//------------------------------// // Chapter 24 // Story: The Eyes Are Blind // by Fe94Knight //------------------------------// Chapter twenty four 'Dear Luna, The first day of your trip is almost over, and although I didn’t expect the travel to take long. I am curious to what you may have found? If anything at all that is. I know Midnight’s mind is not a strong one at the moment, so I will ask the tough question, how is he doing? Is Shard still effecting him as much, or is it contained for now? I personally would hate to have to kick the flank of a colt you are more than smitten with on such short notice… Twilight, and Discord give their best wishes, and Rose has said that when you get back you two will have ‘girl talk’ then… what are you feeding her now Lulu? Please give my own regards to your colt, oh I’m sorry… travel companion. And I wish you both a safe trip and the best of luck. Your dear sister, Celestia P.S. Have you kissed him yet?!' Luna reads over the message in silence as she received it on the path to the next town over. Examining it line for line as she does, the mare can only picture her sweet sister snickering to no end while she wrote this out, and Rose probably had every part in it as well… or at least the last bit. “What does it say?” Midnight asks her, interrupting her thought process and startling the mare. “Nothing!” she yells at first, forgetting that action just makes her look guilty to no end, “Just my sister asking how things are going is all, getting good wishes and if all was okay,” ‘no… it’s not lying, it’s just hiding some of the truth,’ the response works as Midnight simply nods to her with a suspicious grin, but pushes no further on the subject. Allowing Luna to flip the parchment over, and scribble out her own message in magic ink. 'Dear Tia, Although our trip is not a particularly long one, checking up on me would not be needed unless I was captured and held for ransom, or had not returned for another thousand years… though I doubt you would wait that long. As for the search, we may have just found something, and I will be sure to fill you in once it plays out. Until then, give Discord my regards, thank you for your own. As for Rose and I having girl talk… wouldn’t you like to know… Your unamused sister, Luna P.S. To answer your last question… you and I will have words when I see you.' She leaves it at that and in a quick aqua flame from her horn, she express mails the scroll back to the original. Brushing off the comment made and putting in the back of her mind, Luna makes a mental note to ignore further letters from her sister, instead deciding to pay attention to the task at hoof. Catching up to Midnight to keep in step with him, the edge of the town comes in to eye sight finally. Though while the sun may be setting, this doesn’t stop the nocturnal colt from catching a glimpse of the flustered mare, “Trouble with Princess Celestia?” “Celestia, just call her that,” Luna snaps back unintentionally at the wrong target of her perplexity, following shortly with a low head to boot as she mutters out a simple apology, and tries to not make eye contact, “Sorry about that… she has been on my flank about a… matter.” “Us?” he answers quickly. Though the answer to her can mean so many things. ‘Us? What does he mean by that? Like together? Traveling? Is he reading what I’m writing out in the clear of day, or is it going over the top of his head?’ “Umm… Could you elaborate?” Luna manages to get out while all other words and thoughts seem to evade the mare. Leaving the colt to do nothing but silently chuckle to himself so she can’t read what he himself is writing. ‘Well that got quite a reaction…’ he notes the blank stare that she gives him like a slap to the face, ‘… though I think I can guess what the letter said. Nice to know Celestia has already picked up on what I hope is mutual… if it isn’t already obvious.’ Having decided that his cohort has suffered long enough. Midnight follows up with a slight explanation to ease her down, “She knows about my odd condition, so it would stand to reason that she would be worried that I may snap, and hurt you,” he answers sincerely, “after all as your sister, I can understand the protective nature Celestia would have with us traveling alone out here.” After inhaling a mighty breath of fresh air in to her lungs to further speech, Luna’s face mellows out after recalling that was in the letter after all. “Tia is slightly, unnerved, about it… you are fairly new to us. Though if she let us go out of the castle on this little trip so quickly, it can’t be so bad,” She answers to quell his curiosity. Finally entering the town limits, they pass by several homes, and closed up businesses for the night. Luna spots what can only be the library, judging by the many books that can still be seen in the dim windows, from off in the distance. While both of them breaking in to a full gallop to catch the librarian as he brings out the key to do the same as most of the town, and lock up for the night, “Excuse me sir, do you have a moment?” “I am sorry, but we are just about-” The stallion finally turns around to see the princess standing in front of him with a rather large colt to her side, all of which takes most forms of communication from him for but a moment, “… err… ahh… h-how is it I can help you?” He gulps hard in the back of his throat, “Your highness?” “Please gentle colt relax,” She brushes away his nerves, “me and my friend here just need to look at your records… that’s all.” “Well normally I would have closed an hour ago… only reason I was still here is for restock,” he scratches the back of his head for a moment, “Records you say miss? Well we have them for the whole town I know that much… I don’t see the harm in letting royalty enjoy themselves to a little night time reading,” He brings the key out hoofs it over to the princess, “Just do please lock up, oh and of course put things back where you found them?” “Not a problem sir,” Midnight answers instead as he and the princess go inside and close the door behind them. North was right about the older library having a far larger selection in terms of material. Many of the tombs there to be read that have been in the library sense its start, are in almost mint condition, likely due to preservation