//------------------------------// // Session Two // Story: My Name is Nightblade. // by Zyggy //------------------------------// I came upon the town by way of walking, rather than carriage. The sun was just rising, everypony was awake, and I had already arranged for a temporary residence with the local librarian, Twilight Sparkle and her assistant, Spike. However, I had the unfortunate problem of having no cutie mark, so I had no way to know what I was good at, and thus I had no clue of what I was to do. For all I knew I could have been great at getting sent to the moon. “That was hardly serious.” “Shut up Doc, I’m the patient.” I chose to push those thoughts aside and head for the conspicuously placed tree that was supposed to hold the library. After passing many ponies, all of whom I ignored so I could focus on my objective, I reached the library. After knocking trice, I heard a gasp and turned. A pink pony quickly rushed away before I could get the details about her. Before I could worry too much, I heard the door open. As a result, I gave it my full attention. “Hello?” The mare at the door was lavender, with a very dark blue mane and tail. Both had a single stripe of pink and a single stripe of purple. Her violet eyes I found pretty. “You must be Twilight Sparkle, correct? Nightblade.” “Come in!” I entered as she backed up, and watched her searching for a book, becoming amused. It was here that I saw her cutie mark. It was a pink six pointed star, with a smaller white star of the same build behind it, surrounded by five small white six pointed stars. “Looking for something?” “A book on How to Treat Guests!” There was a sense of urgency in her voice. “Use your gut instinct, not a large number of pieces of paper with characters written on them held together with a cover and a spine, much more effective.” As she turned, I realized I should not have said that, given how she was very angry. One could choose to describe her as furious if they thought so. “What.” “I merely said slash implied that if you were to trust yourself more than a book you would do far better.” I laughed ever so slightly as she approached me, confusion shining in her eyes. “How can you be so calm?” “It’s a defense mechanism so I don’t lapse into a flashback.” She motioned for me to sit, so I did. I let my face crack slightly with a smile as she sat down too. “Tell me more about these flashbacks.” I cast my gaze downwards without moving my head, and inhaled deeply. I exhaled, and began. “They started whe-” “I already know this.” “DAMMIT DOC! Fine, I’ll skip it.” I told the tale slowly, allowing her to think as I did so. As I reached the end, I felt slightly better, having actually talked about it. It was then that I was calm enough to look around. It was a library, and thus filled with books. One would have been able to see the tree’s rings, and several windows. The walls, floor, and ceiling shined with flame retardant oil. “Did you take your medication today?” “I ran out last night, I’ll be able to pick some up tomorrow.” We sat in more silence for a while, until I chose to stand up. I searched for a book about anything. Anything that sounded interesting. “Why are you telling me little details?” “Doc, if you don’t want to hear it as I saw it, I can just stop coming to these sessions.” “Fine. Go on.” I came across a book about horn filing, something I was not interested in reading about. However, it gave me an idea. It was a simple one, where if I were to file my horn’s point down and make it round, I wouldn’t have to worry about impaling somepony. Normal Unicorns didn’t need to worry about it due to their blunter horns. “You got any files around here? Not the paper kind, the horn kind.” “Yes, what for?” “To dull my horn’s point, worried I might stab somepony.” I watched a file fly towards me out of the corner of my eye, and waited until it was next to me. I then took it in my hoof and walked over to the bathroom on three legs, well practiced, not hobbling or behaving any differently. “Why don’t you just use magic?” “I’m very bad at it.” “But you aced all your classes.” “Only because I had pent up rage. Without it, I just fall flat.” I closed the door before I had to listen to her talk, and got to work with the file. Starting at the top of the point, I slowly whittled it down into a round stub like the other unicorns. Unlike them, I didn’t use magic for this. I had to do this next week. The week after, and then the one after that, every week I had to, or risk stabbing something. I walked out of the bathroom with file in hand and tossed it into the air. The mare floated it back to wherever it went. “Thank you for hospitality.” I didn’t expect an answer, and did not listen for one. I instead simply headed upstairs to where I was told it would be. The letter told me everything. It was the only thing I brought. The only thing I owned, beyond my clothing and myself. I pushed those thoughts aside and instead threw myself on my bed, not bothering to cover myself. I went to sleep early.