Son of Eternity

by Secrets and Lies

The Long Night

        Silent and asleep, Ponyville was at peace in the shadows of the Equestrian valley it slept in. The stars glittered above, purple and white in their clusters of outstretching galaxies. The moon⸺in waxing gibbous⸺leaned on the mantle of a mountain’s ridge, shining down and lighting the streets below in a silken luminescence. Crickets cheeped in long calls to one another, and frogs grunted sweetly in tattered ponds and snaking brooks. Oil lamps flickered and danced in their glass prisons, casting orange shadows on the dirt walkways around town. A lulling wind passed by every once in a while, silencing the chattering insects and animals—if only for a moment. The cool, tranquil night had not eased everypony in the small village, one was still wide awake and awaiting her friend.
        Zachary took his time back home from The Foamy Fount, stumbling slightly and holding himself on passing trees and buildings. He made his way downtown, down the eerily quiet passages of Ponyville. It was a tad unsettling, being in such a busy place when no one was inhabiting it. He stopped for a moment to take it in, the soundless village-scape that by day bustled with carts, chatter, dust, and business. After he took a moment to appreciate the inappreciable, he sniffed loudly, breaking him from his thoughts and ushering himself to move onward.
        He slowly made his way home and attempted to step onto the porch silently. His left foot snagged on the first step and he quickly stepped forward and threw his arms out to counteract his fall. Luckily, he managed to stay on two feet, and breathed with relief that he didn’t bang his head on the front door. He regained himself and stood hunched at the front door, holding himself up on it with his elbow. He dug around his trouser pockets for his house key and found it with little difficulty. He placed it into the lock and turned, opening the door into a lit, warm home.
He almost immediately knew something wasn’t right. Zack knew he didn’t leave a fire unattended, or candles lit so carelessly about. He was more careful than that, he supposed; but now he began to question his own safety. His eyes scanned the living room until he finally noticed a little pink filly sitting in his human-sized armchair. She seemed annoyed, though her reddened eyes seemed tired and distressed. Nox, Zack’s thunderbird, was perched atop the seat, fluffed and cozy, nearly asleep.
        “Pinkie?” Zack said, still at a loss as to how she could have gotten in. “How did you...” She looked to her left and Zack followed her line of sight. His eyes fell upon the far window which was cracked open. He smiled lazily and made his way towards the window to close it.
        When he did and turned around, Pinkie abruptly asked, “And just where have you been?”
        He put a hand on the back of his head and sluggishly replied, “I’ve been away.”
        “I’ve been worried sick, Zackie. It’s four in the morning, for Celestia’s sake!”
        “Why are you so upset?” He posed to her, kicking off his shoes next to the door. “I’ve been gone for awhile, big deal.”
        “Big deal? Zack, you didn’t even tell me where you went?”
        “I didn’t think I would have to,” he spoke in a louder, belligerent tone. “Do I really need to tell you where I go or why I’ve been gone for such a long time? I have other priorities, and other ponies I would like to spend time with. Don’t think you’re the only pony I hang out with.” Pinkie sat forward in the chair, eyes hazy with mixed emotions.
Pinkie whimpered, “I thought you were okay with me spending the night here tonight.” The reality of that statement sunk into Zachary, and he felt a great weight swell in his chest. He rubbed his itchy eye and moaned with defeat.
        “I did say that, didn’t I?” Pinkie didn’t say a word, she just stared at him. The two filled the room with disappoint and wrongfulness; there was nothing he could do.
        “Alright, let’s go to bed.”
        “No,” she refuted, “I’m going home. Goodnight Zachary.” She sat up from the chair and made her way out the door. She closed it as she left with the curly hook at the end of her tail. The force of her departure made the pictures on the wall sway. Nox awoke in a sudden flurry of feathers, noticed Zachary, and squawked at him weakly.