enchantments that were applied to them when they were first made. All the better for the colt who is trying to learn a thing or two about his past, and the mare that has followed him all this way. After looking through a dozen of the records however, Midnight himself hurtles a helpless book over to the wall where it is about to make impact, before being caught by the lunar princess in her own magical grasp. “You know Twilight would have your flank if she saw you doing that,” Luna chuckles under her breath, much to his dismay but at the same time not in malice. “Sorry about that…” He grumbles to himself before sitting up properly in the chair to address her, “Fall Cloud is in here as a resident around the same time period, even Floral is here, but apart from their names,” He flips over to another page in the book that didn’t make it across room, but remained in his possession to make a point. Showing only a list of names, and several blank spaces, “None of them have any sort of ties to another pony of blood in town that could even remotely be parents of mine…” Walking over to the colt’s side, Luna sets the book back down next to him before taking a seat herself, ‘How am I supposed to respond to that one? I can’t go back five hundred years to find out where he came from,’ she ponders in the back of her mind. Picking up another record book, and skimming all the way back to the possible dates of his birth, ‘There has to be some way to make a connection…’ With only a single eye dipping off to meet Midnight’s own face while he has a muzzle deep in the books, something finally clicks to her as she looks over his features once more, like she had many times before, ‘Bat like ears, sharp fangs, and a set of rather pleasant golden slit eyes,’ The mare smiles lightly before making her point known. “Midnight?” She watches as the orbs rest on her gaze, “Go back to the census records for the town, does it show occupation? Their job?” “Mhmm…” A few seconds later he finds the column that she asked for, “Yes right here, why?” “Lunar guards,” Luna responds to him, “Are any of them lunar guards, or perhaps ex-guards?” Running his hoof down the page, Midnight skims through the column, until it rests on only one name as he calls it out, “Winter Night, mare, ex-Lunar guard, lived just on the outskirts of town.” “There you have it…” She says rather smug of herself before explaining further, “Your appearance is of that like of my personal guards… So it stands to reason that the only one who would be able to give you some of your features, would be a lunar guard,” Luna herself now looks over the page on her own, only to fall back in to the chair at a slight disappoint, “Though a husband is not listed, it seems that Winter lived alone.” Midnight sits there in silence for a moment, thinking about all the bits and pieces of information that he has in his head, trying to put the puzzle together. Though with this little bit of information he got on a possible mother, it leaves another thing to click in his mind, “Celestial guards… Is there one there in town? A colt?” after a short skim, the princess simply nods to him, “What’s the address?” “Ahh… thirty fifth sun tame avenue,” Luna watches as the stallion almost falls out of his seat, and proceeds to look through the archives for who knows what, just as another book flies over her head. This time landing square on the table that they were using as he trots past her, and puts muzzle to pages without a word, “…I’m going to go out on a wild limb here, and guess you have a hunch?” “I’ve been around for quite a while Luna, and I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with the Lunar and Celestial guards. One thing that I learned is that the two groups have always been at odds with one another,” Midnight can still remember many of the fights he has seen over the years involving the two. Several in a bar after a few too many, and many that resulted in riots, “Relationships between two guards were allowed, even if they were both sun and moon, though it was frowned upon. Not so much by their superiors… but their peers. So if two ponies of Lunar and Celestial were in love, and with child… don’t you think that they would come out to the edges of Equestria to live their lives?” He points to a single home built up on the town limits off far to the side. Reading just below it ‘thirty fifth sun tame avenue’ with a name of the resident, Spector, leaving only Midnight grinning to himself. Giving time for the royalty with him to catch up. Luna now does her own digging for a second, looking back through the records to find the lunar guard. Though as she finds the address that is supposedly listed for the mare, she back tracks to the map itself and then back to the records to make sure her findings are correct. “Another thing…” Luna points to a vacant lot on the map, “while Winter has an address listed here in the town record. According to the map, there was no home built, likely just a mail box there,” she looks in relation to Spector’s home, “and it just so happens these two are right next to one another.” “And if you take all of that and add it up?” Midnight asks while each of them start to grin at what this will entail even before Luna says it all. “Then you get a Celestial and Lunar guard, in a relationship with each other at a time it was forbidden, and with a secret they need to keep in the dark,” The mare grins happily to him now as he jots down the address on a small scrap of paper to take with them. “If they were living together than perhaps there is something’s still there… it may be close to half a millennia old, but according to the more modern town layout, the place is still there to some extent,” He shrugs his shoulder while putting the paper under a wing, “We got this far… No harm in doing a little more digging?” Midnight motions with a few hoof movements, and several of the books they brought out are already back in place. Luna doing the same with her own magic, and catching right up next to him as they reach the door at the same time. Walking out in to the dark night as they start down the way. “Oh…” The present mare pipes up before trotting back to the library door. Sliding the key in, and locking it up for the night, before leaving the key up atop the door frame, “Almost forgot.”