A Flare of Light

by NightSky

Training

"Flare..." a voice said, dragging Flare from his sleep. He did nothing, though, hoping it would leave. It did not.

"Flare, wake up" it said again, and this time he felt a nudge in his ribs. Go away. he thought, trying one last time to reenter sleep.

"WAKE UP!" The voice boomed. Flare, shocked and dazed, rolled and fell from the bed onto the floor in a heap of blankets. He drowsily looked up to see Luna laughing above him.

"Very funny," he said as he pulled himself off of the ground, "I'll get you for that some day."

Luna smiled at him. "I'm sure you will. Do you know what time it is? You already missed the morning meal and lunch is only in a few hours."

No wonder I'm so hungry. Flare said, and his stomach growled almost as if on cue. He grinned sheepishly. "It was worth the extra sleep."

"I bet it was. Now come, we have work to do before lunch." Luna made Flares bed quickly with magic. "I'll teach you proper etiquette later."

Flare was going to question this, but then he remembered the training he would have in the afternoon. "Ok then, where are we heading?" he said following Luna from the room.

"The library. That is where I do most of my working and studying."

"Oh great," Flare mumbled under his breath. He remembered little of libraries from when he was young, but what he did remember was that they weren't very fun.

"I heard that, you know," Luna said, but smiled lightheartedly, "but I think you will find this library more entertaining then the others you have been to."

Flare doubted that. He was capable of basic reading, but he never found it very interesting.

But he soon discovered that the Canterlot library was much different then the other libraries. It was absolutely huge. It had multiple levels, separate wings devoted to the works of different ponies. Wooden replicas of major feats hung from the ceiling and were displayed in glass cases. Flare gaped at all of it, it was all overwhelming. Luna smirked at him. "You can look at the displays later, we have work to do," she said as she made her way to a desk full of papers and books.

Flare looked at the jungle of paperwork. "Is this what you do for a job here?"

"Yep, this is my job around here, other then being Princess, which I do little of anyway." Luna said as she sat down behind the desk, put on a pair of hilariously large glasses, and began to work on the first of the endless papers. Flare tried to hide his amusement, but failed badly.

"What?" Luna asked, looking over the top of the glasses at Flare, but this just caused Flare to start laughing. This brought a few admonishing glances from around the library, so he quieted down.

"It's the glasses, you look ridiculous."

"I know, Celestia told me the same thing, but I like them, they let me feel more like I fit in here. Now, if you are done making fun of my appearance, lets get you some work to do."

"As you wish, Princess." Flare said, jokingly using the title he didn't need to use. Luna gave him a mock look of displeasure.

Then the boring stuff began. Luna told him about how she worked with governing systems in the land, taxes, laws, boring things that Flare knew little about. So the remainder of the morning Luna gave Flare problems to solve, like finding a loophole in a simple system, giving him a basic idea about governing...and Flare hated and enjoyed every moment of it. He despised protocols and regulations, or just government in general, they were so boring, complicated, and useless. But he enjoyed Luna's company and had learned much by the time the lunch bell rang.

Luna sighed and looked up from the paper she was working on. "I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted for us to get done, but it's ok for a start, I guess." She said as they made their way to the door.

"You could have woken me up earlier if you wanted." Flare said.

"I almost did, but the first time I tried, it was like talking to a log, and the second time, you looked so peaceful I couldn't bring myself to wake you." She said, blushing slightly as she realized how random the outburst was.

An awkward silence fell like a lead curtain for the rest of the short journey; the dinning hall was fairly close to the library. They sat at the same places as before and began to eat. Celestia looked over at Flare. "I didn't see you at breakfast, sleep in late?"

Flare grinned sheepishly, "Yeah, I did. Luna had some fun waking me up, though." He said, looking over at Luna who was failing at suppressing a grin.

"Yes, I could hear her wake you up from the gardens," Celestia said, "it must have been hilarious."

"It was, for her, at least," Flare said, giving a mock sense of glumness. Everypony at the table laughed, and only then did Flare notice the alicorn sitting beside of Armor. She wasn't there last night, he thought.

