59 - Destined Foal
Silver nudged Night. "Like you always succeed." He looked back to Penny. "Are you alright? I mean, besides the leaking. Did they hurt you?"
Penny nodded. “Yeah, they did. I am coming to terms with that and Stick, she is the best mare to help me. She was there, when I was taken. She hadn’t been feeding too much, to not be a problem. I make sure she feeds now it… that extra magic? It mostly fizzes out through my emotions, whatever I am feeling at the time. Stick can use that if it is love I am feeling.”
Silver shook his head. "That's going to get in the way of this." He flipped through the first book, arriving at the foal-friendly listing of letters. "Can you work through them? I want to see how precise you are right now." He grinned. "You are being graded, not that the grades matter for anything."
Shaken from her reverie by her friend, Penny nodded and sat straight. “I can look at the book?” She asked it but since Silver was holding it open, and she had already told him she only knew two… The first was clear, she brought her magic in and tight, worked it out to the edge of her horn and made the first symbol. Letting it fade she did the second that she knew. The next, the one she had asked about, was slower to form but, focusing on the example it did, at last, and was correct.
Silver clopped his hooves. "The edges are still a little fuzzy, but you're doing great! It's mostly practice, like everything else in life. Art, magic, all practice." Silver tilted his head, a new thought poking in at him. "Huh…"
Night glanced at him and back at Penny. "He gets like this sometimes, especially recently. Silver? You alright?"
He shook his head. "I'm fine, just… last time we were here, I was the lunar pony in the castle. The lunar unicorn, to be specific, a mare."
Penny, distracted from her pattern, had let the fourth go early. “What do you mean, last time? How long have you been in Equestria?” She realized she had lost the pattern and started at it again, rebuilding it and trying to work with the edges better.
Silver tilted his head. "It's confusing, but I did something really stupid, and Luna took it in her own hooves to set me straight. It was basically me versus my subconscious, and I lived out so many years, poof, right in a day. It's like I'm doing it all over again, but there are so many differences." He colored slightly. "That time, Twilight was the solar unicorn, and…"
Penny nodded. “... and you were the lunar unicorn.” She looked up to Night. “You should get a shorter leash. Okay, so what did you do, big spell?” The fourth pattern was firm at her horn, but in her mind the third one was already blurry. She seemed to be able to copy them passably from what she could see, but would need more time to memorize them.
Night shook her head slowly. "I'm sure magic was involved, at least I was there, even in his dreams."
Silver smiled at that. "You were close at my side for most of it, and I woke up, loving you all the more fiercely." He tilted his head at Penny. "Are you ready for the strange part?" Ready or not, he began, "I was Twilight's mare, for just a moment, long enough for a foal. The foal was eventually born. He had a name. I looked… into his eyes." Despite starting off with a smile and trying to be cocky, his emotions began to catch up, and speech sputtered to a halt.
The lunar unicorn in the room froze. Things started to overlap in her thoughts and it was clear on her face that she was thinking about more than Silver’s reaction to his own words. She looked to Night, looking stricken. “I, wait…” A foal, he had said a foal. “Maybe I should go?”
Night shook her head slowly. "I don't… Silver?" She reached out and nudged him.
He stiffened and sat up. "It's just so weird. I… Look, this kind of hurts, and I want to gush and gush and also hide under that bed…"
Almost like the proverbial deer in headlights, Penny couldn’t move. “Weird? You had a whole life, a family. With Night?” She looked to the other mare in the room, trying to gauge her feelings on what was being discussed. “Not having a foal you knew would be almost as… maybe worse, than losing one.”
Silver raised a hoof to his chest. "That one wasn't with Night. That one is still waiting for us." He smiled at Night. "And I will greet her with love, ready for… her in all her…" His words kept trailing off. "This is awkward. I was the foal's mother, even if I didn't finish the… Nnng, complicated. Me and Twilight, leave it there. That's enough. Solar unicorn and lunar unicorn, here in this castle, about this time."
