//------------------------------//
// 7 
// Story: Son of Eternity 
// by Secrets and Lies 
//------------------------------//


(7)







Zack paced around the dojo, trying to figure out what to get Pinkie Pie for her birthday which was tomorrow. His mind was completely blank of ideas and he couldn’t seem to focus on anything. He wanted to give her something, something that she would like and would have meaning to it. He couldn’t leave the castle to go out and buy the filly a gift. Even if he could, he didn’t have any money, or what they called, ‘bits’. He knew he could probably ask Celestia for some bits and have one of her maids or guards go out and buy something, but to Zack, that wouldn’t be as special as actually buying and choosing the gift himself. Zack’s work out and training with Valiant Steed was distraught by the limited amount of time he had until tomorrow. Valiant had noticed Zack being a little off that morning when they trained and asked what was going on. 
Zack said aloud, “When Pinkie Pie left this morning, she said that it was her birthday tomorrow and I don’t know what to get her.”
Valiant eased, “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind, judging by your circumstances already.”
Zack frowned in response, “I know, but I feel awful for not doing anything. I don’t even know what to get her.” Zack sat down in the center of the dojo floor, legs crossed and chin resting on the palm of his right hand. Valiant picked up his royal guard helmet and placed it on his head, covering his short, jet black mane. He hummed, thinking about what a party loving, pink pony would want. 
He walked in front of Zack’s vision and conferred, “You know, I’ve never seen that filly owning in clothing. I know ponies don’t usually dress up, so to speak, but maybe you could get her something along the lines of fashion.”
“That could work,” Zack noted, “but I don’t see her as the dressy type, to be honest.”
“Well just don’t go over board with it, just get her something small, but at the same time, meaningful.”
Zack promptly stood up and agreed, “I guess I’ll just have to do that...” Zack turned towards the guard and digressed, “Do you happen to know what the time is?”
Valiant rubbed his chin and looked off into space. Trying to guess the time by where the sun was set in the sky when he passed a window heading towards the dojo and adding the amount of time he spent in the dojo with Zack.
“I’d say...” he figured, “About midday.” Zack’s eyes widened. The day was half way over and he hadn’t made any progress towards getting Pinkie Pie’s present. He dashed out of the dojo to take a quick bath and start configuring his plan.


__________


Zack opened the high, Southern Tower door to walk out onto a porch, which had a telescope near the edge of the balcony. The wind was blowing mighty gusts high atop the towers, which Zack thought swayed them a little. The clouds were rolling fast along the atmosphere and the sun shown brightly in the pretty blue sky above. He steadily walked over to the telescope and peered in the lens. He rotated the mount towards the town center and focused the magnifier.
He could see the multitude of ponies shopping and socializing in the streets below. The diversity of both the elite and the average communed with one another in some way. The markets were a buzz with fast exchanges of goods and bits, and ponies that appeared to be yelling out to costumers to come buy their products or produce. Zack had noticed that most of the ponies were unicorns, which seemed odd at first, but remembered Celestia talking about how Canterlot was made by unicorns, so this made sense to him.
Zack zoomed in a little where her saw a fountain situated in the middle of the main street, the fountain was a intricate marble statue of the three different races of ponies, dancing around one another. In the center, a pillar of water constantly flowed in the hub and fell around the statue in an umbrella effect, not getting the pony effigies wet. Four other smaller pillars of water were circulated around the statue and the water fell into the clear, round pool below. Zack took notice of a stallion and his son near the pool’s edge. The boy tossed a bit into the pool and the two went on their merry way. Zack stood back from the telescope with a shrewd and somewhat dark idea. His eyes glowed with inspiration and a grin slowly developed on his blank face.
In the town center, Valiant Steed and his friends were enjoying a lunch down at a popular eatery. Valiant had situated his chair facing the fountain as he watched a father and son toss a bit into the wishing pool. He showed a faint smile while witnessing the regular everyday act. 
“What’cha thinking about, V?” The guard turned to one of his friends, who gave him a passive look.
Valiant smiled and responded, “It’s nothing, Shiny.”
“Oh, you can tell me anything, bro. So what happens to be on your mind?”
“Well I was just watching a father and his son toss a bit into the Fountain of Friendship, and it just made me reminisce about me and my father doing the same thing.”
Shining Armor took another bite from his lunch and clamored with a mouth full of food, “Wasn’t your dad a Royal Guard too?”
“Yea he was, until he went to visit the Griffon Kingdoms on Royal Duty to extend our peace treaty. Last I heard, he and his companions had gotten lost in the Icicle Mountains, just before getting to the capital.”
Shining Armor gave way to a grim emotion and looked away after saying, “Oh... I forgot...”
Valiant retorted in a calm, forgiving manner, “Hey man, it’s fine. It was a long time ago, no need to stress over it. My father wouldn’t have liked it anyways if we all sat around moping about him all the time.” 
The two smiled at one another and finished their lunches. On their way back to the castle, Valiant stopped in his tracks when his eye caught something in a near by shop window. He turned and walked slowly up to the clothing shop’s front window panel. On a little stand sat a tranquil, bright blue mane ribbon. If he recalled correctly, that color could almost match the eye color of Pinkie Pie. He looked around, his friends had forgotten about him and hadn’t looked to see if he was still following them. He ran into the store and placed the item on layaway, assuring the clerk he would be back by latest tomorrow morning to decide wether he was going to buy it or not. He raced out of the store and galloped to catch up with his friends, and soon to tell Zack what he thought would be a great gift for Pinkie Pie.


