Rocinante, The Best Knight Ever

by Charliemane

Nightmare Moon

Luna let out a small laugh as Rocinante retold the story of how he had charged the buffalo stampede head on and the subsequent destruction of the Appleloosa clock tower. His stories were quite odd, but certainly entertaining.

After Rocinante finished his tale, he relaxed and looked towards Princess Luna.

“I feel I must apologize. For after all, it is not proper for a knight to boast of his accomplishments. If I may ask, please, feel free to tell me more about yourself, your Highness.”

Princess Luna froze for a moment. The immediate thought that entered her mind was her return as Nightmare Moon, but that was the last thing she wanted to talk about. Simply thinking about conversation topics yielded painful subjects such as how much Equestria had changed over the last thousand years or how much she missed all of her old friends. Luna struggled to hold back the tears as the agonizing memories came to her mind. Quickly changing the topic, Luna rubbed her eye and nodded graciously to the oblivious Rocinante.

“We are grateful that thou hast shown an interest in our past. But in truth, we find thy stories to be of great entertainment. Please, give us another tale and then we shall be willing to give an account of ourselves.”

Rocinante nodded as he scratched his head. Truth be told, he had not been questing for very long and had only one tale left to tell. It wasn't his favorite, as it did not end in his victory, but it was his last.

“If it pleases you, your Highness, I do have one tale left. But I am reluctant to speak of it as it does not truly end in my victory, though justice did indeed triumph in the end.”

Luna clapped her hooves together. Perhaps this could buy her some time to think about what she could talk about, but she hadn't expected the topic that Rocinante revealed.

“This is the story, my dear Princess, of my quest to defeat the rebel, Nightmare Moon.”

Luna froze. Was this some form of twisted joke? Rocinante did not seem to be the type of pony who would be so cruel, but this was the worst topic Luna could imagine. Did he not know who she was? That was impossible. How could anypony not know that she was Nightmare Moon? Interrupting Rocinante's opening, Luna looked sternly at the pony sitting across from her.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Why dost thou recall a subject so dark and hateful as Nightmare Moon?!”

Rocinante was confused, but he continued regardless.

“Your Highness, this is but the last tale I have to tell. Though in truth I was reluctant to tell it for its ending is not the most flattering-”

“Thy concern is over thy appearance and not thy Princess's feelings?! I thought thou to be of a higher standard Sir Knight! Enough! The hour grows late and I- WE wish to retire!”

As Luna rose to leave, Rocinante bowed low to the floor.

“I do not understand your Highness, please, what have I done to bring upon myself such distaste and displeasure?”

“Surely thou dost know that our memories of what we did during that foolish rebellion are as painful as they are wicked!”

Princess Luna was ready to storm out of the room, but she stopped to look down at Rocinante who had looked up at her from the floor. His eyes shown with a strange brightness. She could not see fear in him, but like a newborn foal, an innocent curiosity and bewilderment were in his eyes.

“But Nightmare Moon was the leader of the rebellion, not your Highness.”

“I am Nightmare Moon!”

“But your Highness, you are not Nightmare Moon, you are Princess Luna.”

“Changing the name does not change the pony!”

“The name is not all that has changed, your Highness.”

Luna glared down at him with a stern sense of inquisition in her eyes, but in return Rocinante's eyes were only filled with sympathy. Motioning toward his chest, Rocinante spoke softly.

“Your heart, your Highness. I have seen Nightmare Moon with my own eyes and I have had the utmost pleasure in conversing with your Highness Princess Luna for nearly an hour. If there is anypony outside of Princess Celestia herself who may say the same then it is I and I speak the truth when I say that there are no two ponies more different that your Royal Highness and the villain Nightmare Moon.”

Luna regarded the pony bowing beneath her. Though his stories had sounded rather absurd at points, his words had rung with complete sincerity all night and despite her anger at him now, his words sounded just as sincere as before.

“How is it different? How are we different from Nightmare Moon?”

“Nightmare Moon's heart was filled with anger and hate. Your heart is filled with repentance and a desire for redemption.”

“And just how can we ask my-our sister to forgive us after all that I have done?”

“You must realize the difference between yourself and Nightmare Moon, for her burden is no longer yours to bear. You are a new pony, her Royal Highness Princess Luna, if you but let go of the past and forgive yourself.”

“Dost thou mock me further?! Dost thou truly believe that I can be so easily free of Nightmare Moon! I may let her go, but she will not release me! Her ambitions were indeed my very own! I can still hear such dark desires within my own heart!”

Luna's eyes began to water as she gritted her teeth in anger, not toward Rocinante, but to herself and her cursed fate.

“I wish so desperately to be free of this. Wherefore do I still find myself prisoner to my own wicked mare of darkness? Speak no more of this Sir Knight. For what dost thou know of my pains? What dost thou know of my sorrow? Forgiveness cannot come to me as I am. Forgiveness cannot come so cheaply...”

