//------------------------------// // To Know Your Killer // Story: To Love Your Killer // by Silver Scrolls //------------------------------// In Canterlot Castle there are hundreds of rooms, most of them grandiose and ostentatious. Sweeping archways for doors with ceilings that seemed so high that clouds could form under them. The bedrooms had rugs from every corner of the globe and mattress stuffed with the finest and softest materials you could possibly find. Restrooms were tiled with marble and the sinks made of stones only found in the most expensive shops. Every single room oozed decadence and overindulgence, except for a few. Two rooms no pony save the princesses and the ponies they most trusted had ever set hoof in, while others were hidden from the public and had no use for finery. There was one room that absconded from finer that was special though. Tucked back in a small corner of the private section of the castle was a quaint dining room. Now this room was no secret but only a few ponies even knew it was there; the chefs, a few maids and that was it. A moderate-sized pine table stained by years and countless tea times sat on one side under a large window that was positioned to catch the morning sunrise or the moonrise at night. There were four chairs, one on each side of the simple table. The chairs were of a plain design with a latticework backing and worn, but still extremely comfortable cushions sewn into the seat. On the wall to the left of the entrance was a servant’s entrance that came directly from the kitchens. On the other side was a small beanbag couch. In this room were two creatures. One, a large white alicorn who sat at the table calmly sipping her tea while looking over the morning newspaper from Baltimare. The other a human. He was lithe in appearance with ice blue eyes and scars covering his face, his right arm completely missing. He lounged across the couch with a casual expression as he chewed a bagel slathered with peanut butter. The air between the two was calm, though there was the barest hint of tension. Finally the alicorn closed her paper and folded it carefully before dropping it on the table and turning her gaze to her acquaintance on the couch. She cleared her throat and he glanced over at her before sitting up. Celestia smiled. “So, Gale, I was wondering if you might answer a few questions for me.” Gale shrugged slightly and leaned back in the couch. “I see no reason why I should not indulge you. It is in line with what I wish to do before I openly allow your sister to court me.” “Indeed.” Celestia took a careful sip of her tea as she eyed her opponent for the mental joust that she was sure was coming. “My first question is rather straightforward. Do you like my sister?” Gale smiled and swallowed a bite of his bagel. “Of course I do.” He looked at Celestia. “But then that’s not the like you are thinking. Do I like Luna like that?” Gale tapped his chin absentmindedly as he mulled over the question. “The simple answer is, no. That’s not to say I don’t see it as possible, rather I want it to be true. Luna is a wonderful mare and I see many qualities in her to be loved. I am attracted to her and most definitely desire a relationship to explore how I feel about her.” Celestia blinked, she had not been expecting such a straightforward answer. From what she had heard of him he had a tendency to avoid answering questions. “I see, but according to her, you kissed her.” Gale shrugged nonchalantly. “I was caught up in the moment and it felt right. I also said I did feel something for her, I just...well, I just don’t know for sure what it is I feel.” Gale waved his hand in a lazy circle above him. “It’s...she has all these amazing qualities and she is a fine mare but...well I don’t know if I can love her like that even though I want to.” “I see.” Celestia nodded her head slightly as she absorbed what Gale had said. “So for you it’s quite complicated then. When would you say you first found yourself thinking you might have feelings for her?” “Ah, the million bit question.” Gale leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling, tracing the mortar between the stones with his eyes for a moment. “Would you believe I don’t know.” Gale smiled warmly as he thought about it. “Maybe it started with the photograph, or maybe when she walked into the room but honestly, I don’t know when it happened. The more time I spent with her, aside from the horrible attempts to kill her, the more I found myself thinking of her differently.” Gale sighed in a way that was something similar to something a filly might do when looking at her crush. “Like me she was lonely but unlike me she was not lost. She exemplified everything I wasn’t but wanted to be. She was inspiring to my lost soul.” A motherly look washed