“No, let’s not leave it there.” Penny had started frowning. “You feel a hurt, I… I haven’t had a foal, nor even thought I would when I was human. Luna…” She tilted her head. “Why is that princess tangled in both our stories so much? She had me promise her, when she made me a pony, to give her a boon. She wants me to have a foal.” She looked down, unable to meet Night’s eyes, she was perhaps even waiting for something physical from the protective and well-trained pegasus.
Night saw the pieces coming together and her wings unfurled in a sharp snap. "Are you? Of course you are. I can see it in your eyes, in your stance." She looked away a moment and back again at the guilty-looking Silver. "Have you even asked her yet? She sounds like she already has a partner."
Silver shrunk in on himself. "It's stupid. It's stupid as hell. We'd probably not even make the same child even if we tried…" His oddly smooth tail, much softer looking than his wild mane, thumped the ground. "But the chance…"
“The chance of destiny being real, in a magical land where it’s touch is on everypony?” Penny stepped over and poked him in the flank, right at his cutie mark. “I am not saying I am willing to do this, it isn’t entirely my say. Stick is my marefriend, but if there is a foal that won’t get a chance at life, I... “ He looked to Night, breathing deeply. “You and Stick need to talk. If this happened, you would both be in the least comfortable positions.”
Silver smiled a little. "I… Christ, there is no way to say this that isn't awkward as everything." He leaned forward a little. "First, we do nothing without your leave. No matter how badly I might hurt, I am not a rapist, and that includes coercing people and pushing them. This is a huge deal! It's… about the hugest you can get." He turned to Night, who was already facing him. "And only if my wife consents to it. She is first. She is the light of my life."
Night smiled a little. "Can I be a light?" She reached with a wing, brushing through his wild mane. "I'm much too dark for that."
“Yeah, I think things are out of our hooves.” Penny looked at David, then Night. “You seem to be light enough for him, to lead his way out of the troubles he gets into. I mean, he still has all his hooves, mane and tail, right? So if it there is a foal, somewhere and when, and they need a mother… would they end up with three? Damn, I need Stick here.”
The knock at the door made Penny jump a little.
Night raised a brow at the door from behind her glasses, adjusting them before she moved for the door. "The Ambassador is entertaining a guest. Can you come back later?"
“Princess Cadance insisted I bring this pony to your room.” The guard’s formal words implied that he was quite literally under orders.
“Penny is in there?” A slight chitter to the words, muffled as they were, was heard.
Penny shook her head and muttered something about ‘destiny’. “Stick? Please, let her in.”
Night hurried to the door, twisting the knob open with her clever wings. "She can come in. Thank you for bringing her." The sight of an actual changeling just out and about did surprise her midly. "Come in, Stick is it?"
The changeling, with some odd deep-green lines and markings on her shell, poked her head in first and spotting Penny, accepted fully. “Stick, yup. You are Night? We met at the train station.”
Penny was on her hooves and moving toward the newcomer.
Silver bobbed his head. "Hard to forget you. You're just in time."
Night shut the door behind Stick, letting the reuniting occur without her in the way.
There was some nuzzling from Penny, but Stick seemed the most distracted of the two. “What’s wrong, you feel a little off?” There was more chitter in her voice now.
“Nothing, well, something. Maybe something big.” Penny pointed a hoof to the couch and Stick moved with her, the two moving so that their flanks and shoulders kept brushing. “How do we start explaining this?”
Silver threw up his hooves. "There is no sane way to explain this, so here goes. It might be destiny for me to make a foal with a lunar unicorn, and there's exactly one of those, right here." He tapped the ground with a lowered hoof. "In the form of my friend, who has a partner. Did I mention I do too?" His voice was a little frantic, worn and worried about just how it all sounded on saying it.
Stick pressed a little closer to Penny, who put a leg around the changeling. “Destiny is important to ponies, this I have learned.” She leaned up and nosed Penny’s horn. “I take it this is the lunar unicorn, I am certainly her marefriend. How do you feel, Penny?”
