//------------------------------// // Chapter 29 // Story: The Eyes Are Blind // by Fe94Knight //------------------------------// Chapter twenty nine “Oh for the love of yourself, Tia…” Discord rubs the tip of his muzzle with a talon as he pounds back his fifth cup of coffee, and by cup, he means about a goblets worth, “…Let up a bit, Luna is a big girl now. You know that right?” For the last several hours after having not gotten a letter, in response to the one she sent the previous night. Celestia has been pacing about in the den to the master bedroom back and forth, nearly digging a hole in to the ground with her hoof steps. “It’s not that I don’t think she can take care of herself,” Celestia tries to defend her position while walking over to a cupboard and breaking out a decanter of scotch to take the edge off, “I just am worried as the older sister about my younger siblings safety… that’s all,” With that she pounds back the third glass of the night while her own daughter starts to giggle on the couch, next to her aunt Cadance and uncle ‘Shiny’. “This is one of those very rare occasions mom, where dad is probably right,” Rosebud pipes up slipping that first bit in, “After all Lulu can take care of herself.” “Exactly!” Discord shoots up in to the air, before realizing the first bit of his daughter’s words, soon meeting her with a playful glare. “All we are trying to say auntie, is that Luna is more than capable of taking on whatever they may find,” Cadance follows up. “Besides…” Shining tags on to his wives statement, “Midnight is more than capable with that dark magic he’s packing,” The resulting hoof to the side from his wife, lets him know that that may be part of the problem to begin with, “Okay so his magic needs some work. From what I understand after you explained it Celestia, this was the whole reason they went out on this little trip.” “It is Shining Armor…” Celestia refills her glass, taking a quick swig and savoring the burning aftertaste, before she answers him, “Though after nearly a full day of not hearing anything from them, I am just worried that he may have gone off the deep end, and done something to her that he would regret later.” Her husband rolls his crazy red, and yellow eyes at her over, and over again while they dislocate in his sockets, “Oh please… Like he would dare lose his mind in front of her.” “You never know Dissy… after all he has before.” “That was when he first met her in the Empire, and he was already nuts…” He attempts to back up his own point, “After all sense then he has showed no malice towards your sister, and if anything, there is only affection for him to her.” “And auntie even returning the favor!” Rose yells out to help her father. All eyes turning towards her soon afterwards in an instant as she sits there cross legged on the couch, “What? Please tell me I’m not the only one that sees this? Me and her have to have girl talk later.” “No Rose, you are surely not the only one that has noticed,” Cadance puts a hoof to the end of her face to cover up her grin. Needless to say, they have all noticed to some extent how smitten their beloved Luna is with the new comer Midnight, and even his own attraction to her is noted as they have interacted with one another. With a silent nod between Cadance, Rosebud, and Tia they all already know exactly what the other is thinking, even if the boys remain clueless to the actions. Though their quiet moment is interrupted by the sound of heavy hoof steps on the balcony that attaches to the royal families chambers. All five family members get up, and head over to the bedroom door to take a peek through as the balcony doors to the outside open up, and in comes a colt draped in full combat armor that is unlike anything they have seen. With the hooves of a princess they all love, wrapped around his neck. “Luna!” Celestia bursts in past them, and even knocks a few of the others over, except for Rose, to takes to the air before hoof. The mother out of the bunch comes right up to her sister’s side as the latter gets off the back of Midnight. Only to be nearly crushed by the loving hooves of her sister. “As nice as it is to see you too sister,” Luna bites down on her lower lip, as her wing is crushed back in to her side, “it would be nicer… if you could watch the bandage.” At even the sound of the word bandage Celestia backs off, and looks Luna over from head to hoof. Examining each, and every cut and scrap that came from the battle she knows nothing of yet, and then turning to the colt who has the same dealings of combat across his face as he takes off the helmet, and holds it up under his wing respectfully. Meanwhile, the others by this point are surrounding the two that have returned finally, and are more than eager to hear their tale. “So… I want to guess that you found something?” Discord states the obvious like he always does at moments like these, while looking over the condition of the two. The resulting smirk that both Midnight, and Luna share with one another. Along with the slight enflamed cheeks, that the colt has a far easier time hiding than the mare, lets them all know that this one may require some time to go though. “Oh you could say that, though we’ll need a pot of coffee…” Midnight responds for his mare. Moments later, a punch bowl of the caffeinated brew appears right in front of the colt. Courtesy of the prince of chaos himself, “Oh do tell…” Discord slithers off his tongue. _________________________ While Luna is taken off by to the med bay to have her wing attended too. Midnight is left to the care of the five as he starts off with a deep breath and a single finding he had a few days ago about a town that he once knew. Launching from there, going in to the town records that they attempted to recover from the old library, he explains the run in with an old friend that he never would have recognized. Going further in to the connection with North Cloud and even his family with Stratus and Crimson, he tells them of the ties to Floral, and North’s ancestor Fall Cloud, who was the one that had found him after his tragedy. After getting the helping tip from them. He and Luna had gone to the other town not too far from them originally, and then made their way in to the library there to search the paper work. While there, Midnight tells them about the several anomalies they found involving a pair of ex-guards, one Lunar and the other Celestial. A