Chapter 13 - A Night To Remember
After the good Doctor said this, I didn’t even know what I was doing. I charged him, not even realizing I called upon my Friend’s and Fade’s power. My left arm morphed into its black scaled form; With Fade’s power coursing through my body now, the scales on my left arm started to rise and stand on end, a thick frozen black smoke started to ooze from the now open scales.
His body slammed into the concrete wall behind him, my claws sinking into the wall pinning him against it. My vein slowly pulsed as more smoke vented out of my scales; the tip of my scales and claws start to turn blue the longer the vein slowly pulsed with frozen energy.
“Give me ONE good reason why not to KILL you right here and right now!” My voice mixed between Fade’s frozen voice and mine.
“B-Because if it wasn't for me, you and Cloud would’ve never of met.” He violently coughs as he tries to speak.
Coming to my senses, I retract my claws from the wall. The Doctor’s body slumps to the floor with a thud. I bring my arm down to my side as it transform back to its normal form.
“What are you talking about? Because of you Cloud and I met.” Standing over him as he starts to breath easier.
“W-When you went into the room with the two pedestals I rigged it so no matter what you would get Cloud. The first two choices were poisonous gas and a enraged Diamond Dog. And for your information I didn’t have any part in your testing, I just studied your vitals.” He slowly starts to get to his hooves.
“I see, I guess I owe you an apology and a thank you then. Do you wish to learn more about me, Doc?” Crouching down to eye level with him, he slowly looks up and meets my gaze.
“Y-Yes! I would love to learn more about your species!” His eyes light up with excitement after hearing my proposal.
“Very well, would you kindly remove this cast you put on my right arm? It’s a little redundant.” He quickly nods and his horn lights up as he highlights the cast and removes it.
“Now, watch closely, I can only show you this once before I build up too much debt.” His eyes now closely watch my arm.
I turn my arm over, to expose the massive bruising that now covered my right arm. I slowly called upon my Friend’s power, channeling it to my damage arm; My veins turn black as the black ichor slowly traveled into my arm. The bruising starts to lighten as the fractured Radius and Ulna start to repair themselves. The pain in my arm starts to fade away as my arm begins to regenerate.
“T-This is AMAZING! Can your whole kind regenerate so rapidly?” His face has a mixture of shock and joy as he watches my arm heal.
“No, only I can. Long story short, I have certain powers that I can call upon and use, but the more I use the more debt I build up; And you don’t want to know what the payment is.” I start to stand up as the Doc stands there speechless.
“So, Colt’s report about your power was correct, We are impressed. We are also impressed to see you’re able to wield Fade’s power. But there is one thing that troubles Us, Colt mentioned that you’re rather unstable, is this correct?” Luna now as a concerned look on her face.
“Unstable? Yes you can call it that, but I can at least still control my power most of the time. You don’t need to fret Luna, I promise you this; I will not be a threat to any ponies that don’t try to hurt anyone I care about.” Meeting Luna’s stare as I turn around to face her.
“Doc... T-Thank you for doing what you did, if I haven't meet 27 in the facility I don’t know what would've happened to me. 27 means.... a lot to me.” Cloud kicks a hoof at the ground as her face turned slightly red.
“Agreed, thank you Doc for what you did, Cloud saved my life more than once and she means a lot to me as well.” Cloud starts to trot over to me as the doctor slowly starts to trot over to Luna.
“Subject 27, We greatly appreciate your hard work and your determination in the facility and in shutting it down. We would like you to have this Lunar Medallion and fight for us when called upon to protect Canterlot.” Luna’s horn starts to glow as she levitates a midnight blue medallion in front of me.
I get down on one knee and raise my hands to grab the medallion, hoping this is appropriate gesture to accept an honor like this.
“Princess Luna, I would be honored to be your Knight. I promise to protect these lands and fight in your honor when you call upon me.” I grasp the medallion in my hands and put it around my neck.
“This is a great honor have bestowed upon you. May you embrace the darkness of night and revel in its power. May the veil of the darkness protect you from your enemies. Subject 27, We knight thee as a Lunar Knight.” Luna expands her wings outwards as a smile grows across her face.