__________


It was a little passed midday, the afternoon sun sauntered across the heavens, giving a light warm color to the blue sky. Zack was sitting in library, calm and content. He was enjoying a new book he discovered entitled, “The Chronicles of Neighnia: The Griffon, the Unicorn, and the Stables”. Valiant Steed paced into the archives and searched around for Zack. He found him in a window lit area of the library and rushed over to him. Valiant stopped before Zack, who didn’t look up from his book. 
He took in a breath and said, “There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you!” Zack looked up from his book, smiled, and returned reading.
Valiant said with a hesitant tone, “Well, I found something while in town that maybe Pinkie Pie would like. It’s this blue mane ribbon, right? You know, a ribbon a pony would tie to the back of her mane? Well, I put it on layaway for you, it costs eight bits plus tax, which would be around ten bits I think, I didn’t ask.” Zack still sat there reading his book, an agitated expression washed over Valiant’s face. 
The stallion was about to blurt out something until Zack quickly shut the book with both hands, turned his head towards the pony and replied keenly, “Had to finish that chapter, sorry... I heard what you said... sort of... The important parts anyways.”
Valiant sighed and placed his left hoof over his face. He looked back up and assumed, “Since you don’t have any bits, and it isn’t that costly, I was thinking about buying it for you. Sort of repaying you back for the time we’ve spent in the dojo.”
“No need for that, my good stallion!” Zack swung his hand on Valiant Steed’s plate armored shoulder. He continued, “I have the cash, I just need you to go get it tomorrow morning, pronto.”
The pony was puzzled, he questioned, “How did you get the money? Give it to me quick, I think I can make it in time before the shop closes at–”
“Well... I don’t have the money... yet,” Zack interjected.
“What do you mean you don’t have the money yet?”
“Just trust me, I’ll have it by tomorrow morning.”
Valiant immediately thought he knew what he was going to do and stomped his left, front hoof in response. “No, you are not going out and stealing it from the shop!”
Zack gave a concerned expression, “Of course not! Who do you think I am, some sort of thief? I wouldn’t do that!”
The stallion eyeballed Zack and cautiously replied, “I still don’t know who you are, or why you came here. I don’t know where your heart is, I thought I did, but now I’m re-guessing myself.”
Zack truthfully assured the pony in a light hearted tone, “I swear, Valiant Steed, that I won’t go stealing anything, robbing, murdering, pillaging, pick pocketing, vandalizing, or do any other sort of criminal act tonight. Can I at least have some trust from you, a friend?”
Valiant nodded his head and sighed in approval, “Fine. Just watch yourself!” He pivoted on is hooves like a military pony would and left the library. Zack could only wait till nightfall to proceed with his plans.