        He looked over at the bird and remarked, “I know, I know. I screwed up.” Zack put his arm out and Nox climbed on. He put him in his cage and afterwards snuffed out the fire and candles. He made his way upstairs and into his room, holding onto the railing the best he could. He was exhausted, tipsy, and distraught; a combination he hadn’t achieved since he was on Earth. He opened the door to his room, took a few more weary steps towards his bed and fell forward. In a matter or minutes, he drifted into forgetful, bleak dreams.

        North of Ponyville, just about a mile out of town, there is a roadside inn and bar called The Foamy Fount. It was a small hideaway that was known for their spiced ciders and robust griffon pale ales. The dark-wooded siding of the bar clashed with the warm, pumpkin-hued light that pressed through the windows. A line of thin, black smoke trailed upward into the night, and the smell of liquor and hearty stew filled the perimeter of the Font. Inside, there was commotion, laughter, and good tidings for all to be apart of. Music stirred the evening air as a lutist strummed sad and sweetly. Her voice carried the essence of the song she sang to a half-attentive crowd. As she swayed her body to the motions of the music, her hoofs danced across the fret board methodically and masterfully. Zachary was entranced as he sat at the bar with a half-full pint in his grasp.
        “My word,” he murmured aloud, though he had thought to himself. “She’s incredible.”
        “Aye.” acknowledged a stallion next to him. “Cotton Quote, err, by her stage name, ‘Cvothe’. She’s a local favorite ‘round here. Quite the songstress.”
        “No kidding!” The human took another swig. When he had brought the glass down, foam had remained seated on his upper lip.
        “She’s perhaps the reason why I come here,” the stallion went on, “to hear her lilt the way she does brings me out of gullies of despair.” He laughed to himself and downed the remainder of his cider.
        Zack looked over at the pegasus with suspicion and asked, “Valiant, how often do you come here?”
        The large pony smiled at him and chuckled, “Does that even matter?”
        “No, but aren’t you afraid of being seen drinking? You are the Six-Star General of Harmony after all. Don’t you need to represent an image or something?”
        Valiant pushed the mug away from him and towards the edge of the counter. He leaned an elbow on the table and faced Zachary saying, “I don’t think it matters. I never asked for this position, so I don’t mind if I have it taken away, if it comes down to it. Maybe that matters where you’re from, but here, I don’t think too many ponies care if they even saw Celestia hammering them down as if the sun wasn’t going to rise tomorrow.”
Zack held back a soft giggle at that thought. Their attention turned back to Cvothe as she played on. Once again, Zachary was entranced by the mare and her song of lost love.

        The music emptied into the corners and hidden places of the Foamy Font as she bowed before her audience. A decent crowd cheered for the red-headed mare as she smiled and bowed again, blowing kisses to all who accepted them. Zachary stood up from the bar-stool and clapped vigorously for her. She blew a kiss his way and he sat back down on the narrow, pony-sized seat.
        “Wow...” he said to himself, “I wonder what her song means.”
        Valiant, eyeing the bartender for another drink, asserted, “If you were halfway paying attention to her instead of your drink and me, you would probably know.”
        Zachary weakly chuckled under his breath, “Heh, true, I suppose.”
        Valiant looked over at him and drunkenly smiled, “I guess you’ll have to come back and stick around.”
        The waitress almost passed by the two again, but Valiant called out to her just in time.
        “Miss! Miss!” he hailed. She noticed him and trotted lovingly over to him.
        “Ah,” she crooned delightfully, her eyes flitting over him sweetly, “Mister Valiant. How could I make your evening, hmm?”
        “You could start by refilling me and my good buddy’s mugs here,” he opened his wing and rested it on Zack’s shoulder. “I’d say that would be a good start.”
        “Certainly!” She used her unicorn magic to lift the two mugs while tossing her hay-golden mane out of her line of sight. Her eyes trailed up Valiant’s form as she supposed, “But perhaps sometime tonight I could make your evening.”
        Valiant leaned a little closer over the bar. “Free drinks is a start to a good evening, don’t you say?”
        She laughed and reclined back, “You’re funny and clever, Mister Valiant. But while I’m pleasing your appetite, maybe later you could please mine. I’m mighty parched.” Before she turned back, she gave a wink at Valiant and sauntered away with a swing in her hips.
