Myrtail beach's day to day had come to be boring routine as weeks passed by. With still no word from my father, we were all starting to feel pretty pent up. Sparring with Merri or Starshadow, whichever of the two wasn't watching Dusky at time, was one escape. Going out on dates with Dusky was another.
We'd gone out to dinner a few times now, nothing too fancy. The little pasta restaurant was as much our restaurant as anything. It was a strange feeling, sharing that time with her. It was awkward and clumsy, like I’d been blindfolded and spun until I was dizzy and didn't know which way to go. But it was wonderful too, like every moment with her was a precious gem that I wanted to gaze into forever, except that doing so would mean that I’d miss the next moment, and the next one after that.
On the opposite side of those feelings sat my family, feelings that had kept me awake on more than a few nights since seeing Mint again. My thoughts were torn towards them. On the one hoof, the years of separation, and how it'd apparently affected them. And affected me. On the other, Mint's own words had put to rest what I'd believed for so long.
Since she'd approached that night, I'd started seeing her now and then in the hotel and beach. She would wave, and I'd wave back. It'd been too awkward to do much else, and she'd seemed content to give me my space, now that she'd said what she'd wanted to say.
This time, she stood at a hotel door, presumably her own, with her muzzle stuck into a bag as she sought out her room key.
I stopped to look at her for a moment. She was still the same Mint, but standing in the odd hotel lighting, circles under her eyes were apparent. "Um... Hi. Mint."
She glanced up and gave me a tired smile. "Night? You alright? You look off."
I peeked down at myself. "I um... do?"
She stifled a yawn, then shook her head. "Let me guess, didn't get much sleep?"
"Seems not." The reason for her deduction was suddenly apparent. "I'm guessing you didn't either, hm?"
"Nah, not really. Just... thinking." She sighed. "You wanna come in? Talk about... I dunno, stuff?"
A smile crept up on my lips. "Stuff sounds good."
She managed to get the key into her mouth and fumbled open the door. I slipped into my sister's hotel room and looked about curiously. It was, as one might expect, a match to the other rooms I'd been in. There were two beds, though one remained untouched, and in the corner was a small, well-maintained stack of luggage. Mint had always been one to keep everything in order.
She closed the door and followed after me, moving into the open common area. Taking a seat, she tilted her head to examine me, pursing her lips. "So... how are you doing, Night? I mean... really doing?"
I sat down across from Mint. "Me? I'm good." The ease of the words surprised me in just how much they rang true. "I had an eventful winter, Mint."
She giggled. "Eventful? So it seems. I hope I'm not prying but... you and Dusky, you two are together?"
I blushed, hearing it put like that. "W-well, kind of? I... want her to be my special somepony. We're just starting to figure that out."
"You two are cute together." She coughed a bit, then laughed. "At least, that's your big sister's opinion. Take it with a grain of salt."
"Your opinion has always meant a lot to me, Mint." I watched her a moment, then took a deep breath. "What about... what about you? What about the rest of the family? How... how is everypony doing?"
She hesitated, just a moment. "We're alright, honestly. Most of us. Diamond maybe not, but she's still managing. Spring's kind of in a rut too, trying to figure out where she belongs. But, I mean... Sun has her own family now, and I have mine."
My smile faded slightly. "W-Wintergreen, right? I remember the wedding."
"Yeah, Wintergreen." Her expression shifted, her head rose up proudly "We had a foal, Night. His name is Custard."
My jaw dropped. "A... foal? You? Y-you're... a Mom?"
She stood, walking to the nightstand between the beds. "Believe it or not, yeah." She returned, cradling a small photo frame in one wing. She unfurled it towards me, nudging the contents forward. "And you're an uncle. Again."
I took the frame in my hooves and glanced down as I processed it all. The photo displayed Mint draping a wing over the stallion I recognized as her husband. He was looking down at something in her forehooves, a look of joyful pride in his eyes. There, Mint was cradling a young colt. His coat was a pale yellow green, and he had the same bright green eyes as his mother. Same as mine, as well.
An uncle. Again. It brought back a lot of old feelings, as well as an odd hollowness. "He's... amazing. Custard?"
She nodded. "Yeah. He's four, now. Reminds me a lot of you, you know. I'm trying to do things right for him, Night. That's another reason I needed to find you again."
That was like a knife in my heart. I changed the subject ever so slightly. "How old are Sun's kids now?"
She closed her eyes. "The twins are eight... Speed is five."
"S-Speed?" I slumped in place. "Sun had a third foal?"
Mint stepped closer and wrapped her wings and hooves around me. "Yeah, a colt as well."
"Two nephews... Goddesses, I've missed so much." I blinked at the tears welling in my eyes, leaning into Mint's hug. "M-Mint... am... I a bad pony?"
"What?" Her hug tightened. "Why would you even think that, Nighty?"
I returned the hug at last, weakly at first. "I abandoned you all. I... I felt abandoned too. Thought that you'd all be better off without me. I..." I swallowed the words as they died in my throat.
Mint shushed me. "Nighty, you're my brother. You'll always be my brother, and I love you. What you did... hurt. All of us. But I understand why you did it, except..."
I shifted in her hug to look at Mint. "Except... wh-what?"
She squeezed again, her own tears breaking loose. "Except how could you feel we'd ever stop loving you, Nighty?"
That was a question which I couldn't answer. There, holding my sister tight, it seemed such an obvious flaw in my thinking, but it had defined my life the past five years.
"I've missed you, Mint." I wept into her coat, muzzle pressed against her chest. "I've missed so much. I... I want to be there for you again. I want to be there for Custard, and to be the uncle he should have grown up knowing."