She was tall and lithe, pink in color, although her wingtips were magenta. She smiled courtly at his humor, although Flare saw little amusment in her eyes, only contempt and what almost seemed to be hunger. Flare thought little of it, and continued to eat. Idle chit chat continued throughout the meal. Flare soon could not bring himself to look at Armor and the alicorn; they seemed to be so happy, and they reminded him too much of his parents. Their loss, which Flare had stowed away until then, crashed through him like a tsunami.

He fought the anguish, though. He would look too weak if he started sobbing in the dinning hall. But he was unable to stop a single tear from rolling down his cheek. Luna, who was sitting across from him, noticed this, and sympathetically put a hoof on his.

"Are you ok?" She asked quietly, although it was enough to bring silence upon their end of the table. Flare swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded, regaining his composure.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine," he said, "just something in my eye."

"Ok." Luna retracted her hoof, but the look in her eyes suggested that she doubted his claim. The meal concluded in silence.

Armor met up with Flare in the hall. "Ready to begin training?"

Flare knew his answer wouldn't matter, so he simply nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Armor laughed. "Yeah. Well, Roarad and Concord Dawn are already at the training fields, so lets not keep them waiting."

"So who was the lucky mare?" Flare asked.

"Her name is Cadence, Princess Cadence. We're engaged."

"Well, congrats. But how many Princess are there, then? I thought it was just Celestia and Luna."

"They are the main leaders of Equestria, but Cadence is more for publicity, to make the royals look good, because Prince Blueblood, while charming, was very self conscious and did not make the royals look too good."

As they arrived at the fields, two ponies, a pegasus and a unicorn, approached them. They both saulted Armor, who returned it.

"Flare, here are your trainers. Roarad," he indicated the unicorn, "will teach you colt combat and magic. Concord Dawn," he indicated the pegasus," will teach you flying and styles you can use as a dragon. That's all I have to say, so good luck." With that, Armor slapped Flare on the shoulder and left.

Roarad spoke next. "Alright Flare, I will have you for the first half of the period, and Dawn will have you for the rest. Now lets get started."

He led Flare to a small arena, while Dawn moved off to watch.

"Now, time to see what you already can do. Size me up and attack me, give me your best shot."

Flare was surprised by this, but he complied. At first glance Flare thought he could take Roarad. He was much larger then Roarad, but the stance he took told Flare that Roarad was far more experienced then him. Roarad's emerald eyes followed Flare like a hawk, so he slowly began to circle him, trying to get to a better spot of attack.

Finally he could see part of Roarad's side, so he attacked. He lunged for his ribs, but never made it.

A skillful hoof caught him under the jaw, then on the side of his head, snapping it around. His hooves were swept from beneath him, and he soon looked up, dazed, at Roarad, who was grinning triumphantly.

"Good try, you know some principles already," he said, pulling Flare to his hooves, "never attack from the front unless you have to, good. Your technique could use some work, but you think, which is vital in a fight. Now, enough talk, let's try that again."

____________________

Flare slowly became better at fighting as the afternoon progressed, and when Roarad had them stop he had actually won a fight...although he had lost twelve.

He then went to where Dawn was. Dawn was much different from Roarad. He was huge, and looked as if he did not have an ounce of fat on his athletic body. His voice was not as deep as Thorn's, but it was deep enough to be imposing while not threatening.

"I saw what you did to Roarad, or rather, what he did to you. I will not be that rough, because you can hurt yourself a lot worse flying than you can fighting. Now, I am supposed to be training your dragon side, would you care to fill that role?"

Five seconds later, a jet black dragon stood before Dawn, who was gaping.

"Now that's impressive. Anyway, lets get to work. I am sure you can already fly, so lets see just how good you already are. Follow me!" Dawn said, shooting into the sky.

Flare quickly followed him as he darted around the fields, dodging obstacles and observing as Flare followed. Dawn then began to swerve off from the course, flying around towers in the castle, and with Flare following close behind. They blazed by the library window, and Flare thought he saw a dark blue alicorn at her desk, but he was already way past before he could be certain. After an hour of this they both landed, panting.

"Not bad, a little loose, but overall pretty good."

Flare smiled proudly. He had proved himself to both of his trainers, and his pride overrode his exhaustion. He transformed back into a pony, sensing that training was over.

"That never gets old," Dawn said as Roarad and Crusader approached them.

"So how is he?" Crusader asked.