        “You lucky stallion, you!” Zack said, giving him a friendly jab at his shoulder. “She’s practically waiting to-”
        “She’s not getting any⸺at least from me.”
        “What?! Why?” Zack leaned towards him, “Dude, this your chance.”
        “I’ve had plenty of chances, I don’t need another mare in my life.” He keenly looked over at Zack and added, “She might could deal with someone like you. Mares are all over getting exotic these days.”
        “Ehh...” Zack looked away and thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know how I feel about that. I haven’t warmed up to ponies in that way. I’m not sure if I’ll ever think of mares like that.”
        “Well, you could have that answered by tonight if you allowed her to have her way with you.”
        “You might have a point, but I think I’ll pass.”
        The flaunty mare made her way back over to them. After she placed the mug in front of Valiant, she sweetly put the mug in Zachary’s hands and said, “Enjoy now.” Zack quickly smiled, though he was uncertain if he was blushing or not as she held her hooves over his hands for an extended period of time. Before he knew it, she went back to work before Zack could speak his mind.
        Valiant took hold of his frothy cider and smirked. “The wise and smooth Zachary. The hero of Equestria never ceases to amaze me.”
        “Oh, shut up,” he jokingly barked back. Zack took a few gulps of refreshing cider and carefully placed it back down on the smooth, silky bar.
        Cotton Quote was now making her way out the back entrance, lute in haul around her flank. The hoopla she had caused began to die down overtime; one could now hear the crackling of the expansive fireplace in the far corner, the chiming of glasses, squeaking chairs, and the muffled voices and laughs of other ponies. Zack and Valiant were lost in their own thoughts, eyes drowning in their own mugs.
        “Zack,” Valiant said. The human broke away from his distant contemplations and looked over at his friend. He noticed Valiant didn’t look as cheery as did a few minutes ago.
        He shot him a smile and replied, “Yeah, buddy?”
        “I never told you why I wanted to become a guard, did I?” Zack thought for a moment, teetering his mug on its edges.
        “No. I never really asked.”
        “All this thinking about mares and such...” he leaned back and looked up at the hanging mugs above him, “got me to thinking about times long and spent.” He looked over at Zack, his eyes now cold and calculating. “I want to tell something⸺No, I need to tell something.”
“Tell them what?”
The pegasus sighed, he looked at his hooves, then back to Zachary.
        “I’m going to be honest, Zack. You’re the closest pony—well, human I know.”
        Zachary snorted a laugh, “Well of course. I’m the only human you know.” Valiant then realized what he had said and laughed aloud.
        “Ah, this isn’t the way I thought it would go, but let me reiterate: Zack, I want to tell you why I became a Royal Guard. Not many ponies know the full story. Heck, I really only think Celestia knows...”
        Zack leaned slightly closer. “Okay, you have me interested. Need another beer?” Zack turned and began looking for the flirtatious mare that had been serving them, but Valiant halted his progress.
        “No, no, I’m fine. I’ve had enough.” He smiled to himself and said aloud, “When I get to this point where I’m telling my sob stories, I know I’ve had too much.”
        “Hold on now. You don’t have to tell me anything, Valiant.”
The stallion threw a hoof on Zack’s shoulder and implied, “I want to tell you. I want me to hear it come out of myself. It’ll do me some good too.”
        “Well, alright then. If you say so.”
        The pony pointed a stern hoof at the human and corrected him, “I know so!” He then drained his glass and slid it away. Valiant readjusted himself on the booth and faced the human, looking rather comfortable where he sat.
        “Let me begin by saying Canterlot wasn’t all pretty and clean like it is today. When I was a colt, half of it was dirty and pushed aside. Of course, the rich and swab still lived in the heart of the city, and the guards kept those parts of the streets clean from crime and debauchery, but I’d say the, well, the misfortunate and working class lived in the Ridges. The Ridges were the lower half of Canterlot which crept into the mountainside. Here you’d find the true citizens of Canterlot, as well as the poor, the sick, the vile, and all the rest in between. Now I didn’t grow up here, no I grew up in the rich part of town, but we weren’t living comfortably.”
