaller end of the scale for stallions. But now she seemed to be in her twenties and two heads taller than me. Alicorns have weird growth patterns. She wasn't crying this time which was good and I wasn’t screaming while what felt like the sun flowed through my veins either which was even better. Some small part of me noted the inkblot like part of her mark.

I turned to look over the two piles of books, one from my crash and the other from Luna pulling books off of me. A long sigh escaped my lips as I mumbled to myself.

“Great. This is going to take me forever to clean up.”

Luna cut into my rapidly darkening thoughts. “That depends. We would like to talk to you about something vitally important.”

She sounded… happy? Hopeful? Both? I couldn't really tell, never was great deciphering other ponies.

“Sure, what can I do for you?” I turned back to face her. What I saw nearly sent me running from the library.

A questionably sane grin had nearly split her face in half and the giggle barely contained in her words will haunt my nightmares for years to come.

“We… I would like to offer you a promotion of sorts.”