__________



Night had fallen on a new moon, it was pitch black out coincidentally. Zack knew that tonight would be perfect for what he was planning. Zack opened the doors to the dark dojo and grabbed a dagger out of the room. He silently shut the door and the chamber was dark again. He made his way up to his bedroom and grabbed one of his cloaks he used whenever he would go walking in the garden and left the room again, blowing the candles out. 
Valiant Steed was patrolling the walls that night, he would continue to look up to spot and see if the western palace tower, where Zack’s room was located, was occupied, judging by the light. He looked up another time towards the tower top to see that the light had gone out, which usually meant he had went to bed. 
The guard squinted his eyes thought, “He’s planning something...”.
Zack beforehand had realized while staying up at night and standing on the tower balcony attached to his bedroom, that the Royal Guards would shift positions every night around a few hours before midnight, at midnight, and a few hours after midnight. They took about five minutes or so to leave their stations and have another guard watch over their position, so the wall was actually unguarded for five golden opportune minutes during each of these nightly shifts. He figured that he could sneak past every single guard if he timed his exit and entrance perfectly.
Valiant floated calmly over the wall’s pathway, spear and hand and hind legs crossed. His wings flapped slowly in the air, giving him enough push to levitate silently and gently in the air. 
An earth pony guard walked up next to him and said with a deep voice, “You know it’s time to shift stations, right V?”
“I know,” Valiant said in a calm, dark tone. “But I’m going to stay here for a while.”
The other guard shrugged and replied, “Suit yourself,” and walked back down the descending guard wall stairs and joined the other guards, along with Shining Armor. Valiant knew that Zack was going to do something, but he didn’t know what exactly; his eyes scanned over both sides of the wall intricately, ready to spot him in the action and call him out.
Zack slid across the far side of the wall, hugging the shadows that hung from the guard wall. He took a few steps back and vaulted over the wall like he did when he entered Canterlot Castle. Zack tried to land on the tips of his toes to silence his fall, but rolled in the process of doing so, which made a little unwanted noise.
Valiant heard this sound and immediately shot upward into the night sky. The other guards turned their heads and aimed their attention towards the pegasus. The pony narrowed his vision and focused on the other side of the wall. He then spotted Zack getting up, and Zack spotted him, the two met each other’s attention and froze. Valiant took in a deep breath, about to call the other guard’s full attention towards Zack, but had a sudden change of heart; realizing he was doing this for the little pink filly he cared about so much and not for anything else. 
“What’s going on, V,” an earth pony guard yelled toward him. Valiant sat there in the air and conjured a lie.
“I thought I saw something, but it was just a bat.”
“Would you stop being so tense and just relax, it’s a weeknight for Celestia’s sake, nothing exciting is going to happen anyways.”
Valiant looked back toward where he saw Zack to find that he was long gone. Concerning thoughts still flooded his mind with ideas about what he might do that night.



