The sun is down and incessant cackling fills you with fright, know now why you fear the night. Flashes of a wooden coffin, a Pegasus with dark pink coat with dark scarlet mane beaming a smile, the same Pegasus dead within the coffin and then replaced with a zombie blue Unicorn. By faceless ponies the coffin is lowered into the ground and a mare screams in hollow commands. “He is still alive, halt the funeral! Stop, stop, stop!” The Little Pony bucks, swings forelegs and jabs with horn at the apparitions. An invisible barrier bars her from action as the phantoms leisurely shovel silty clay down the hole. “Please, stop this, I desire not to do something regrettable…“ The Unicorn mare plummets to the ground weeping. “Why am I so weak and powerless?” I chose this just as he desired that on himself. Amor you are a damnable foal. Amor rises her head up, her horn become ablaze in an azure glow and the whole realm explodes. The cackling fades away and now to strive another day.
Amor tosses herself from the bed, saturated with sweat; panting and horn still an azure aglow. A heavy Spring rain pounds the window, draws the mare’s attention and she jumps at shadows. The Unicorn telekinetically seizes everything in the room and prepares to fling it at the unseen opponent. The metallic color mare realizing her situation lowers the contents of her room and reflects. Again I know why Tower Unicorns lock themselves away. To be knowledgeable and gifted would mark a pony as a danger and outcast. The night still reigns and the ivory moon is hidden behind black storm clouds. Amor desired that the stories her Old Master told her about were true such as Pegasi controlling the weather so she would know who to complain to.
After a few moments, Amor is outside in the rain galloping around on the soaked shale roads clearing her head. The mare was an early to bed, early to raise pony and no doubt in her mind that it was barely midnight. The Unicorn ran a good part of an hour and slows to a trot not to shock her body; she proceeds to the Meeting Hall. Amor notes her waterlogged socks and strips them off as she enters the Hall, also aware of her drenched robe but leaves it on. The soaked mare spots a certain belligerent Pegasus who appears somewhat entranced and she staggers beside him and weakly asks. “Jaxler, mine if I join you?” The mare sits down in her normal chair before hearing his reply.
Jaxler looked at the copper unicorn who managed to sneak up on him and break his lonely entrancement. “Oh, hay Amor. Sure drinking is always more enjoyable with company.” Jaxler then took a sip of booze and leaned back in his favorite chair.
The damp mare huffed, placed her head on the wooden table and inserts. “I’m having trouble sleeping, nightmares haunt my dreams, is that why you drink Jaxler?” Her voice trembles hinting at the chill she was experiencing.
Jaxler’s mood deflated at the mention of his drinking problem. “I drink because I need some time in the day where I can disconnect from the world around me and just be ignorant...” said jaxler with a somber tone in his voice as he drank some more booze “So, you were having nightmares, what exactly were they like?”
The thoughts in Amor’s mind still over-encumbrance her brain and could not fully compute the stallion’s question but she was more then willing to explain to get her mind off her dilemma. “Old Master told me dreams were caused by a sleeping mind still thinking and processing its day. She then went into how different the pony’s tribes are… maybe to cause me to look down on the others…” Amor paused and speculated that she may have misunderstood Jaxler’s question, she glances over to the Pegasus wearing a concerned look on her face.
Amor’s words about looking down upon others struck a raw nerve.“If you or your master sees the other castes as inferior then I pity both you and your master’s soul. Of all the mind’s poisons pride is by far the most destructive and addictive. Those who see themselves as superior will realize their ignorance when the false reality that they build for themselves is immolated by the world around them.”
Amor did not flinch at Jaxler’s anger and it was one that was imbedded deep in her too. “Sorry, Jaxler. I do too… pity my mentor’s soul, but hold off your judgments until you meet her. Because I do not know her intent, only guessed.” Amor picks herself off the table and sit fully into her chair. “The castes are different, but source for neither bigotry nor prejudge. Know this though that normally Earth Ponies’ dreams are colorless, Pegasi’ are metaphorical, Unicorns’ vivid and Alicorn’s are lucid. Most of all being a Unicorn has been such a burden… just as tonight.” The curly maned mare felt this was going no where, sadness painted her face and voice.
