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// 114 - Advantages of Physicality 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
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"Basic shield!" Trixie thrust a hoof at Silver. Through their drills, his response time had improved, encased in silver before her hoof finished extending. She approached on three legs, the fourth reaching out to press along the shields. The jagged lines of imperfection didn't appear, but there were faint lines that become visible under the pressure of her hoof. They seemed triangular, but not flat. "What have you been doing, colt of mine?"

Silver focused with an obvious look of concentration. The triangles grew large enough for Trixie to see. "You said to think of it like bricks, so I did that, and tried to be clever with it."

Trixie nodded approvingly. "A clever unicorn is a proper unicorn. Why triangles?"

"I remember them being a good shape." Silver shrugged a little. "Besides that, note how they're separate a little, and if you crouch down, you can see they're not flat."

"Not flat?" Trixie ducked a little to see under the enlarged panel. "Why is this?"

"If something presses against it, the panel is shoved back, but with its shape, it jams against the other panels. So, basically, the whole shield gets rigid and the other panels help repel the attack even if they're not the ones being hit specifically."

Trixie tapped at her chin. "A solid shield would also do this, would it not?"

"To a point." Silver's shield reset, the panels becoming small. "Redirecting the force outwards and away from me is that much force I don't have to counter at all."

"Trixie isn't sure she agrees." She clopped her forehooves together. "But she applauds her clever student."

Silver felt his reserves being tugged on and looked up to find himself staring into Surprise's belly. She was standing on his shield, supported by the odd geometry without difficulty. "Hello?"

Surprise waved a hoof excitedly. "Hiya! Are you about done with the fancy unicorn stuff?"

Trixie made a shooing motion at Surprise. "We're in the middle of a lesson."

Surprise sat down on her haunches, supported by the shield. "I'm helping. Oh! Night said she wanted to talk to you, Silver. She's up on the roof. She said you'd know where."

The roof? The only place on the roof that held any significance came to his mind and his shield wavered with the lapse of concentration brought about by  the thought.

Trixie smiled at Silver. "You recovered from that nicely. What were you thinking about that almost distracted you?"

Silver pointed upwards. "First, I'm fairly certain being under a mare isn't proper." He flashed a grin. "Second, I know where she is, but it wasn't a happy memory that brought us there last time." Keeping the shield going, he reached with his magic to try and pick up Surprise, but that was asking too much at once, and he was pressed to the ground under a falling earth pony.

She squealed as she fell, then began laughing from on top of Silver. "Nice try. You'll get it down."

Trixie offered a hoof and soon Surprise was standing on her own power. "You are improving in focus. Go, your wife needs you. We can resume later." Surprise looked ready to go, but Trixie put a hoof on her shoulder. "We have things to discuss."

"We do?"

Silver got to his hooves and trotted from the room with a parting wave. He ascended a few stairs along a path he had taken once before in a much darker mindset. The world hardly seemed so unfair at the moment. He had a wife. He had great parents and, despite how the story usually goes, his in-laws were good people too. He worked for the Princesses, and he liked them. No, a lot of his life was looking pretty darn good. Heck, even his magic was getting better. Trixie was much better at teaching magic to someone who knew magic, rather than a rank newbie.

He emerged into the light of day and shook himself out. The sun felt nice on his fur. The breeze was gentle and refreshing. It was a lovely day. Sweeping his vision over the roof, he didn't see Night. He did see Celestia, who was gazing out over the city quietly. Silver approached cautiously. "Good afternoon. Enjoying the day?"

She smiled a little. "Are you?"

"I am." He nodded firmly. "I have to remind myself to get out more often. Have you seen Night Watch? She called for me."

Celestia tapped a spot beside her. "Join me a moment?"

Silver tilted his head at the spot before moving to set himself beside the sun princess. "What's up?"

Celestia extended a wing just to curl it around Silver. "I'm still absorbing all that you wrote. Some of it..."

Silver glanced away, a furious blush building in his cheeks.

Celestia raised a hoof and gently brushed one of those tinted cheeks. "I'm not angry at you. Luna used to tease me with the wickedly depraved thoughts of some of my little ponies. Yours are not even the worst out there. No, I'm not here to discuss the depraved portions of your visions." She raised a hoof. "Rather the oracular nature of them. Do you know Samantha?"

Silver's ears jumped upright, which seemed answer enough.

"A curious name for a pony, but she isn't a pony, is she?" Celestia tilted her head. "I don't mean that with any offense, but to think, a half-human... You... met her in your vision, did you not?"

He nodded at that. "The situation was a lot less enjoyable for anyone involved, besides her. How's she doing?"

