Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat

by David Silver

296 - You Have me at a Disadvantage

"I am getting a grasp on things." Twilight sat upon the throne, her throne. Abdicated by Princess Celestia, it was entirely her own. It was her kingdom, her rule, and her responsibility. She still had growing to do to fill it properly. "But there remains at least one thing that continues to concern me."

Silver inclined his head, a little drowsy for being up at that time of day, but he wasn't complaining. "Anything I can help with?"

"Well, actually, yes..." Twilight directed a hoof at him. "All evidence... I'm skipping ahead." She cleared her throat. "As part of the transfer of power, Celestia surrendered many of her old missives and notes, more than I can hope to read in the time I've had... Still, there was one that mentioned you, and I felt compelled to study it."

Silver tensed, wondering what idle musings of Celestia had ended up where. What had it said?! "Oh?" That was a nice neutral statement. Encourage her to say more. "What about?"

"You," she repeated. "Luna... treated you poorly, and in that dream, nightmare really, you... witnessed many things." She licked over her lips. "Things that were more true than any dream had a right to be. So true Celestia had sealed that journal from view until recently. We have, apparently, gone past the reach of your dreams." She raised a hoof to her chin. "I struggle to imagine, living a world I had seen before, like a play I was watching again."

"That's not a bad summary." Silver dipped his head. "But worse, since things didn't play out exactly the same, and it was my third time, not my second. Dream in a dream, I'm not sorry to have returned to the waking world." He ventured a little smile. "And we are past it." So there was no reason to fear him... right?

"You... You married me, in one of them," nakedly admitted Twilight. "We had foals... And here you are, in the waking world, and we became, what, pen pals? How did you..." She wobbled a hoof. "Look, I haven't had a special somepony, not like that, but I can imagine... I can imagine somepony I like... a lot... and just... never saying anything? You never said anything. You never even hinted... You spoke to me like a kindly elder, a peer at the closest, sharing ideas and letters... How did you stand it?!"

"You had your own path," he quickly countered, his cheeks warming, his posture tense and on edge. "I didn't want to get in the way of that. You had a future, and I wasn't part of it."

"How can you know that so certainly?" she huffed. "You'd seen me, in a future, with you, and yet, you're so sure, once you woke up, it couldn't be?" She rose to all fours, standing on her throne. "You are a living pony," she almost shouted. "You have feelings." Her eyes just as suddenly rolled. "You also have multiple mares, somehow." She sank back to her belly. "You've had more..."

"I've had too many," he gently agreed. "Now just two, but to say 'just' is an injustice. Both of them are wonderful... and dear. I love them wholly, and I'm not looking for more."

"But you kept writing me." Twilight sat up tall. "You didn't have to. But you did. You knew me, and still do. I feel like you know a lot about me, even more than I could hope for, having read your dreams. What are you?!" She frowned just as suddenly. "Don't say human, I know that much already."

"And that isn't the most worrying part?" Silver quirked an ear. "That I am some--"

"Did you forget Jake?" cut in Twilight. "We've had a human in Ponyville for some time, and he wasn't the only one. A bit dopey, but entirely harmless. I've been to Equestria high, I know how humans basically work." She wobbled a hoof. "I had a crush on one for a little while in an exceptionally silly moment, who am I to complain when one has a crush back when they're a pony?"

"Twilight, Princess--"

"Nuh-uh." She shook her head firmly. "No princess, no prince. We're two ponies, having a discussion." She raised a hoof to her chest. "Sure, I may be the ruler of the country, but that doesn't actually matter to you. What does? I want to know who I am ruling beside."

"Beside?" Silver inclined his head faintly. "I'm helping, sure, but you're the one in charge. You make the orders, not me."

"And why doesn't that bother you?" she huffed. "You're an alicorn, we are not siblings. Hay, even Luna, who is Celestia's sibling, became irate at having less say over the nation. What makes your view so different? Silver, you know me." She turned her hoof back on herself. "You know me in ways I'd never want a pony to know... But I know basically nothing about you. You have me at a disadvantage, and I won't stand for it." She brought down a hoof with a firm clop. "Silver, I want to know you."

Biblically? The thought came and fled from Silver's mind, banished to the dark corner it had come from. "When I saw Celestia, I saw a grandmother."

Twilight's fury ebbed in a sputter, blinking. "A grandmother? Explain."

"Kind, powerful, wise, and a mare I so very badly didn't want to disappoint." Silver smiled gently. "And now she's retired, as grandmothers do."

"Silver, I mean this in the kindest way, but you married that pony you're calling a grandmother. That isn't normal."

Silver had the humility to blush at that, having no real way to argue the basic facts presented. "She is also unaging. She can... do whatever she wants. She didn't force herself, and I didn't resist. If it was Granny Smith--"

"--Oh! Celestia, no..." Twilight shook her head rapidly. "I will give you that, Celestia is in far better shape than Granny Smith, bless her heart. But, still, you were... intimate with someone you saw that way, and that didn't... upset you? I don't understand you, Silver."

"Sorry."

"But I want to." She inclined her head. "You are one of the more powerful ponies in my court. I want to know who I'm working with. I plan to do something, and I wanted your permission beforehoof."

"Mm? What?" his ears perked with curiosity. "Are you going to read my mind?"