Jaxler sighed and tried to recompose himself. The pony sitting next to him obviously needed some help and him getting angry really wasn’t going to help. “Can you please tell me what exactly the nightmare you had tonight was like?” said Jaxler before he started to drink some more booze.
Amor was reluctant to start; she begins to clap her hooves together in front of her and begins after a moment. “The area was of the same size as this room, walls made of a dark void, if I was in a crypt. Outside, maybe in a night fog and the earth was the same silty clay as Dawnpick’s and ponies…” The mare chokes up a bit and she clears her throat. “They were lowing a coffin… containing my second love but…” The distressed Unicorn unexpectedly changes the subject. “Jaxler, would you think less of me if you were informed that I courted another mare before?”
Jaxler shrugged. “I’m straight but whether or not you prefer mare or stallion really doesn’t concern me.” Jaxler then thought to himself for a moment before continuing. “So, If I had to guess something nasty must have happened to your lover and you must have not yet been able to move on completely.”
Amor was confident that she was living past her lover’s death but Jaxler’s statement caused her reservations to increase. “The thing was I’m over… Ashler’s death. I may have not let her go fully or maybe a stallion here causes my thoughts to wade in the past. Indigo, he is my friend and nothing more but have you seen him? I do not know what to do, before he joins her too.”
Jaxler was shocked to hear that a mare actually was interested in indigo. “Indigo? Well I’m in the reserve, and he is my captain. So yeah, I have seen him. why do you ask?”
The mare trembles and sneezes before beginning. “So you have no concern for his shrunken eyes or his sluggish manner?” Amor becomes agitated and shouts her words which scarcely travel past the two Little Ponies’ table. “Do you see what he is doing to himself?” Amor calms herself before seeking apology. “Sorry Jaxler, just I was not able to stop one death… and this time is different.” The copper Unicorn looks to the Pegasus for answers.
“I don’t concern myself with others’ problems until they either ask me for help, or there problem affects me. But seeing how Indigo shared his problem with you, and you’ve came to me for help, I guess I’m now inclined to help both you and indigo. Also, I really don’t know indigo all to well. If he’s destroying himself with sadness then I’d probably just tell him to start drinking. In my experience it’s the most effective way to handle depression.”
Amor was piqued by Jaxler’s words and a kernel of regret for her being there, germinated in her heart. “Indigo and I have a working relationship; we contemplate methods to improve Dawnpick and present them to the Lady. After his joining the reserves… he has been drifting from not only me but everything, I am afraid. After the Rainbow Pony massacre he appears worse and I do not know what is affecting him more about it.” The mare returned her head to the table.
Jaxler thought to himself before responding. “Maybe the reserve is too much for him to handle.” Jaxler continued to ponder his thoughts looking for a way to help indigo. “Maybe he should have a second in command to help him around or just drop the reserve all together.”
Amor raises her head up and connect her eyes to Jaxler’s. “Can you look after him regardless if you are his Executive Officer or not until I find out more from him?” Amor asks with hope in her voice.
Jaxler smiled and nodded. “Sure, I’ll look after the pony.” Jaxler then took another swig of booze.
Amor was pleased that Indigo was going to be attended to and that Jaxler was such a friend. “Thank you, Jaxler, from both Indigo and myself.” The mare’s mind may have been relieved about one problem but suspicion that she may not be over another. “Do you not mind if I speak of Ashler?” The Unicorn retracts her gaze and returns to clapping her hooves together.
Jaxler raises an eyebrow at the mention of the pony’s past lover. “No, I don’t mind, feel free.” said Jaxler enthusiastically as he drank some more booze and once again leans back in his chair.