“Thank you my Princess, I’ve always been more comfortable while in the darkness than the light.” I start to tug on the medallion that hangs around my neck.
“T-Thats pleases Us to hear you say this, we’re glad to hear that somepony else enjoys the night as much as Us, most ponies just sleep or hide when it’s dark outside. The medallion around your neck is enchanted so it will never break, no matter how hard you try.” Her face now adorned with a slight blush.
“Hey Doc, may I ask you a question? How long have you been working in that facility?” Cloud turns her head and looks at Doctor Helping Hoof.
“Well, roughly two years before Subject 27 appeared out of nowhere.”
“Hey Doctor, how long have Cloud and I been inside the facility?”
“Will, Cloud was in there for one week, You... You were there for two.”
“Two weeks?” The Doctor now has my full attention.
“No, two months, for the most part of it you were in a coma.”
“Only two months that's.... Wait, two months?! WHAT!?”” Shocked stiff after hearing this.
“Correct Subject 27, two months. You’ve only been awake for roughly one week. Your body kept on resisting any of the chemicals we put in you until we gave you such a high dosage of a prototype drug called Buck. Your body didn’t have enough time to build up a tolerance to the overdose of the new drug introduced into your system. So it pretty much kick started your system and snapped you out of your coma.”
“So, explain to me why you had me on sedatives and didn’t remove the shard until I was fully awake.”
“Oh, after you were ‘Bucked’ out from your coma you kept on thrashing about, so we gave you a mild dose of sedatives until we figured out what to do about the shard that was in you.” His face lights up like a light bulb just went off.
“I see, I guess it makes sense.” Shrugging my shoulders as I just stand there and agree with the good Doctor.
“So, 27 was awake for about the same time that I arrived, what a coincidence. So Doc, did you find out anything interesting about 27’s species?”
“Well since 27 is a “unique” kind of his own species, nothing too much. His kind are omnivorous, their organs are somewhat similar to pigs, their bone structure allow them to be to be rather flexible; Besides that, nothing else.” He starts to scratch the top of his head with his hoof.
“I’ll allow you to run more tests on me one of these days, Doc. But for now I think I’m done with testing. So Luna, how would Cloud and I get to the zebra nation from here?”
“Well, only you can travel there Subject 27, if Cloud went as well it might cause some issues between the zebras and ponies. How about you and Cloud take a day or two and just relax in Canterlot before you leave?”
“Fair enough, spending some time not fighting and just kicking back would rather be nice, don’t you agree Cloud?” Turning to look at Cloud, only to see a sad look upon her face.
“Y-Yeah, that would be nice 27....”
“Cloud, what’s wrong?”
“N-Nothing, lets just have a good time in Canterlot before you leave.” She turns around and heads up the stairs.
“I’ll best be going as well, I have some patients that need to be tended to in the hospital.” He turns and starts to walk towards the staircase.
“Doctor Helping Hoof, you might want to go pay Colt a visit in Ponyville. He might let you run some tests on him, tell him I sent you; If he doesn't believe you just ask him about the ‘Improvised Rock’, he’ll know what it means.” Stopping the Doctor before he left.
“Improvised Rock? O-Okay... I guess I shall pay him a visit, hopefully we meet again Subject 27.” He continues up the stairs, leaving Luna and I alone in the dungeon.
“Subject 27, come visit us when you’re ready to leave for the zebra nation. You’ll have to come visit us in the Royal Castle at night.” Luna takes her leave and I follow.
We only walked through the dungeon for a short while before we entered into the twilight sky. The last bit of the sun’s light mixed with night sky created a beautiful sunset. Cloud was standing there in the grass just staring up at the sunset in awe. Luna takes her leave and I walk towards Cloud before she snaps out of her trance and greets me with a smile.
“So Cloud, anything special you wanted to do tonight?” I stand next to Cloud, staring up at the sunset before the night sky takes over.
“Well, while you were out I talked to some of the guard ponies and they mentioned this nice little watering hole in town, let’s go check it out.” She starts to trot into town.
I just follow her lead, looking at the beautiful city as we walk throughout the city. The roads were paved with flat stone, street lamps littered the sidewalks illuminating the roads. Homes and other buildings were just gorgeous to look at, flowers covering the fronts of them.