over Celestia’s face as Gale spoke and she couldn’t help but chuckle. “And now Gale, now that you have become a better stallion?” Gale sat up and rested his one arm on his knees. He squinted at Celestia for a while, studying the look on her face as he looked for any hint of what she was thinking. “Now, now I feel free. She inspired me to be better and gave me the tools I needed to improve myself. She freed me from the griffon king’s lies and opened the door for me to find a new path. To me that means more than anything and it draws me ever closer to her.” The room was silent as both occupants let their thoughts meander. Celestia found herself thinking of Gale in a more positive light, that perhaps he was not as cold as one might think an assassin to be. When Luna had first talked about how he was a kind soul she had been...skeptical, to say the least. As time had gone on it had only served to fuel her thoughts of how he wasn’t as kind as her sister thought. But now talking to him like this she could see it a little. Gale on the other hand was thinking about Luna and how it had come to the days he now enjoyed. He remembered that first try and how he had hesitated a little and missed. By no means was he the greatest assassin in the world, sure he was good, but there were others who were better, and for him to mess up like he did was uncharacteristic of him. Then later he had simply watched her sleep instead of trying to kill her, only leaving after Celestia had shown up in the room. Then after that they had talked almost every time he tried and he had slowly opened up more and more to her. Celestia looked up at Gale. “So Gale, why were you given the contract on Luna’s life?” Gale paused, a wry smile on his lips. “If I told you ‘Because I was the best at what I did,’ would you call me a liar?” Celestia chuckled a little and shook her head. “I mean no offense, Gale, but you are not the best. You are indeed good, but not the best. You have no natural weapons to speak of, you are small, you can’t see in the dark as well as many of our species. That’s all in addition to your lack of magical ability.” “And that’s where it all comes together.” Gale smiled as Celestia lifted an eyebrow giving her companion an incredulous look. “I know, I know, you think I’m nuts. What kind of assassin doesn’t use magic and how does that make him better than some others?” Gale sat up on the couch, the cocky smile never leaving his lips. “It’s all because of cultural bias. Were I am from magic doesn’t exist, we don’t have any deus-ex-type cure-all that is magic. Every species on this planet who fears for his life wards against magic and builds their fortress with the species of this world in mind, not my species.” Celestia’s eyes slowly widened as it hit her. “That’s...it’s almost brilliant.” Gale’s smile grew wider as he watched the revelation wash over Celestia. “Without your magic you can’t use illusion spells or silencing spells or any magical aid at all. Without that, none of the wards are tripped. That doesn’t explain everything though.” Gale nodded and rolled behind the couch before speaking. “You're right, but I am smaller than any other species besides a few in this world.” He jumped out from the side of the couch near the far wall brandishing his bagel like a knife. “And it gives me quite the edge when eluding the guard. Simply put, I fit in places most species can’t and I have to rely on my skills alone.” With a poomph noise Gale flopped back onto the couch. “It’s really nothing special. I just don’t trigger the alarms that most guards look for.” Celestia started laughing uncontrollably as the simplicity of it overwhelmed her. Finally she got herself under control and took a deep breath. “You are a very surprising individual, Gale. Very surprising indeed.” Celestia wiped a mirthful tear from her eye. “Your methods are so simple that we overlook them most of the time. To think our guards were bested because somepony wasn’t using magic and fit in places they wouldn’t have even considered.” While pouring herself a fresh cup of tea she shook her head slowly. “Back to Luna. What did you two talk about when you weren't trying to kill her?” “Hmm.” Gale scratched his chin. “Nothing really. We just chatted, swapped stories. Sometimes I would listen to her vent about how she was treated and how she was tired of the other countries treating her like she was nothing. Luna loved to hear about my life before this one, and there were a few stories of this life she liked as well.” Gale shrugged and took another bite of his bagel. “In all honesty, we talked like friends meeting up at a restaurant do. It was nothing special or groundbreaking, just two lonely souls finding company in one another.” Celestia let this thought stew for a second. It wasn’t overly odd