Amor discontinues her silent clapping and moves a hoof to her muzzle in calculation to the very day but just tells the years. “It has been fifteen years ago the last time I saw her alive. Remember that road to Coupledye and New Saddle, which was when I met Ashler.” The mare places her hooves flat on the table and pauses to think about if best to tell Jaxler. “We were not any masons but drafted of sorts into the Crown’s Royal Mason Corps, my third tour and you could know how close soldiers can become.” The Little Pony peers at the stallion and gives him a sly smile but frowns a bit and returns facing forward. “It was maybe a little too innocent; others would have confused us for sisters then lovers, maybe we were.”
Jaxler smiled and said “She must have been a good friend.” Jaxler really didn’t know what to say. It seemed that Amor must have really loved that mare, and probably still misses her. “So, What was she like?”
Amor was very willing to talk about her second love and the warm feelings she received from talking about her seemed to starve off the cold. “She was everything I was not; she was content in being a Pegasus and didn’t pretend to be anything she was not. The mare was more a filly, always energetic and had little concept of personal space. We had a good part of four years to get to know each other… and one day to change it all.” At the end of her words all the warm ambiance dies like embers of a fire.
Jaxler noticed the sadness in the mare’s voice. “Back where I’m from, it’s disrespectful to feel sorrow for the dead. Why would the dead want their passing to bring those around them strife? Every moment you spend thinking about her and feeling sorrow for doing so is hurting both yourself and Ashler.” said jaxler simpethedicly.
The truth in Jaxler’s speech causes the copper mare’s ears to fall beside her head, not just grief filled her heart but anger too and it mixed in her voice. “I know Jaxler, but death is unfair and hers maybe more so. I am selfish and would have been perfectly willing to take Ashler’s place in the grave instead… the bolt was meant for me anyway.” Amor tries to hide her face in shame.
Jaxler sighed before responding with sympathy in his voice “Back where I’m from, it’s also disrespectful to hold disdain toward a gift. If she died in your place then you should be regretful but don’t beat yourself up over somepony taking a hit for you. Dying in somepony else's place is the greatest gift one can give to another, and to wish that you weren’t given such a gift is both self destructive and disrespectful.”
The mason pony strangely felt relief by the Pegasus’s words and she reside silent for a moment. “Sadly, Jaxler we are not from where you hail from, but… they are sentiments that should be universal.” The mare huffs and returns her eyes to Jaxler with a sad expression. “Just it gives the impression that history is repeating, and Ashler did not deserve to be shot in the back by the very ponies we serve. I believe that because of the shadows of war with the Rainbow coalition, somepony here is going to do something regrettable.” Amor slams her hoofs into the table but holds back from damaging the wooden furniture. “Maybe, it would be best to state why she died… if you want to hear.” The mare continued her staring at the stallion and shivering from the cold.
Jaxler looked Amor in the eyes in replied “I’d like to know what happened.” Jaxler then took another sip of booze.
The Unicorn was now internally beating herself up from not being friends with Jaxler sooner. “Have you asked yourself why Dawnpick has never received a Buffalo caravan; we would have if they were not removed to reserves. The road I worked on had a sliver of their territory and somepony did not like that, so the Crown’s army forcefully removed them.” Amor holds her head in hoofs as she props on the table. “Yet my entire unit was only told to be aware of allies and strange Buffalo. Not until back home, I realized what took place and after I was deceived about the nature of the military parade.” Amor withdraws from her hooves and looks at Jaxler with tears in her eyes. “They paraded us around because we won a skirmish war, not for some road we reconstructed and the ponies cheered for us Jaxler, they cheered for us and they were deceived too.” The mare jumps from her chair and paces around a moment as she clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, soon she sits back down and huffs. “But not all of them cheered… we found ourselves in the slums, my old stomping grounds and they known of what we done. They jeered at us and we thought it was just their way; who cares what a slum-pony thinks we told ourselves?” As the word slum-pony cast from her lips in repugnancy for the word, she gives a hint that it was not her own. “We were coming to the end of the parade and stopped in the old market district… and Ashler was cantering towards me and…” Amor reclaims herself, remembers where she was and who she was talking to. “And an livid old veteran marks-pony turned huntress aimed a crossbow at me, she chose me because my leathers marked me out as an officer and Ashler just happen to ran into the bolt’s path…” The distress mare places her head back on the table and exhales.