"Tempting, now that you brought it up." She tapped at her chin. "But I was just thinking of speaking to your wives. Do you mind?"

He blinked at that. "Huh? No, of course not. They're free ponies. They can talk if they want to."

"Even if I ask personal questions?" Twilight arched a brow at him. "About you. About things you've done, with them, about their feelings regarding you?"

"They're still free ponies," he insisted. "I'd be a real jerk if I tried to control them. They know what I'd rather they didn't say, and if they decide to say it, well... they probably had a reason." He cracked a little smile at the princess that ruled over him. "Wouldn't be the first time I made a mistake. I would ask them why, and listen."

"Your children are growing well."

Silver had to pause a moment. That had been quite the sharp turn in the conversation. "They... are."

"Children I had once... sired?" Twilight inclined her head. "I will say, prophecy or not, your imagination is a fertile place."

"Was that a joke?" he laughed out softly. "Because it was a good one."

Twilight seemed to replay the last sentence in her mind. "Oh! I... oops." she blushed at the pun she had not meant to make. "Putting that aside... I... feel I want to meet them, the foals, that is." She slowly set her hooves together. "I understand I have no real tie to them, not at all. I would understand if you refused me... But I... want to meet them, if I may?"

Silver's ears danced atop his head, stunned a moment. "Oh, of course. They're not a secret." A little smile touched his lips. "They sometimes work with me. They like being active at night, same as me, and keeping an eye on them is a chore we share, as a family." He raised a hoof, only for it to falter and begin sinking. "I just realized, all the foals in my immediate family are lunar, huh..."

"Not your adopted father's foal," noted Twilight, getting another startled look for it. "I've read on him too... Trixie's working at my school." She pointed to herself. "I thought it was an awful idea, at first, and it was... at first. She's adapted nicely, good on her, but there she is..."

Silver licked his lips, considering a moment. "I should check in on him, see how he's doing."

"It must be hard... being a single father." Twilight smiled a little. "I admit, I'm surprised you haven't invited him to live here."

"He doesn't want to be handed things... He wants to earn them, to prove he's the pony some others see him as. He's... me, really..." Silver sighed gently. "Grappling with a great big case of Imposter Syndrome, afraid someone will notice, eventually, that we're not all that others have built us up to be."

"Oh. Oh..." Twilight inclined her head. "I think that's... not a rare thing... I used to..." She swallowed and went quiet a moment. "You already know, don't you?"

"You weren't sure if you could be a princess, and what it would mean?" ventured Silver. "You saw the huge horseshoes of those before you, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, and couldn't imagine you were quite... enough, or ever would be, to stand in them, to..."

"So, yes," she finished with a little smile. "A simple yes would have sufficed, Silver." She gestured with a wing towards the entrance of the room. "Go on, get some sleep. I'll be by later, to say hello, to you and your foals."

Silver stepped off his cushion, stretching as he did it. "Some part of me feels odd."

"Hm? For being a pony?"

"No, I'm pretty comfortable with that." He danced from one hoof to the next. "Even the hooves, and the teeth, and the tail." He swayed his tail in a little wag, thinking of it. "Ponies are alright, physically. So are humans, in the end. Not that."

"Then what?" She rolled a hoof at him.

"Some small part of me wonders if it's good or bad to be a solar pony with lunar pony foals," he confessed. "I was not the same ethnicity as my own father, and there are effects from that. They still live with me, and him, in a way. I'm not sure he ever really got a grip on that. It's a silly thing, I suppose." He raised a hoof behind his head. "We are a family, and we are bonded. That's the most important part."

"It is," gently assured Twilight, a little smile on her face. "I have not heard a soul speak against your family, Silver. Just whispered hints of jealousy from those who imagine the good parts without the bad. I am certain some stallions think this is the ideal way of things, and even some mares are imagining if the grass might be greener, across the fence as it were."

Silver snorted softly, starting for the door at a light trot. "They're both wrong. Bigger families mean more responsibilities, and more hearts to hold carefully. I hope I am doing it right, but if I were in it for... um... physical intimacy, I think I would have messed up." He rolled his eyes as he reached the door. "I'll see you later, Twilight. Thanks for the chat."

"Thank you." She dipped her head lightly. "I'll be by later, as I promised."

And the interrogation was over. It was time for Silver to get some sleep. Even night guardians needed that.

Author's Note:

In this chapter, two ponies chat. That is literally it. It felt right and good though, I do hope?

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Almost like Staetler Pens and Waldorf Sald?

[David Silver]

10563481
(tilt?)

[Prince Jules Moonshade]

...not sure if I should reread this or not. I don’t remember jack bout this story. I want to but then I don’t.

[David Silver]

10563807
Hello there. This is a story so long in the making. Skip the dream, I gently vote.

[harts fire]

this is such a tender chapter and a huge look at a bit of back story.
all in all a grate chapter.

[Alvsecret]

"I am getting a grasp on things." Twilight sat upon the throne, her throne. Abdicated by Princess Celestia, it was entirely her own. It was her kingdom, her rule, and her responsibility. She still had growing to do to fill it properly. "But there remains at least one thing that continues to concern me."

Abdicated is to leave the throne, if you say abdicated by Princess Celestia, it will sound like Twilight got abdicated by Celestia.