        “So you grew up in Canterlot? Being a pegasus I thought you would have lived in Ponyville or Cloudsdale.”
        “You would think, being that Canterlot’s majority of citizens were unicorns, but my situation was a bit different. My parents weren’t around when I grew up, as you already knew, so my father’s friend took us in.”
        “Wait, us?”
        “Yeah, me and my brother Noble.”
        “I didn’t know you had a brother!”
        “...Anyways, I grew up with a detective, Seamus Gumhoof. He was great in a lot of ways, but I couldn’t see that at the time. Looking back, he did so much for us that I wish I could have thanked him when I did. At the time, we mostly quarreled and fought. I wished I had grown up elsewhere then Canterlot, I thought it was dreadful. I wished me and brother had a better hoof dealt to us, but in life, I think everyone thinks that.”
        “I certainly have.”
        “The past is riddled with ghosts and demons⸺Seamus use to say⸺whether we allow to become possessed by these thoughts is for us to decide. That was one of the many sayings he had told me and which I idiotically overlooked. Now thinking about it makes me sick that I ignored his wisdom.” Valiant shifted in his chair and lightly cleared his throat before returning to the story.
        “I got to see a lot of the dirty underbelly of Canterlot, though that’s only because I forced myself in there. Seamus took me along one day to show me what he did and to keep me out of trouble. I wasn’t in flight school at the time, so usually I just hung around the house and kept the cogs moving. We first actually went to Canterlot castle itself, though we just stayed in the garden. The statue of Discord had gone missing, and Seamus had to point out to the royal guards that the statue wasn’t just a statue, but a prison for Discord himself. Now how the statue was stolen was a mystery, there’s magical alarm barriers throughout the castle and even lifting a statue of that size had to take at least two dozen pegasi to lift in the air. Now we really couldn’t do anything about it, nor did we find any clues at the time, but what we did know was that the larceny of the statue was more important than what prominence the guards gave it.”
        “What do you mean? They didn’t take it too seriously?”
        “Well, they took it like any other robbery. They didn’t think of it with any more importance than what might a stolen purse be to them. Now if Celestia was there, she would had ordered them on high alert. Unfortunately, she was on a diplomatic retreat.”
        “That’s hard to imagine the guards wouldn’t do anything. Why didn’t they do anything?”
        “The thing is, Zack, the Royal Guards weren’t like they are today. They were lax; they were comfortable in the safety of Celestia’s reign of peace. They knew nothing horrible would happen, but Seamus saw through and persisted. He knew about Discord and what insanity he caused in his brief reign of Equestria. To many, Discord’s chaos was more of a pony’s tale than a true, historical event.” Valiant stopped one of the bartenders and acquired a glass of water for both him and Zack.
He took a gulp and continued, “That night, he took me to a local bar in the Ridges. It was fantastic, it was one of my fondest memories with him, and a night that changed my perspective on Seamus completely. No longer did I find him to be a careless, heartless, and depressed stallion, but as a true pony with heart. He introduced me to so many interesting ponies that night,” smiling, he went on, “as well as introducing me to alcohol.” Zack grinned and took a sip of water from his glass. “Of course he wasn’t there to just get drunk, he had ponies to meet, old friends from the Ridges he had to discuss today’s findings about. I didn’t know this till much later though, I was busy and lost in the moment.” Valiant leaned back, and in his eyes you could tell he was wistfully reminiscing that night.
“And then I saw her, a mare I had met before, a mare who still has my heart. Amber Tides. I had met her once, she was Noble’s teacher. I had walked him to flight school once, and we met briefly. It was short of a miracle seeing her in such a trashy place; an angel in tartarus. We met, and we danced that night, partly due to us partaking in liquid courage.” He breathed smoothly and smiled sweetly. His gaze was distant and mind far flung from the present moment. Zack had never seen him in such a peaceful state.