Ponies walked about their own day, finishing up their last minute shopping before the stores closed up for the night. Some just sat at tables enjoying their dinners or just sitting at tables having easy going conversations. My stomach starts to gurgle, snapping me out of my trance as it calls for food.
“Hey Cloud, you hungry? I still haven't gotten anything to eat since Ponyville...” Placing my hands over my stomach as it rumbles.
“Oh, yeah let’s go get some food in you then!” She starts to giggle as my stomach speaks to us, begging for food.
We pick a random diner and sit down outside since the weather was nice. A unicorn mare approaches us levitating two menus and placing them on the table in front of us. She stands at the edge of the table with a smile on her face as Cloud and I look over the menu.
“Welcome to Easy Hoofin’ Dinner, I’m your hostess for tonight, my name is Sweetsong, may I get you two ponies anything to dri-.” She trays off as she now notices that I’m not a pony.
“It’s fine miss, I know that you’ve never seen someone of my kind befo-.” She cuts me off mid-sentence.
“N-No, that’s not it sir. That medallion around your neck, you’re a Lunar Knight?” Her face lights up as she realizes what hung around my neck.
“Yes I am... Is something wrong?” I raise an eyebrow as I answer her question.
“N-No sir! We just don’t see many, if any, Lunar Knights at all! It’s an honor to have you here at our little dinner.” Joy now resides on her face.
“O-Okay then... I’ll just have a glass of water and a fruit salad. What are you going to get, Cloud?”
“I’ll just have the same thing.” The hostess takes her leave with our orders.
“Who would've thought wearing this medaillon would bring about such commotion.” We only waited a few moments before our food and drinks were brought out to us.
We chowed down on the fresh fruit salad, each bite just as sweet and tasty as the last; The fruit was amazingly fresh and good. I devoured the salad in the matter of seconds, before Cloud could even take her fourth bite.
“Boy, that hit the spot, how’s your salad Cloud?” Taking a drink of the cold water washing down the salad.
Her eyes go wide as she looks up to see nothing was left of my salad, I can see mashed up piece of food in her gaping mouth as she stares at me.
“Y-You already finished your food? How’s that even possible?” She stops eating as she stares at me with her gaping mouth.
“Oh, yeah, I’m rather fast eater.” I scratch the back of my head as I take another sip of my drink.
Cloud stops staring and slowly continued eating her food, I sat there just pony-watching while I waited for Cloud to finish. Only a few minutes past before Cloud finished and the hostess returns with the bill. She hands me a small plastic tray with a piece of paper on it, I paid the bill and left a rather handsome tip for her. We both left the dinner and continue on our adventure towards the watering hole Cloud heard about.
Night had fallen and the streets were well lit by the lamps that lined the sidewalks. The night air was cool and pleasant, a small breeze blew in bringing in the scent of freshly cut grass and flowers. A Lot of the ponies were already in their homes spending time with their families or loved ones.
We reached the watering hole, music flooded the street through the open door, we can see ponies dancing and singing through the window as we walk past. We entered the watering hole and made our way to the bar. We were greated by a white unicorn stallion with a rather impressive mustache on his muzzle.
“Well aren't you a strange one, friend? What’s your poison?” A smile grows across his face as he levitates up a mug.
“I don’t know, what's your most popular drink here?” I place my elbows down on the bar as I lean towards the bartender.
“Apple Cider of course! Made fresh here everyday by the famous Apples from Sweet Apple Acres!” He pours two drinks and levitates one to Cloud and I.
I bring the mug up to my mouth as the scent of the cider penetrated my nose, the sweet aroma made my mouth water. I take a drink from the cider; it was surprisingly sweet with a appley aftertaste. I quickly finished the mug of cider, wiping the foam off my mouth as a smile makes its way onto my face.
“Another one, good sir!” I lifted the mug into the air, as the cider warms my spirit and body.
He fills me up another mug of cider, I quickly downed that one and requested another one. Each one just as sweet as the last, the taste of apples filled my mouth after each drink. I doubt I could drink enough of this sweet apple cider to get me tipsy, let alone drunk. After downing my fifth one, the bartender starts to fill another one before I requested something that made his eyes widen in surprise.