"He can put up a good fight, even if it could use some tweaking," Roarad said, "he knows little magic, though, so that will be our primary focus tomorrow."

"He can fly well, and is very observant. Roarad has more work to do with him than me, so we should adjust the schedule accordingly." Dawn added.

"Noted," Crusader said as the dinner bell rang, "you colts have had a busy afternoon, lets get you all to chow."

They discussed combat as they traveled to the dinning hall. Flare went over to the usual table when they arrived, avoiding looking at Armor and Cadence, though.

"How was training?" Celestia asked as he sat.

"That was quite the stunt flying by the library. You certainly gave the other librarians a fright." Luna said.

"Good," Flare said, giving Luna a fanged smile, "they could use some excitement. As for my training, it went well. My trainers say I am learning well, and I will only need two of three more practices."

"Good," Luna chimed in, "then you can spend more time helping me."

"Some much for 'not needing an assistant'," Celestia teased.

"Drop it, sister," Luna deadpanned.

The meal continued in silence, Flare noticed Thorn and his gang give him several evil glances from the guard table. Looks like my instructors wasted no time talking about me, Flare thought.

After finishing their meals, Armor and Cadence rose to leave, Flare glanced at them as they left, and the anguish from before hit him again. He quietly rose and left before he caused a scene, and neither Celestia nor Luna tried to stop him.

____________________

Luna opened her mouth to call to Flare as he left, but Celestia reached out with a hoof to stop her.

"Let him go," Celestia said, "some things are best left alone, even if it causes some grief."

"But Celestia," Luna started to protest.

"Let him go," Celestia said again, this time interjecting a small amount of force in her voice.

"But he needs somepony to comfort him. He's feeling this grief because he is alone. He needs to know that he's not. Sister, you may be knowledgeable, but this is one of your blind spots. This is what made me into a monster, not having somepony there when I needed them," Luna said defiantly, rising, "it's time you saw that."

And with that, she left Celestia alone in the dinning hall, shocked as the realization hit her.

___________________

By some miracle he found his way back to his quarters, where he fell onto his bed and gave in to his grief. He sobbed like a filly, gripping his necklace for dear life. Their faces flashed through his head. His father's glass tomb, his mother's sleeping form. And the question burning in the back of his mind Will I ever see her again?

"Mom..." he gasped between his sobs.

He heard his door close, recalling that he had failed to close it. He felt something beside him, although he already knew who it was. Luna set on of her wings across his back gently, holding him.

"It's ok, Flare, let it all out." She said, comfortingly.

She stayed by his side as the night wore on. Finally, his sobs subsided as he drifted off to sleep. Luna looked down upon the sleeping form beside of her. She then reached down, kissed him lightly on the forehead, quietly rose, and left him to sleep.

____________________

Authors Note:

Hey everybody, sorry about the delay in getting this out. This was a pain of a chapter to make. I didn't like the plot at first, but now I am glad I made it, and I hope you are, too.

NightSky.

Comments

[Leo Archon]

"Let him go. He has much grief to vent, alone." Celestia said quietly.

"Let him go," Celestia said again, "some things are best left alone, even if it causes some grief."

Uh, redundant much? Pick a sentence and stick with it. Or was there meant to be another sentence between those two?

Anyway, great story, and I look forward to more. Also, I have a request for more Mane 6.

[LunarGuardian]

i.neoseeker.com/mgv/60953-Shadow of Death/953/13/dowantscoot_display.gif
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/286/258/21a.gif

oh and PLEASE UPDATE THIS WITH HASTE!!!!I NEED MORE.
twilight.ponychan.net/chan/pic/src/133362685780.jpg

[NightSky]

592825 Yeah, that was more of a filler, just so that the chapter could be a little longer and I wouldn't feel bad about taking so long only to make a short chapter. I'll fix it later.

[NightSky]

592865 Well, I can't really say no to that much cute, can I?

[NightSky]

592825 Whoops, just looked closer at that and realized how badly I screwed the pooch, thank you.

[LunarGuardian]

593455 i dont think so. i tried it once before...... ended up in hospital for a week.

[Relevant Heavy Metal]

Nutshell - Alice In Chains

[shirotora]

So does this take place before the changeling invasion. Cause I would love to see Flare kick some shape shifting flank

[Fire Blitz]

This actually takes place after