but it felt odd. “So you’re saying that you, the one trying to kill her, would simply sit and talk with her like a friend?” Gale nodded nonchalantly. “Okay, but this wasn’t every time was it?” Gale nodded again. “That’s, well, unexpected.” Gale shrugged and approached the table for another bagel. “I agree. I pride myself in professionalism in a job, but with her I just couldn’t find it. I knew I shouldn’t but I wanted to talk to her, connect with her. I wanted to know who Luna was and it really hampered my job. That little part of my soul that hadn’t been crushed kept staying my hand in the smallest ways. I would miss by an inch, the trap wouldn’t spring fast enough, just shy of enough poison. I could never bring myself to do it no matter how many times or how hard I tried.” Gale picked up a bagel and rolled it over in his hand. “It’s odd how simple indecision made me act out of character, unprofessionally. She caused me to lose what little balance I had and so instead of doing only what I came to do, I let myself see the target as a person rather than a target.” “Until the last try.” Celestia dipped a biscuit in her tea and nibbled it. “The last time when you came into her hospital room. What changed for you to make you do that?” Gale’s shoulders fell and he put his bagel down. “The king sent me a missive, he told me if I failed again it was over for my son. I know that he was lying now, but back then, it devastated me.” Gale shook the ghosts out of his head and picked the bagel up again. The serrated knife flung crumbs over the table as he violently shoved the blade through the soft bread. The last inch he tore apart without the knife and then he covered the halves in copious amounts of peanut butter before taking a violent bite. Celestia pursed her lips in thought as she watched. The pain was still fresh in his eyes, it hadn’t had a chance to heal much but Gale was finding reasons to go on. Celestia tapped the table with the tip of her hoof a few times as she looked for another question. “Gale, why did you trust Luna when she told you about your family?” Celestia watched Gale closely as she asked. “She had plenty of reason to lie to you about them, not least of which was to get you stop trying to kill her.” Gale froze mid bite and slowly pulled the bagel out of his mouth with a strange look on his face. “I’m...I’m not sure. I really didn’t have a reason to, but yet, I did. Sure we had talked and become some weird twisted version of friends but there was no reason at all for me to trust her. I guess in the end...” He trailed off and stared at the peanut butter covering his bagel for a second. “I trusted her because it gave me an excuse. I hated the griffon king and every griffon around him. They hated me and treated me horribly and then suddenly Luna gave me this great reason to turn on them.” Gently the bagel was placed on the table and Gale gripped his empty shoulder. “True or not,it gave me a reason to storm in and kill them all, to put an end to the life they had forced on me. It was a chance to escape.” Silence filled the room while Celestia watched her breakfast partner shake. Whether it was rage or sorrow or some mixture of the two she wasn’t sure but whatever it was he felt it strongly. His knuckles had turned white as he gripped the old wound were his arm had once hung. He clenched his teeth together as he took sharp breaths that he slowly extended until he calmed down. Gale picked up his bagel and took a bite of it and chewed the bite carefully speaking up. “I didn’t trust her, it was just the reason I needed to fight back.” “I see.” Celestia stood up and stretched a wing to pat Gale on the shoulder. “I’m sorry to bring that up.” Gale shook his head. “It’s okay. Things are better now.” Celestia smiled and sat back down and grabbed another biscuit to nibble at. “This is also bothering me, why did the griffons decide to train you? And why did you trust their word?” “Emotional at the time and I had no reason not to trust them. I never saw who killed my family because I was away and the griffons told me a story that matched up with the carnage in the campsite.” Gale shook his head and sighed heavily. “I honestly don’t understand what they were thinking or why they chose to train me. All I had ever done was flee up until that point and even then I didn’t get violent I just broke down. There was no logical reason that I can think of for what the griffons did.” He shrugged again before walking over to the couch and flopping down into it. “Now I have a question for you. Why was Luna so eager to talk to me? She must have known what I was, so why talk to me at all?” Celestia furrowed her brow in thought. This wasn’t something she had given any thought to. “I would imagine she just wanted somepony to talk to. The nobles may