“My good sir, do you have anything stronger than this?” I place the mug on the bar as I wipe off the foam from my mouth.
“I do! But a fair warning friend, it’s rather potent stuff.” He grabs a shot glass and fills it up with a green liquid.
“I call it an Apple Bomb, I just perfected the recipe a year ago!” He floats the shot glass of Apple Bomb to me.
I hesitate before I take the shot, it went down smooth, surprisingly with no bite to it. The shot tasted like a Granny Smith Apple. I placec the shot glass on bar as my ears start to burn, I turn my attention to Cloud as she finishes her second mug of cider. She wiped the foam from her muzzle and made a request that I wasn't too fond of.
“Hey 27, care to dance?” She turns away from the bar and starts to walk to the floor.
I simply follow her to the floor where ponies dance on. She stands on her hind hooves and places her fore hooves on me, I grab her fore hooves and we started to dance. My head felt a little dizzy as the Apple Bomb made its way into my system. The music changed to some kind of marching song, heavy on the tuba.
“Hey 27, I love this song! Its called March of the Parasprites!”
We continued to dance as the song went on, moving about the dance floor as we danced. We went back to the bar as the song ended and ordered another round of drinks for ourselves.
“My good sir! Another Apple Bomb for myself and what ever this beautiful mare wants!” I raise my hand up into the air as I yell out my order.
“I’ll have what he’s having!” Cloud yells out.
The stallion floats two shot glasses filled with the green liquid. We grab them and before we take the shots the bartender gives us a warning.
“Careful now, I’ve never seen somepony take more than two shots of the Apple Bomb.” We both nod at him as we take the shots and go back out to the dance floor.
We started to dance again, the Bomb took quick effect on Cloud as she starts to stumble a little and slurred her words. The second shot makes my lips and tongue go numb as it enters my system. The music continues on as we danced, I lift Cloud up into the air above my head and started to spin, she lets out a cry of joy as we spun around the room. I bring her back down to the floor and we danced some more. Cloud stumbles back to the bar and I tryed my best to follow her.
“Bartender! Two moreshh Apple Bombshh!” Cloud raises her hoof into the air as she calls out this order, slurring some of her words.
“You sure your big friend there should have another one?” He lifts an eyebrow as he points a hoof towards me.
“I can drink about five more of these! Hit me with another one!” I slightly stumble as I raise my hand up to grab the Apple Bomb that he levitated to me.
Cloud knock backs her drink and starts to stumble back to the dance floor, I slowly follow after finishing my drink trying my best not to stumble and fall over. We make it back to the dance floor as the new song started. We started to dance once more, dancing all over the floor, swinging wildly and twirling Cloud around. As I spun Cloud around, she gained some distance from me. I turned around and lifted my arm up in the air ordering another drink.
The bartender floated another Bomb into my hand and I knocked it back quickly, I turned around and saw Cloud trying her best to fly back to me. I catch her as she starts to drop and lift her back up into the air and we started to dance some more.
“Bartender! A round for the house!” The ponies all cheered out after hearing this.
He floated another shot to Cloud and I and we down them quickly. My whole face went numb and my head started to spin as the shot from before started to take effect. After a few minutes the new shot took hold and my vision went black.
I wake up the next morning in bed, birds chirping outside my window as I lay there, unable to recall anything from the previous night. The taste of apple still sits in my mouth, my mouth felt like it had a small amount of cotton in it, but other than that, no hangover. I laid there staring up at the ceiling trying to recall anything from last night. Then it hit me, I finally noticed who was sleeping on my chest, it was Cloud... She was splayed out across my chest, her head rested at the base of my neck, her front hooves draped across my chest and hanging over my shoulders as they touched the bed, her hind hoofs draped over my left side. Her soft coat resting against my body as her mane was lazily draped along my side, she was surprisingly light. The next thing I realized made my mind start to race, I was naked in the bed; with only a thin blanket covering the lower half of my body.
“W-What happened last night?” I asked myself...
Credits
Editor
frieD195