__________



The streets were darker and more sketchy than he had thought before. The winding alley ways grew deeper and the shadows draped the ends of those streets with mystery and unknown dangers. Zack stayed light on his feet, and was prepared at all times to attack anyone that gave threatening signs towards him. The city was abnormally quiet and desolate, the silence of it all provoked Zack’s fears and he quickened his pace towards the fountain. 
After a few short minutes which seemed to last much longer to Zack, he made it to the main square where the fountain was located. The fountain’s water supply had been turned off and what was left was the grim statue and the dark pool of water underneath its stone hooves. He didn’t make an immediate run for it, but waited a couple more minutes in the alley way over looking the entire area. The cobbled streets were lined with oil lamps flickering dimly in the night, casting shadows on the nearby apartments and cottages that edged the main square. A light fog had rolled into the town, moistening Zack’s clothing and blurring his long range of sight he once had. No one entered the streets or were seen in any of the windows from Zack’s point of view, even if he had the chance to take some money out of the fountain and leave, his nerves still flowed terror in his veins. Zack’s mind always fought with his own will during what he believed to be unsafe situations. Once his doubts entered his mind, and if he didn’t stop them in time, they would warp Zack’s original plans and judgment. 
Zack was riding on the fence about his plan now–he wondered if he should carry it out. He fought with all his might and decided to run out there as quick as he could, get as many bits as he can carry from the fountain, run back to the castle, wait for the guards to change stations and he was home free. Zack took in a deep breath, checked one last time to see if anyone was out in the streets and made a break for the Fountain of Friendship. His fears were pushed aside and his mind was only focused on grabbing the money and leaving. He stopped and looked into the fountain to see a couple of bits shimmering at the bottom of the dark waters. He stuck his hand in quickly and started scooping out coins, completely ignoring the fact of how much noise he was making from dunking his hand in the water and tossing wet bits into his pockets. He had grabbed as many as twenty-two bits before deciding that that was enough to buy the mane bow and to pay off Valiant Steed for keeping his mouth shut and for his helpfulness. 
He turned, thinking his fear had subsided to meet face to face with the thug he and Pinkie Pie encountered when they first entered Canterlot. Zack let out a quick gasp in response to the suddenness of the moment and the stallion tilted his head back and head butted Zack. He wobbled backwards and held himself from falling into the pool; the thug had pinned him against the fountain, he pulled out his twisted dagger and aimed it at Zack’s throat. 
The ruffian snickered with a light, deep English accent, “Well, ain’t this a surprise we meet again, monster. This time, I’m going to tear out your insides and leave you bleeding in the streets for the world to see who you really are!”
The thug lunged his blade towards Zack’s neck. Zack focused on his training, relieved his tenseness, and ducked underneath the attack; he then side stepped around the stallion and put his arms up in a defensive position. He clearly remembered some rules in one of the handbooks he read, “Use your foes attacks against him. Only strike when you see the critical moment to attack.” 
The thug turned and leaped toward Zack. At every sign of an oncoming attack Zack saw, he swiftly positioned his feet to dodge the oncoming attacks. No matter where the pony swung, Zack could predict where the blade was going to be and he always moved far out of the way when the pony aimlessly swung. Zack saw a perfect moment to strike his opponent, time seemed to slow down a bit, self revealing the ‘critical moment’. Zack stopped himself in mid-thought and decided not to use his full power to attack the pony; instead, he cocked his right arm back a bit and jabbed the stallion right in between the eyes two swift times, and gave him a swinging left hook to knock the thug off his hooves. The pony was flung to the ground by Zack’s superior strength, but stumbled back up; the fires of revenge lit his eyes and he charged toward Zack once more.
The stallion swung again twice, nose broken and sight blurred. Each swing he gave, Zack moved out of the way. He then did something Zack overlooked, the pony swung his body around and bucked Zack in the chin, Zack was thrown to ground by the brute force, his head knocked against the cobble stone street. He could taste blood in his mouth, his memory was distorted for a few seconds and his sight blackened a bit. He tried to get up, but the thug jumped on his torso and put one of his hooves against Zack’s chest. With the other, he drove the dagger downward towards Zack’s heart. Zack tried to stop him with his other arm, but knocked his aim off and the blade went into Zack’s shoulder blade only half way. A scorching pain flared across Zack’s upper body, he had never had anything this intense happen to him before. He had never broke any major bones, had any major surgery, this was all new and a bit scary for Zack. He pushed through the pain so that he could try and live another day. 
“Ya bleed just like us,” exclaimed the demented thug, eyes intensified on Zack’s worried ones.
With his hand around the pony’s hoof, he mustered enough strength in his arm to withdraw the blade and with that arm, he held back the stallion’s own brawn. With his other hand, he took the dagger he had taken from the dojo out of his pocket and aimed directly for the pony. The thug didn’t see the other danger coming and his neck was soon greeted by Zack’s dagger. He plunged it into the pony’s neck, he could feel the thug’s strength drain. His eyes widened in sudden realization as to what had happened and let out some gasping wheezes. Zack could now easily push the pony away, and he tossed him off of his weakened body. He stumbled upward and held his dagger with one hand and with the other held his bleeding shoulder wound. He felt like he was going to be alright, it was just an excruciating pain that pulsed now through his entire body. He looked down and noticed the bleeding pony, gargling and choking on his own blood.
Zack stepped back and realized the sudden horror of the situation. He had just murdered one of these ponies, the ponies he thought were all fun loving and had good intentions; he hadn’t met a bad pony yet, or one that deserved to die in any way. He never meant to kill him, it was out of self defense. He looked down at his open hands, one was covered in his own blood and the other held the dagger with the ponies blood on it. Zack had never committed such an evil thing before in his life, a type of creature he thought was so beautiful was dying a painful death in front of him, because of his actions. He should have heeded Valiant Steed’s wisdom, but his arrogance got in the way. One half of Zack told him he did the right thing, while the other half scolded him for killing this creature. 
The delusional and dying pony tried screaming for help, but his lungs had filled up with too much blood, he had drowned in his own vital fluids. Zack flung his cloak back on and was ready to run, but spotted a lone, undistinguishable filly looking out her front door into the town square to see what the commotion was. Zack took off in a nearby alleyway and left the dead pony there in the streets. Zack ran through the alley ways with tears in his eyes, dodging wagons and barrels as he made his way to the castle. He tried to fight the pain, he fought it as long as he could, Zack had to come to a halt and puked in the corner of an alleyway. He wiped the vomit off his chin and paced himself back to the castle.
He waited for when the guards shifted again and leaped the wall, crawled through a castle window he had left open and made his way silently though the moon lit halls. As Zack turned the corner, he saw something at the end of throne room chamber he was passing and swiftly threw himself against the wall, covering his mouth and trying to be as quiet as possible. He peeked around the corner to see Celestia looking out her throne room window, over the night fallen plains and hills. Her sparkling mane and tail flowed gently in the dark like a ghost, Zack thought that maybe she didn’t hear him and that he could sneak past the doorway. As soon as he was about to pass the doorway which lead directly to the Western Tower where his bedroom was, he heard her start to mutter something. Zack stopped and concentrated on what she was saying. It was some other language he couldn’t decipher. He noticed though that she was talking as if she was scared, her tone of voice was timid and frightened. She spoke so quietly, yet so afraid of something Zack could not tell. She spoke directly out the window, she still hadn’t noticed Zack. He silently crept away from the strange moment, and left her in the dark. 