Jaxler sighed. He really didn’t know what to say to that. Amor seemed like she needed somepony to help her with this, and Jaxler was starting doubt in his ability to do so. “Amor, that’s horrible what happened to her” said Jaxler with a hint of compassion and sadness in his voice.
The mason pony jerks her head up, still with a clouded mind. “What happen to Ashler or the huntress? Ashler was hit in the neck and slowly suffocated in my hooves. She still held a smile the whole time, and passed on a few moments later. The huntress escaped and was not caught until the morning after… and she was exiled for the crime.” Amor’s low voice was almost drowned out by the rain pounding the roof of the Legendary Dining Room.
Jaxler’s was running out of comforting words. He didn’t know what to say, or how to react to Amor’s story. So, Jaxler just decided to say what he was thinking. “This world is horrible isn’t it?” said Jaxler somberly.
The metallic painted Unicorn could not agree entirely with the question and hesitated for a second. “Not completely, no. It is not horrible all the time when sincere actions and words are worked, but I am sure if we try hard enough history will not recur.” The words have a weak strength in them and Amor sniffles.
Jaxler saw holes in the unicorn’s logic. Part Jaxler honestly wanted to show Amor why the world wouldn’t get better, but he felt best just to drop it, for he was far more concerned about how Amor was feeling at the moment. “So... are you gonna be okay?”
The mare adjusts herself in the sit and dwells on the stallion’s question for some time before answering. “This is neither the first nor last time I act foalish with a friend and I do feel better. Last pony I talked like this with was before coming to Dawnpick.” Amor said as she rubbed her eyes with fore hooves. “Thanks Jaxler.”
Jaxler was happy that Amor seemed to be feeling better. Jaxler smiled and responded. “Feel free to talk to me whenever you have any problems. And if you have any concern about talking to me about something, it’s worth noting that I’m incapable of lying.” Jaxler then sighed and once again leaned back in his chair.
Amor yawns with a sneeze at the end as she listens to Jaxler. “I figured you were not one for fraudulence; Jaxler, you are a paragon of honesty… I desire for me to be able to say the same. But thanks again for the talk.” The Unicorn comes to the realization of the downpour and the time as she gazes towards the exit. “Would you be willing to walk me to my apartment…? I did not bring anything to shield me from the rain too.” The still rain soaked pony looks earnest at the stallion.
Jaxler shrugged. He really didnt have anything to shield her with, aside from his wing. But Jaxler figured that it was better than nothing. “Sure I’ll walk you home, but i really don’t know what I’d shield you from the rain with. Well, I guess I could try to use my wing as a makeshift umbrella or something.”
The mason pony placed a hoof before her muzzle in thought and responds with her more common unstressed voice. “Considering that I’m barely dry, just want to keep it that way, so a little rain getting past your wing would not be an annoyance.” The Little Pony pauses and speaks again. “If you are willing, the wing will make due… Thank you Jaxler, you are a real gentle-colt.” Amor gets out of her chair and the two ponies head for the door. The rain was worse now then when Amor first woke up, but Jaxler’s wing made a decent umbrella until they made it to her room. The mare expressed her gratitude and seen the stallion off from her door. Safe in the privacy of the apartment the Unicorn disrobed from her clothes and climbs back into her bed for dreamless sleep. The next morning Amor awakes with a dire headache and runny nose but she was more at ease about her current dilemmas.