“I still remember as fondly as ever. If only I was lucid enough at the time to know how fortunate I was to be with her...” The stallion came back to reality, his air of serenity slowly ebbed into an icy expression.
“Then, it all changed. It felt so sudden. The bar was attacked, magical volleys from magitech weaponry scorched the place. Somehow, Amber, Seamus, and I escaped out the back. Whoever came in was looking for Seamus. They knew that he knew too much and wanted to end it. We took Amber home and when we came back to the house, we found the door broken down.” Zack held his hand to his mouth and gasped.
“It was horrible, the place was trashed and Seamus’ piles of paperwork had been thrown askew. Somepony was looking for something in Seamus’ work and took whatever he had found, according to Seamus. It didn’t occur till a moment after that Noble had been asleep upstairs when we left. I raced upstairs to see that he was gone. I was on the verge of a panic attack, and had the energy to search the entire city to find my brother. Seamus tried to calm me down though and made me some tea. I drank it, but I still was pissed out of my mind. What I didn’t realize until the morning after was that Seamus had slipped something in the tea I drank and I had fallen asleep in the chair I was sitting in.
“He had stalled me long enough for me to pass out, and when I woke, I found a note from Seamus saying that I should stay here, that looking for Noble was too dangerous. Seamus worked best when he did things his way and alone, but I couldn’t just stay put. Without any clue on where to even begin, I set out to the Ridges. I went to the bar and found that it was closed, and that they were having a memorial service for the bar owner, who had been shot the night before. I went to it and found other ponies from last night. I told them what happened and asked if they knew anything about the mobsters from last night. They didn’t have a clue who they were, all they knew was that the only way they could have gotten magitech rifles from out of Canterlot.”
“I didn’t realize they had magitechnology from when you were a colt. I thought that magitech was relatively new.”
        “It’s been around for quite sometime, but Equestria’s been easing up on the laws for years now. It’s only a matter of time till they’re unbanned. Back then, it was much harder to come across magitech, especially magitech weaponry.”
        “So, how did they get the magitech?”
        “It had to be snuck in, and the only way to really sneak such stuff in is through the sky yard. There wasn’t a train up to Canterlot back in those days, and the roads up to Canterlot were too dangerous for bulk shipping. Even if they were to sneak such items, they were patrolled by Royal Guards, so it would be impossible to sneak them in by those routes. So the only way they could ship items in bulk was by pegasi freights. You hardly see them being used in Equestria these days since the building of the railways and the development of better roadways, but the sky yards was the only answer back then. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get into the sky yards without having the right credentials. It’s located very close to the castle, it’s in a crystal cave where the waterfalls above the city are located. Some of the ports are in the waterfalls themselves, every now and then, you could watch the pegasi freights swoop in from Cloudsdale and land under an opening that parted the water.”
        “I never knew that placed existed... Are they still used?”
        “I’m sure they’re used for something, but not for any sky yard business, that’s for sure.”
        Valiant leaned a hoof on the table and sighed. “Well, I was at my wit’s end early in the game. Until I got home, it didn’t even occur to me to look through Seamus’ notes. It would take a lot of coffee and a night’s worth of reading to find what I was looking for. It was beyond difficult finding everything I needed to know in a sensible order, and for the most part I was confused most of the night. Seamus worked in his own mess, and never filed reports like a professional detective would.”
Valiant took a sip and continued, “I eventually discovered that, for years, Seamus had been on the trail of a certain group of individuals...” Valiant peered around the bar. Every other pony seemed to be in their own discussions, or too inebriated to focus on what he was talking about.
He leaned closer to Zack and said under his breath, “Seamus had been on the verge of discovering the Cult of Discord.” Zack’s eyes widened with disbelief.
        “What?” said the human rather loudly. He didn’t cause the stir he had thought he would, and was relieved that he didn’t. He looked back at an annoyed Valiant and whispered, “But, that’s an ancient order. Wasn’t it dissolved by Luna in the Everfree Raids?”
        “Ah, so you know your history.”
        “I only know that much of the cult, that it didn’t last long after Discord’s reign.”