__________


Zack entered his bedroom, his eyes watery, his mind fighting with itself, and his hands shaking from the trauma of the sudden events that had occurred. He looked up and jumped backwards, startled at seeing Valiant Steed in the corner of his room waiting for him. He flew over to him with anger in his eyes, but when he got closer, he realized that Zack was hurt and his mood changed.
“What happened out there, Zack?” Zack emptied his pockets and wet bits fell onto the floor in between the two. The pegasus looked down and back up with confusion and asked, “Where did you get these?”
“The fountain.”
“The Fountain of Friendship? You stole those bits out of the pool? What’s wrong with you?”
“I thought...” Zack was beginning to fade. He continued, “I thought that if people threw money in the streets and no one picked them up, it wasn’t considered stealing...”
Valiant scratched his head in disbelief and confusion, “I... I don’t...”
Zack’s vision darkened as Valiant's words became murmurs to him. Pain and exhaustion overpowered his body as he fell on his knees, wobbled a bit, then fell flat on the ground and lay motionless in front of the astonished Valiant Steed. He didn’t know what to do for a couple of seconds, he just stood there, watching the lifeless body before him.
The pegasus dragged the human's body to the bathroom and sat Zack in the tub. He stripped him of his upper clothing to reveal where the blade met his shoulder and left him there. Valiant flew out the balcony window and down to where the guards were. He glided down towards where Shining Armor was stationed. 
He landed and the Captain of the Guard proclaimed, “What are you doing off your post, V?”
“There’s an emergency and I need you.”
Shining Armor knew when Valiant Steed wasn’t kidding, his tone and look he gave him were key giveaways to a serious issue at hand. He left his post and rushed up to the Western Tower with him. Valiant opened the door of the bathroom for Shining Armor to witness Zack’s unconscious body slowly losing blood in the tub.
“What happened,” asked Shining Armor with a look of terror that swept over his face.
“No time to explain, I need you to close the wound some how and stop the bleeding.”
Shining Armor focused his magic and his horn glowed with a purple tint. He conjured a towel, a needle and a thread and proceeded to stitch up Zack. After some time, that was all Shining Armor could do, Valiant Steed wrapped Zack in a large bandage which enfolded around his shoulder blade and ribcage. They cleaned him up and sat him in his bed. Valiant turned toward Shining with a stern look in his face. 
“You cannot tell anyone about this, Shiny. No one must know.”
“I won’t, no one will find out, V.” Shining turned to leave, but before exiting the bedroom, he turned his head and said, “Just give me answers when you can.”
Valiant Steed nodded and Shining Armor closed the door behind him. Valiant looked over the weary and asleep human and sighed deeply. He stayed up all night to keep an eye on Zack. He didn’t know why he cared so much for someone he locked up a month ago, but the relationship they had made in the dojo and testing that friendship in the last couple of days proved to V that he had truly met someone special. That person cared so much for pleasing that pink pony who gave her time and will to risk protecting the only person who cared for her. He cared so much that he almost died for her tonight, died to return the favor. Valiant sat in the dark room and thought for a long time about his life and his priorities.



__________




One day later



A pink filly stared out of her apartment window and gave a long sigh. No one remembered her birthday, again. She wasn’t driven to tears of sadness, but depressed about the events that had transpired and wondered what was going on in Canterlot. The night wind swept through her curly mane and brushed her face, almost as if trying to comfort her. She placed her hooves on the window seal and was about to close the window until she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. 
A lone pegasus swooped down into the small sleeping village of Ponyville and stopped directly in front of the filly’s apartment window. She leaped back and closed her eyes in surprise as the wind that followed the pegasus blew into her room. The pony hovered in the night, with a small smile on his face and a wrapped up package gripped in his teeth.
He gently laid it on the window seal and pronounced quietly, “Miss Pinkie Pie, you have one great friend who I am lucky enough to experience with you. This gift is from him to you. He’s sorry he couldn’t make it to your birthday party, ...something–”
“Oh it’s fine, I didn’t have a party anyways.” She smiled towards the armor-less Valiant Steed whom she didn’t recognize. He nodded his head and smiled in response. 
He placed his left hoof over his forehead and saluted, “Until we meet again, Miss Pie.” He shot off like a rocket into the night sky and flew back towards Canterlot. Pinkie Pie rushed over to her window and watched as he became smaller and smaller in the distance, she turned toward the wrapped package and smiled, knowing Zack cared.