Luna's head hung low and she made no further motion. The parlor fell into a ghostly silence in which the only things that could be heard where Luna's tears pattering on the marble floor and a brass basin's rim scraping the same floor as it rose.

Rocinante took his helmet into his hooves and displayed it before the Princess. Luna didn't even look up as he began.

“Do you know whose helmet this was originally?”

Silence.

“This was the helmet used by the knight Marebrino. Are you familiar with her tale?”

Silence.

“This helmet was enchanted, by none other than Star Swirl the Bearded, with a very powerful magic. This helmet grants its wearer one single wish.”

Luna remained silent, but this time Rocinante's words did not continue. The two sat in silence for what felt like an eternity before Luna finally looked up towards him. Rocinante's eyes burned with a passionate fire as his gaze met hers. But it was not a fire of determination in his eyes, it was a bright flame of hope, compassion, and empathy.

“My squire already used her wish. She used it when we first encountered the helmet by accident and now her wish is used, gone forever. A single wish is a very powerful thing, we witnessed it ourselves. As such I have yet to use mine, for I had no idea what I would use such a thing for and I did not desire it to go to waste.”

Rocinante smiled. His eyes never left Princess Luna's.

“But now I know... I know what a true and virtuous knight would do and I no longer have any reservations about this wish, my wish.”

Luna couldn't believe her eyes as she watched Rocinante place the helmet on top of his head.

“Princess Luna, I hope that you can see that forgiveness can indeed come so cheaply. With this, the Helmet of Marebrino, I hereby wish you free of Nightmare Moon's grasp, forever!”

After listening to Rocinante speak so intently and so insistently about the power of the helmet, Luna had expected a brilliant flash of light or perhaps an earthquake of some kind, but there was nothing. The Princess looked to herself in wonderment. Was that it? Was she truly free? More importantly, was she truly forgiven?

“Your Highness, do you feel any better?”

Luna looked to Rocinante, then to herself again. She didn't feel different, but at the same time, this pony, this Rocinante of La Manecha, had clearly believed in what had just done. He clearly believed in this helmet's power to such an extent that even Luna began to believe that his one wish could have given him anything. Power, wealth, and glory were all his if had wished it so. But he didn't wish it so, he didn't even use his wish on himself, he used it on her. He had used it on her and that alone stirred her heart more than anything anypony had said to her since her arrival at Canterlot.

Simply the thought of what Rocinante had done made her heart feel light and free, as though the greatest weight had been lifted off of it. Perhaps there was magic in that helmet that he wore. She had originally thought of it as no more than a brass basin when he entered with it. In fact she was certain that the helmet of Marebrino looked completely different from what Rocinante held atop his head. But all of that became irrelevant, perhaps because of his words, perhaps because of how desperately she wanted to believe, or perhaps even because the magic of the helmet was true after all, regardless of the cause, Princess Luna felt free for the first time in over a thousand years.

For the first time that night, Luna smiled as she breathed in the air, before suddenly looking towards Rocinante.

“Why? Wherefore dost thou use thy single wish upon one such as I?”

Rocinante bowed again, removing his helmet in the presence of the Princess.

“I have only done what any virtuous knight would do, I have rescued the one who needed to be rescued. You are free, your Highness, your future is your own.”

Still smiling, Luna turned away from Rocinante to conceal the tears that were beginning to well up. Shaking her head and breathing deeply, Luna finally turned back towards the knight-errant, still on the ground.

“Then I... Then we shall find Princess Celestia and inform her of this change within us and how we now truly seek her forgiveness once more. For the sooner this burden doth find itself behind us the better all shall be. We thank thee, dear knight-errant for the sacrifice of thy wish on our behalf. Thou hast done us a great favor and we are grateful. Now thy Princess has but one task for thee, if thou art willing.

Rocinante, with a clearly renewed vigor, rose, remembered his place, and bowed low again.

“Your Highness has but to speak the words and they shall be done.”

“This night's Grand Galloping Gala is filled with ponies of social and political power...”

Luna's voice trailed off for a moment. She couldn't hardly say she was afraid of what the other ponies might think or say, but at the same time, such ponies as the ones present at the Gala could be very intimidating, even to a princess. Rocinante however, spared her the trouble of finding the words. Whether or not he fully understood what he was agreeing to was irrelevant as he rose and beat his chest.

“Say no more, Royal Highness! For I, Rocinante of La Manecha, shall serve as your escort and with your favor I shall champion your cause against all who may have the inane audacity to oppose your Noble Grace.”

Princess Luna's smile became a grin as she began for the door.

“Then let us depart at once. Again we thank thee, noble champion of the night.”