//------------------------------// // Epilogue Part 2: We All Find A Way to Move On // Story: Moonlight // by Ocean Heart //------------------------------// Ten years...ten years since that night, love lost to darkness, child lost to madness and will broken. They say insanity is only in the mind...a humorous saying...but I somehow found a way to beat it and continue on, so perhaps it has some truth. Or perhaps it was that morning...when I heard the crying; a foal lying on the ground by the Midnight Lake wrapped in a cloth that I can only describe as other worldly. Eye as pale as snow and a resemblance that made me shutter when I first saw him, how he was alive and how he was there was a mystery I would happily live without solving..for I had a son...a living, breathing son that filled my old home with laughter and adventure. Celestia hunts me...and my son....she wants to question me, and take the child; her eyes held a dark malice that spoke of the scars she gained banishing her sister...I would rather die than see my son taken prisoner by her. My story is a long, but an exciting one...it starts when I was but a young adult wandering the streets of a hallow city in search of food- "Dad?" Acrylic shook his head slowly over the typewriter and blinked slowly, eyes heavy from the lack of sleep, he turned to look down at the young colt and ruffed his black mane a little; getting a goofy smile in return. "Thanks, I was getting too into my writing, again?" He said with a gravely tone from the lack of water. The colt nodded and leaned his neck to try and see what his father was writing. "Sooo...I was wondering if we could do more magic lessons..." He asked cautiously. The less visible damage the colt suffered was of a mental kind. Control of power comes from a part of the mind that allowed focus and clarity, a mental awareness of limits and resources. The colt had no idea of what his limits were and how to differentiate between lifting a feather and throwing a lead weight. So Acrylic decided to take his mind out of the melancholia to spend time with his colt. "Why not." He said as he got out of the chair and watched the gleam in his son's eye as he jumped back, ready to watch. "Remember the three key factors....Control, Item and Strength. If thou feels ye can't control it, don't try; if thou can not get a physical idea of what the item is, don't influence it. If ye can't extend thyself and not inflict harm...do not over extend thyself." Acrylic looked around and brought over a small music box from his nightstand, wrapped in grey magic until it came to a stop on the ground. The doctor suggested using items of value to improve his son's connection to what he was controlling and in turn, influence a stronger and more stable magical connection. "I know dad...i'll be careful..." The child said timidly. The colt took a deep breath and closed his eyes after studying the object. A few more moments and it was wrapped in a blue cloud, the box shook momentarily but soon it lifted in the air with a gentle lift; the spell holding..if shaky. The sign of progress made Acrylic smile...genuinely smile with pride. "Good....just take it slow." He said, just barely containing his excitement. The box lifted high enough to reach eye level with the old stallion. It started shaking a little more and the magic field became unstable... "Easy...relax." "I'm.....trying..." The colt said, sweat starting to roll down his head. The music box shook harder and threatened to fly free of his control....just a moment longer...his son always pleaded for just a moment longer to have a chance to learn. Acrylic let him have the moment just to learn, taking a step back and watching carefully. The box shook harder and suddenly shot up in the air, slamming back down into the ground when the colt realized what was happening and tried to compensate...the music box shattered into a thousand pieces. They both reeled back from the shards of a memory formed many years ago... "Midnight..." Acrylic said after a silence... The water starting to form in his eyes...all the stories his father told him when the dark of the night prevented sleep, all accompanied by the gentle tunes of the music box that he had grown to love; grown to even associate all stories about his mother to the box...all gone. Midnight sat down with a heavy thud and started sniffling... "Midnight...please, don't cry." Acrylic said softly, trying to sooth the child as best he can. It was futile, Midnight started sobbing quietly. In his mind, he just destroyed the only connection he had to his mother...how does one comfort when it's impossible to understand..? Acrylic never had a family, there was no half memory or even a hopeful relic of times forgotten. Midnight had hope..he had a light...and by his hoof, it was gone. Acrylic walked calmly to the colt and opened his arms, not even getting halfway down before the colt rushed him and dropped him to his flank; burying his head in his fathers fur and crying helplessly. Acrylic was never ready for this;never ready to take on this responsibility alone, this heartache and pain...he let a horrible decision by some doctor cause this. "It is okay...I'm sorry for making you use the box..." "I'm sorry for being u-" He hiccuped and let out another sob. "Useless!" He cried in self-hatred. Acrylic leaned back and tilted the colt's head up gently. "Thou are not useless...my son...my only son...and my family. Thy will do great things one day, like thine mother..and even if she is not here; she will always watch over us from the moon. Luna will protect ye." The colt looked at the ground absently and sniffled... "W...when will she come back..?" he asked bitterly. Acrylic looked up at the sun beaming though his second floor window and sighed heavily. "I don't know...." Acrylic looked in the sky a little longer until he started humming the tune of the music box. Quiet and comforting as he hugged his son a little tighter, the paint on his hooves leaving marks of their own on Midnight's body. The gentile notes made them both relax and fall into the lul of its song, words echoing as they always did in both their minds. Is for my love....to show me.....how to truly live.