Celestia smiled gently. "She's doing better. Placing her with a legitimate doctor with a sense of morality is helping. She hungers for knowledge. It defines her." She let out a little sigh. "She reminds me of other unicorns... Such fascinations are common in your tribe." Celestia inclined her head. "Then there is Ambassador Nefertari. You saw her as well. I have yet to see just how true these visions are. Are they also touched by humanity?"

Silver stiffened suddenly. He had written about Celestia and Luna's theoretical past.

She rested a hoof on his spine between his forelegs. "I would ask that you remain discreet with your visions. I have had some experience with them, and acting recklessly, or speaking too frequently of them only makes things worse, in my experience.

"Was writing it down a mistake?"

She shook her head slowly. "I'm glad you did... It made a lot of things come into focus. I had been neglecting my sister in a whole new, far more subtle, way. I will avoid that."

Silver looked down over the thriving populace of the city. "So, why did you call me as Night Watch? It wouldn't have been that unusual for me to be called by you directly. I do work for you, on leave or not."

Celestia smiled. "Oh? No, I didn't. Coincidences do happen from time to time, my little pony. Tell me, before I send you on your way..." She turned to Silver, staring at him directly and meeting his gaze. "Do you still wish for what you once had?"

Silver trembled, both under the force of her stare and the magnitude of her question. "I knew the price when I woke up. Two wives were paid to live in truth instead of sleeping forever in happiness." He flashed a smile. "It may not be perfect, but this life is pretty happy too."

Celestia smirked, a little smirk. There was a playful energy around her. "Technically, you had many more wives than that. You paid your price."

Silver's jaw fell a moment before he shook his head. "You're not--"

Celestia raised a hoof to a higher roof. "She's waiting for you up there."

On stiff legs, Silver wandered away, dizzy and reeling from what Celestia had so casually implied. "I'm not that special," he murmured to himself. "Why would she settle for me at all when she could have any pony in the kingdom?" He found the stairs heading further upwards and ascended a step at a time. Up there, Night was clearly visible. She was looking directly at him.

She trotted towards him as he came into view. "How did the conversation go?" Night looked down to where Celestia was still sitting. "It's hard to get a read on her, but her words clearly had an impact on you."

Silver frowned a little. "Did she make you come up here?"

Night smirked at that. "She thought you may not realize that. Shows what she knows." She offered a leg and he stepped into her. Soon they were hugging warmly. "Seriously, are you alright? You looked like she was... What did she say?"

Silver sat down. His first urge was to bottle it all up, but... "Night, I'm not sure what I should say or not. She didn't ask me to be secret, and you're my wife. Before any other pony in this world, you are my beloved, and I am naked before you." He dipped his head. "It was about the dream, or the vision, whatever it was."

She frowned a little at its mention. "That seems to come up often. What about it? Are we in danger?"

Silver shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that. As... you probably remember, I had quite a herd in there." He colored as he spoke. "Too many, all over. I miss them in some ways, but I'm happy being with you."

"Who?"

Silver raised a brow. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yes." She adjusted her thick glasses on her nose. "No more secrets. Go on."

Silver let out a slow breath. "Well, alright. There was you, of course, then Fast, who wasn't a changeling. Then there was Twilight."

"The Twilight Sparkle? The princess?!" Night squinted at him.

Silver shrank under her gaze. "Through some political chicanery on her part, I was technically part of a second herd... consisting of all the princesses of Equestria."

Night flopped down to her haunches. "You don't dream small, do you?"

Silver laughed at that. "Funny thing. My dreams are usually far less logical, but grand and sweeping isn't out of place for them."

"Is that all of them?"

Silver frowned a little, sifting through his memories. "Nefertari somehow got involved, but even I couldn't say how that happened. Lastly, Starlight Glimmer, but she just wanted to join and didn't get time to do so before the dream was over."

"Who?" Night raised a brow. "All the other ones you, at least, knew beforehoof. Who's this one? I never heard of her before."

Silver raised his hooves. "I don't even know where she is at this point. Look, Night." He leaned in and pressed his nose to hers. "I don't care about them. You. You are my everything. It may sound corny, or weak, or whatever. I don't care. What you want is what we get."

Night smiled, the expression slowly spreading. "I believe you." She leaned back and put her hooves on her rounded belly. "You've been focused on me, your mother's distracting lessons on magic excluded."

Silver lowered his nose, gently nuzzling at that firm dome. "How are you feeling?"

Night let out a little breath, relaxing under her husband's attention. "Better... I'm getting used to it, even if that itself is a little scary." She raised a brow. "You realize something is coming, right?"

"Huh?"

"The pattern of our lives. We won't be able to just live quietly forever."