mare and a colt, each having a different address close to one another, but only one house ever actually showing up on the maps of the time. Finding the house that was still nearly perfectly preserved, Midnight draws to the more gruesome part of their tail, and after getting the go ahead from Celestia with a simple wink to proceed with young ears there (namely Rose). The colt goes one to tell them about what they had found. The suit of armor that fell on to Luna as she was snooping, and even the photo book that showed pages upon pages of pictures of a young Midnight with a pair of loving parents. At which time, Midnight reaches down in to the breast plate and pulls out the book, passing it around to them. Until it resides in Rose’s hooves, as she goes through it while the adults press on eagerly for the rest of the story. “You started to have flash backs to then?” Shining asks while mindlessly shoving a muffin from the snack tray that Cadance had brought in for them, “You must have really struck a nerve then.” “That I did, and then some…” Midnight takes it almost as an understatement, “I saw them for the first time, and that first time just happened to be when they were… well… you can imagine,” Each one shares the sympathetic pout of the colt that had lost it all without even realizing why at the time, and wouldn’t learn why for centuries to come. “H-how did it happen?” Celestia stumbles out from sheer curiosity. “If you don’t mind of course.” “It is in the past your majesty… there is nothing that can be done,” He takes yet another breath before going in to it, “As you know relations between the two factions of guards were always a bit sour, and as a result any personal relationships were heavily frowned upon…” He waits for that bit to sink in to the rest of them, as a few nod in agreement that they are following him, “Well I am the product of such a relationship, and after they were found out by another group of guards in sheer drunken anger. My mother, and father were cut down,” A few of the women gasp. The men burry their faces in either hoof or claw while they even shake their head at the senseless nature of it. “Horrible thing aint it…” Discord even admits to himself under his breath. “That’s though when that little tinge of dark sparked up in me… it allowed me even as a foal to put an end to those guards that did It,” He looks down at the green flame over top the shield on his rump, and even the tinge of it tainting his brow, “Even if it did mark me for the rest of my life…” “What happened to him though?” Rose asks now, setting the book back down after hearing about the deaths of others, “I mean if you went there to try, and heal your mind. Did it work, or is Shard still there with you.” “Well Miss Rosebud… He tried to take over once again,” Midnight turns his head slightly to the young princess to address her while at the same time the others as well, “Though as my mind healed, it couldn’t take completely over… so he escaped out in to the real world,” The colt gives out a brief explanation of what happened after the darkness literally upchucked from his gullet and was spit out. Leaving out some of the more horrid details as he simply brushes them off to the side to come up later if needed. Though the way it was finally brought down is a little surprising to them all, except Celestia, who is all too familiar about his flesh thirsty nature. “So you ate him?” Shining says bluntly. Getting only a sour faced, and awkward affirmation from Midnight. “Basically… if he was let out to roam then he would have found another host. And he could have never been killed, not in our world.” “How come?” The princess of love questions. “I have been fed many lies by that thing over the centuries,” The colt slowly chuckles to himself at that fact now. The sense in it all being irony that the thing that does his demon in finally, is the one truth that he ignored, and didn’t want to except from day one, “Though the one truth he did say all that time was ‘I am as much a part of you as you are of me’ and he was right. There was always a small part of it in me that would be there no matter what I had done. So even with Shard out in the real world, that fragment would have festered still. However, once I learned that he could still be beaten down to nothing, and contained finally with a stronger will… then his fate was sealed once he was cast in to the darkest hole I could find in my head…” “And which hole was that?” Discord asks out of curiosity. “Hehe… ironically,” Midnight tries to fight an ill laugh in this twist, “the same part my memories were.” A silence follows suit until the prince of chaos himself even makes the decision to break it for the time being, and give the brave colt a round of applause. “Well I have to say that is a tail that you could even tell a foal of your own one day,” he winks at the ever more flushed colt, “Though you will have to talk to Luna about that one,” Discord slips in that last comment. Barely enough for his wife next to him even to hear, while they both start to snicker and giggle to themselves. “Speaking of Luna…” Midnight brings up, halting any laughter from the two as they lock eyes with him, “Do you think she is asleep by now? We did have a long trip, but needless to say, she is one to stay up well in to the night.” “She’s… ahh, should still be in medical.” Celestia stumbles a bit after both her and her husband were caught red hoofed. Checking the clock that now reads a quarter after one in the morning before she continues, “It has been a couple of hour’s sense you two arrived though, perhaps you may get some rest as well.” “With all due respect your majesty,” He bows lightly before getting up from his seat, “I would very much like to see her now, if you would excuse me.” Only a kind, and gentle smile graces her face as she beckons him to go with nothing more than a hoof towards the door and a nod. Though one question stops him in his tracks, “Midnight… how did you hear my husband mention her?” Tia asks. The colt turns only half his face around with a sly grin on it before he answers truthfully, “It’s the enhanced hearing I got from my mother… comes in handy don’t it?” Midnight answers, watching Discord even bite his tongue before he continues, “…and if I may say. The Princess of the night, has been on my mind as of late…” With that, and no other word, the colt leaves their presence with the shutting of a door.