        “As like all secret orders, they never truly die. Once they begin, they set their roots in history, and as long as there are powerful secrets undiscovered, it will live on.”        
“So what did the cult have to do with anything?”
        “The cult was established in an attempt to resurrect Discord...”
Zack scratched his chin and thought, “I’m beginning to see where this is going.”
“As did I when I learned about the cult in Seamus’ writings.”
        “But if they stole the statue, then how would they even attempt to break Celestia’s spell on it? It’s alicorn magic infused with the Elements of Harmony. Together, that’s the strongest type of known magic there is.”
        “If you know how, Zachary, any magic can be undone. Magic is just energy. Though one cannot truly destroy magical energy, it can be transferred by outside forces. Now the spell itself was a riddle beyond riddles; Celestia made sure that a simple unicorn couldn’t break it. After encasing Discord in stone, the Royal Sisters reinforced the spell with their own magic. Discord’s prison is sealed with many locks, and the keys to those locks involve magic that one couldn’t simply learn in a book.”
        Valiant looked up into the bemused Zack and noted, “So now why do you think they needed Gumhoof’s notes? Well Seamus was much brighter than he looked. He was an avid bookworm, keen on history and psychology. I remember as a colt looking over all the long overdue library books he had collected that involved everything from advance magical spells, pegasi flight research, to classic earth pony remedies. In fact, he was nearly a protégé of Celestia’s, even though he was a earth pony himself.”
“What!? That’s insane! He must have been really good at what he did.”
        “Unfortunately, that never came to be, but from what I hear, his niece became one.”
        Zack’s eyes twinkled with enlightenment, but before he could speak on the matter, Valiant continued, “Seamus had been researching the Cult of Discord for years. Celestia had put him up to the task because she wanted to trust only her dearest allies with the flaws of her kingdom. Well, Seamus was on the verge of discovering something, a crack in the prison, he had been informing Celestia through private messages that was suppose to be given directly to her through the Royal Guard. What he didn’t know was that cult leaders were in the Royal Guard itself, and they had been reading his letters.”
        “Wait,” Zack said abruptly, “so that’s how the statue was stolen! There were cult members in the Royal Guard, and one night they took a chance, dispelled the security spells, and moved the statue!”
        “Exactly! The Cult had been buying its time since its fragmentation in the Everfree Raids, they weren’t powerful enough yet to do what they had been planning. They had been researching the spell on the statue for years through what they knew. Now that they had the statue, they could break the spell even quicker. So, it was only a matter of time... Seamus had to only find out where the Cult was located in Canterlot so that he could take the Royal Guard and bust them. They had struck first though, and struck hard. It was then I knew if they could be anywhere, it would be at the sky yard. It was the most likely place, and I had to sneak in there.
        “So that night, I crept around guards and flew from roof to roof, slowly sneaking into the compound. It wasn’t guarded too well, but it was still rough getting in. Once I got in though, I hid among the freights, followed guards around, and watched for hours on end. Eventually, I was caught, but I wasn’t thrown out. They knew who I was, and they brought me before a sky yard spring where the waterfalls originated from. They tied me up and interrogated me. They knew I lived with Gumhoof, and they asked where he was. They couldn’t break the spell without his information. It seemed like only he knew about the crack and how to widen it. When they realized I wasn’t going to speak, no matter what they did to me, they brought my brother out. He too was tied up, and the cultists were going to throw him into the dark waters of the sky yard caverns.
        “It seemed like there was nothing I could do, and it was then Seamus showed up with some of the buddies he had been talking with at the bar. I learned that he couldn’t convince the Royal Guard to come or believe him, so he had to find his own soldiers. When they attacked, they immediately threw me and my brother into the waters. I was tied up and could barely swim, but I managed to squirm over to my brother and I desperately tried to chew the ropes binding him. I couldn’t help him escape, and...” He swallowed and looked away. Valiant’s eyes grew cold. Zack’s heart sank, he knew what was coming.