treat her with respect and courtesy but it’s all a facade. Very few ponies are willing to talk to Luna rather than Princess Luna and well you indulged her. You were willing to talk to her as a pony instead of as a princes. For her that means a lot more than you might think.” Celestia bit a larger chunk off her biscuit to give her time to think a little more. “I can’t say why it might have blossomed the way it did but part of it was certainly that she enjoyed having somepony see her as Luna instead of Princess Luna.” Gale was silent for a moment. “Huh,” was all he said when he finally spoke again. “I know it sounds strange when it’s said out loud but she really is a lonely mare.” Celestia smiled warmly and looked out the window at the rising sun. “Even if you two don’t work out I think she has found a friend in you.” Gale smiled. “I hope that never changes. A good relationship is built on friendship in my opinion and she is the first one I have had in quite some time. I could never consider any of my competitors a friend and, well, the griffons were the griffons.” Licking a bit of peanut butter from his fingers he stared out the window at the horizon for a moment before looking back to Celestia. “But when exactly did she decide I was more than a friend?” Celestia looked down at the paper, her mind running over the type Gale had been gone from Luna’s life. “I guess after you left sometime. Signs of it showed up while you were trying to kill her but it didn’t really solidify for her until you were gone and she was back to being more or less alone.” Celestia drifted off to silence for a moment before she continued. “Me and her, we aren’t so damaged as to think death is meaningless and not fear it but we view it differently than most.” “We are ageless entities in a world of aging beings. Death comes to everyone but us no matter how much we may want it. When it does come for us our unique physiology often intervenes and keeps us alive so death becomes this thought rather than a reality for us. As such I think it holds less fear over us than those who face it as inevitable fact so while you may have been trying to kill her it didn’t scare or bother her like it should because she believed in some small way that you wouldn’t be able to succeed.” Celestia looked up at gale sadly. “No matter how good you were and close you came a part of her felt indestructible and thus had no fear of you.” Taking a seat Gale leaned the chair back against the wall and rested his head against the slowly warming glass. His eyes slid closed in thought and for a while the room was quiet. “Do you feel the same as her?” “What?” Celestia was startled for a moment before the meaning hit her. “Do I feel the same about death. The simple answer is no, I do not feel as Luna does about death.” For a moment she was completely still, staring deeply into the amber liquid of her tea. The stains on the bottom of the cup cast strange shadows in the tea, distorted by the refraction of light in the liquid. “Luna does not fear death because some part of her feels as though she cannot be killed, whereas I fear death because if I go I do not know what would happen to the sun.” Celestia paused, swirling the tea in her cup so it lapped at the lip threatening to spill out. “My sister though. she has none of this fear. For example, a few years ago when we were planning to start up a winter solstice celebration, there was a planning mix up and the planning session ended up pushed back into the evening. I admit my own hoof in this because I believed Luna should have her own say in a celebration geared towards her night. Rather than sit in court with Luna and hear what she had to say on the matter the committee canceled with plans to reschedule for the next day.” Gale took a deep breath. “That’s horrible. Why would they do that?” A gentle tink sounded as the teacup Celestia was holding hit the plate a little harder than she intended. “Because they don’t care for her thoughts and opinions. The nobles of this nation and many others all see her as bothersome since her return. Luna is my equal in all but the eyes of the world nobles. It weighs heavily upon her that she is so unrespected. In her heart she feels as though she could pass from this world with little consequence. Unlike myself who is loved dearly by the world.” Gale rocked his chair, thumping against the wall as he thought. “But what of everyone who is close? What about you, her guard, the friends she has?” Sighing heavily Celestia lowered her head and shook it sadly. “Those give her pause but at the end of the night when she has left her empty court and retired to her barren room her thoughts turn dark. When Luna looks out over the world from her room all she can see is world that has no place for her. Her loneliness is