Her head rested atop mine, my big sister, held me tight like I was still the little colt and she my defender. "There's still time, Night. We've all made mistakes that we wish we could take back."
There's still time. It echoed what Dusky had said to me as well. It felt like I'd spent the past five years doing nothing, being nothing. I could be more, and do more. I could fulfill old promises one way or another, and stop regretting the past.
I raised my head slightly, smiling through the tears. "Sis, I have an idea."
---
A short flight later, we found ourselves away from the civilization of Myrtail Beach and out of sight of any onlookers. The beach cove that Merri and I had discovered for privacy would serve the same role today.
"It hardly seems ideal, Nighty. I'm not going to go crazy on you or anything." Mint spun a hoof in the water of a tide pool, looking about the secluded patch of beach.
"Don't treat me any differently than any other pony you'd do this against." I grinned, having at least one advantage Mint didn't know about, the months of training with Starshadow. "Besides, maybe I'm not such a pushover."
She rolled her eyes. "Alright. But no crying for mercy, yeah?" She paused. "But seriously, Nighty, you don't need to do this."
I laughed. "I know. I want to, Mint. I owe you this. I... I owe myself this."
Mint began to hop up and down. She grimaced at the sand beneath her, then her wings unfurled and her stance widened. "Now then, let's go."
I fell into a defensive stance of my own.
She raised an eyebrow. "That's not a standard stance they teach in the Guard."
My hooves dug into the sand. "No, I um, might have been trai—"
Mint lunged forward as I spoke, a lightning fast kick off that threw a forehoof into my side.
My eyes went wide as my breath left my lungs. Her strike came and went shockingly quick, and I suddenly realized just how outclassed I actually might be here. I stumbled to the side, only just managing to turn as she kicked again. This time, I raised my forehoof in time to block Mint's follow-up strike.
She kicked both forehooves, but this time I ducked aside. Head low, I thrust my wings forward, striking Mint in the face. The blow dazed her a moment, enough to deflect her to the side, her wings flapping to balance her back.
I took a moment to catch my breath. "I guess you are going to be serious."
She grinned wide, apparently enjoying this a little too much, and landed a measured distance away. "You said you wanted to spar." She raised a hoof and waved towards herself, signalling me to make a move. "So let's spar!"
I jumped forward, my wings giving me extra speed as I struck at Mint with my left hoof. She blocked the first, but I quickly threw a second kick with the right to try to get past her defenses.
Instead, she turned my hoof aside, letting my momentum carry me forward. She grinned as she leaned in and smashed into my chest.
I spun to catch myself in the air, but found the ground before I could right myself. I rolled, closing my eyes a fraction of a second to gather my wits. Quickly, I tried to pushed up on all four legs.
Mint was already pushing her advantage. She'd lept while I was still off balance, closing what little distance I'd made. Even as I started to stand, she tackled me back down, driving me into the sand as she pinned me.
She still had that immense smile upon her face. "You give up yet?"
I tried to flex my hooves, but her weight made that a fight I wouldn't win. "N-no." I tried to dig in, to get some traction to push her off. My wings stretched out and found room. Then it struck me, and I returned a smile of my own to Mint.
Mint looked at me in confusion. "There's no way you can get enough lift to try and fly, Nighty. That was a good effort, but—"
My wings threw up from the ground, carrying a wingful of sand along with them. Mint instinctively raised a hoof to cover her eyes, and I did what I could to roll forward, headbutting her in the chest.
It was enough. Mint staggered back, but to her credit, was already moving her rear hooves into a stance in anticipation of another strike. Her wings rose to her side, poised to strike as she settled back into a ready pose.
My legs nearly slipped in the loose sand as I struggled to get up off the ground. At last, I fell into something resembling a defensive stance and faced Mint.
We stood there in the sand, watching one another for any sign of motion. My breathing was heavy as I tried to recover. Mint's was measured, a veteran who hadn't even really started to warm up.
I couldn't help it. I broke first. Mint standing there in front of me, her face grit with sand and an expression mixed with overly serious concentration and genuine enjoyment. I started to laugh. Just a snicker at first, then a full laugh that I couldn't hold in.
Mint stared, then in an infectious moment began to laugh along. "Nighty, what are we doing?"
Forcing out words through the laughter, I sat back on my hind legs. "Sparring, Mint, what else would we do after five years?"
"Yeah, ha ha. What was I thinking?" She relaxed her stance, then walked over and sat down in the sand next to me. "I'll just go to Cloudsdale and just tell Mom 'Hey Mom, saw Nighty and beat the hay out of him.', she'll love that."
I grinned, the circumstance had somehow reached the pinnacle of ridiculousness. “Well, just tell her it was all my idea.”
Mint let out an exaggerated sigh. “Like she’d believe that, Nighty.” She nudged me with a wing and leaned in close. “Was fun, though. You’ve kept practicing?”
“Well, sort of? I stopped after I… left the Guard but,” I couldn’t help but laugh again. “Like I said, it was an eventful winter.”
“You weren’t kidding.”
I raised a hoof towards Mint. “I promised you… one day, we’d fight together. Maybe, this isn’t what I meant then, but, it’s a start. Are, um... we good?”
She raised a forehoof and bumped it against mine. “We were always good, Night. But are you?”
“Yeah… yeah, I think so.”
Her wing nudged me again before wrapping around me in a feathery hug. “You never owed me anything, Nighty. But you ever need some more training, or somepony to spar with, I’m here for you.”
I looked towards the sky and smiled. “Yeah. And you know that goes both ways. I’m here for you too, Sis.”