        “I watched him... I watched the light leave his eyes.” He looked up at Zachary, his face was stern and unmoved. His mind was scarred and callused from the years he spent tearing the scab off the wound he received from the event.
        “Zack, I’ve seen many ponies die over the years. I’ve been close to many of them, and a few have even died in my hooves. But never... never have I seen a more insidious, cruel death so real and terrible as my brother’s. The look in his expression, the sorrow he expressed as he screamed out for me. All I could do was watch him sink... sink into the dark waters... into a blackness you couldn’t fathom...” The two of them sat there in silence, Zack didn’t know what to say.
        “I was saved, of course. Seamus dove in and rescued me in the nick of time. I begged him to go back in and save Noble, though he knew what had happened, and knew it was too late. He left me tied up on the shore, he had to help his friends out, he had to continue the battle at the docks. I was left sobbing on the shoreline of that cavern, I couldn’t believe what had happened...”
        Zack finally spoke up, though he knew what he was going to say couldn’t help ease the pegasus. “I’m sorry, Valiant. That’s horrific what you had to go through. I couldn’t imagine that happening to me. I don’t know what I would have done.”
        He looked over at Zachary and did the most unthinkable thing in that moment, he smiled. Valiant had once again lead Zack into a mire of confusion. The human had no idea how to react, so he simply stared back, unable to utter a word or sound.
        “It’s okay,” Valiant finally said. “I’ve dealt with this for many years. Any pony could have come away from my situation as broken as the day it happened. They wouldn’t want healing, they wouldn’t want to forget. I’ll never forget the death of Noble, nor will I ever be healed... All we can do is move on. We can’t ever stop, though we can’t forget what we’ve been through either. This has made me who I am today, and for that I thank my brother. I would have never been in the Royal Guard, I never would have meet you, I never would had done the amazing things we’ve done together. I could be miserable every waking second, or I can continue to live, and learn, and love.”
        Zack thought for a moment, and gradually, he simply smiled and nodded his head. There was really nothing more Valiant could say on the matter. His mind was clear and awake, unfogged and blemish-free from a horrible past.
        Zack denoted, “That’s some great advice.”
“Not mine, of course. Seamus told me that. So in the end, the cult retreated and the statue was left in the sky yard. Celestia then imprisoned it within Canterlot Castle and duplicated a false statue in the garden when she returned to the city. No news reports were made and no one knew the wiser. Seamus, however, he was still in trouble. The cult was out there, and Canterlot wasn’t safe for him anymore. He had to leave, and he knew he couldn’t tell anypony where he was heading. No matter how much I wanted him to stay, he wouldn’t. He told me what I told you, and that gave me assurance for a better future. I told him I wanted to help him out in any way I could.
        “We then visited Canterlot Castle and we spoke with Princess Celestia. We told her everything, and she decided to enlist me into the Royal Guard. I gladly accepted, and for the last twelve years, that’s what I’ve been doing. I worked up from maintaining the bunkers and polishing armor to where I’m at now.”
        Zack took in a deep breath and placed his hand on Valiant’s shoulder. “I’m glad you told me that, that was a great story. I’m also glad that you’re at ease with it all.” A thought occurred to Zachary and he asked, “Whatever happened to Amber Tides?”
        “Ah, well, I’m not really sure. She was in the midst of everything that happened as much as I was. I asked Celestia during our meeting, and she had informed me that she was being relocated, along with a few others that helped Seamus in the battle that night. She said that she would be getting her name and physical identity changed. It’s a shame, I enjoyed how she looked. I wasn’t too keen on what Celestia told me next, on how she had altered Amber’s mind to forget what all had happened, and to make it seem like she moved away from Canterlot on purpose. It’s for the better, I suppose.”
        Zack, trying to be optimistic, added, “Heck, you may meet her again. Who knows?”
        “I doubt she’ll remember me. But hey, you could be right. She’s still a pegasus after all. She’s probably still in Equestria. If we do run into each other, we’ll likely never know it, but something might spark between us.”
He smiled wide and called out to the bar mare, “Hey! Another round over here!”
        And that’s all Zack could remember after that moment.