not just because she has trouble forming connections but because she feels as though the world has forgotten her and thus the place in it she once had is gone. By finding someone like herself, an individual without a proper place in the world she on some level thinks it will give her a reason to stay, or at least that’s what I think.” The room grew still as Celestia finished speaking. Her words hung heavy in the air, deep with meaning and telling much of how the two ageless beings had been hurt by time. Gale for one understood her better than he felt he should. He couldn’t relate to being ageless, but not having a place, that resonated deeply with him. When he had first arrived with his family he had had a place to be, but when they were taken he lost that place. The griffons hadn’t given him a place, only a role, a role he was reluctant to take but he had taken to because he was lost. His gaze drifted to Celestia and he saw her and Luna both in a new light. Loneliness dripped from the white alicorn like invisible tears. On her face hung a mask of sorrow painted with a smile and cheer to protect the fragile being beneath it. Gently he reached across the table and patted the diarchs hoof comfortingly. Celestia stared at the hand on her hoof for a moment. It was odd, this man who had dealt in death for most of his life while in her world was trying to give her comfort because the craft he once peddled could never reach her. She chuckled weakly and pulled her hoof away. “I appreciate the sentiment, Gale, but I have come to terms with what I am a long time ago. Found ways to bring joy into my life even if I never allow myself to love. Luna needs that hand more than I. She has been hurt far worse than I ever have.” Celestia smiled weakly, sadness weighing on the corners of the smile. “Maybe someday I will find a stallion who is to me as you are to Luna but for now I am content with the friendships I have fostered.” A soft thump accompanied Gale’s chair as it was righted. “Well then I hope to be added to that list. Your sister may court me and hold a place dear in my heart come the near future but I think I would enjoy having another friend in this world.” Suddenly the door flew open and all four eyes in the room snapped to it. Luna stood in the doorway, a hoof raised to shoulder level after having just flung the door wide. A bright smile wove from the corners of her lips into her eyes giving them a joyous twinkle. “Gale! How wonderful it is you could join us for breakfast.” She stepped into the room and kicked the door shut behind her. “How goes the retraining of the guard?” The seat beside Gale was taken and Luna leaned over to nuzzle him affectionately. Gale returned her nuzzle by pulling her into a hug. “Not bad, mostly it’s just reminding them of the basics.” Chuckling he watched as Luna piled pancakes onto her plate. “As for my penance with the courts, I almost done with the list of assassins I am familiar with and the ones I know of that have hired them.” “And my sister, how are you getting along with her.” Luna eyed her sibling as she spoke. “I hope you two haven’t been fighting.” Celestia smiled at her sister. “No, not at all. We have been talking is all, getting to know each other. I think we have found some common ground as a matter of fact.” Gale nodded in agreement. “I think Gale has a promising future here in Canterlot.” Luna smiled warmly and took a large bit of pancakes before responding. “I am glad to hear that.” She put a wing over Gale’s shoulders. “I hope to announce our courtship soon. I was thinking we could visit my friends in Ponyville this weekend as a trial run.” Gale stiffened for a moment before shaking his head. He knew there was nothing to fear, it just made things feel more real if he did that. “I think I like the sound of that. I have been meaning to meet Twilight and her friends. Doesn’t the guard who told you about what happened to my family live there as well?” Luna nodded. “Indeed she does. If you wish we can pay a visit while there.” “I would like that.” Gale leaned against Luna and smiled as he fell silent. Not everything was perfect but he felt...happier. It had been a while since he had last felt this way and it warmed his heart immensely to feel this way again. Half-listening to the sisters’ talk he let his mind wander while enjoying the warmth of the mare he felt himself falling for slowly and for once he could see a future in this world that didn’t involve some sort of tombstone. He knew he had enemies out there, but then who didn’t. And what did it matter? If he had learned anything from his life as a merchant of death it was that you should cherish each moment of your life, because you never knew when it might end. “At least now,” he thought with a smile, “I have a chance at a happy one.”