The unicorn in question shook a little. “What he says… I trust him, that he wouldn’t lie about it. You know Luna made me promise her to have a foal?” Stick nodded to Penny. “I get a feeling this is, right?” There were tears though, that were visible as Penny sunk her snout in against Stick.
The changeling looked almost accusingly at both Night and Silver. “You know how she feels, about that sort of thing?”
Night rolled her eyes dramatically. "I think both of our humans are leaving out the important parts. You don't just make a foal with someone and walk off, not if you aren't a real… He's not that, he's just not thinking this through. She'll get fat like I'm getting, then, later, she'll burst, and we'll have a foal. Who does the foal stay with? How will they be raised? Its parents are separate, how would that work?"
Stick’s eyes narrowed at this and turned to look between Silver and, with a soft glow of green magic to tilt Penny’s head up. “She is right. Changelings are fine in a nest, we have a lot of other drones to care for us. Could that work? We would be closer than drones, mothers all of us.”
Penny was looking to Silver now, an odd smile on her snout. “I don’t have much, I am still learning magic. How did you care for foals in your dream, how did that work out?”
Silver quirked a smile. "Royal stipends, mostly."
Night snorted softly. "That wouldn't change much, Mister Ambassador." She pointed at Penny. "That is, if you're going to do what I put a seventy-five percent chance of you doing."
Silver turned to her. "Then don't leave it to me to do. Please, this is your family too. Say what you want, and I'll abide it. No questions asked. This whole thing is… I'll understand, really, anything you say."
“Oh no, not that easy. A foal will need stability. Where are we going to be while we,” Penny looked among the three ponies present, “raise them? Any foal of mine is going to have roots, even if they are more mobile than usual. I want them to see the whole world, to understand this amazing place and life they will have. We need, in short, a plan.”
Stick nodded along. “Here for instance. Celestia doesn’t send diplomats to her niece to say hello. Is there a reason a pregnant mare shouldn’t be here?”
Night raised a brow. "Besides King Sombra theoretically raising an army of shadows to attack the Crystal Empire? That's actually beside the point. The thing my stallion is considering, and wants me to decide, is to invite you, both of you." She spread her wings. "He wants to claim you both as his mares. To his credit, he knows his first wife should be the one to invite or not."
Penny and Stick, both of them, blushed deeply and looked to reply, then stop. More than once. “His… mares?” Penny looked to Stick, blushing further. “That is a big step I, I am not sure I am… oh drat, this is confusing me. I am ready to have a foal but not be a family? That isn’t right. Boundaries though, will be important.” Penny lifted a hoof. “You are and always will be his first, I don’t want that much attention.” She blushed more. “I bet I am going about this all wrong.”
Night flashed her sharp teeth. "You said the right thing. Challenging the first wife for the position without even accepting entry? That would be curious…" She wrapped a wing around the lost and dazed Silver. "I'm in charge of him, and owner of that frantically beating heart of his. He asked me to make a choice, so I will." She fixed eyes with Penny. "Do you want this foal?"
Penny looked to Stick, but only got a kiss on the nose from the changeling and no words. “I told Luna, to keep her boon. I didn’t want a foal to be, only because of a promise. If Silver says a foal is destiny, and it is starting to feel more and more like it, then I will not only want a foal.” Penny closed her eyes and searched, sensing something but quite able to grasp it. “I would love them.”
A gentle kiss, the brush of careful fangs, from Stick, met her cheek. “You don’t go alone. Where Penny walks, I walk beside her.” Stick looked at the unicorn in her hooves, then the pegasus across the room, daring either to challenge her.
Silver sat up with a smile. "You've found a good friend right there. It took me a long time to find mine. It's like your entire experience is on fast forward."
"Is that good or bad?" Night glanced between them. "So you want it, and he can give it." She approached and sniffed over the mare a moment. "The time isn't right, so it's academic until then, but, for now, I suggest you both stay here. We need to know each other."
Stick couldn’t stop herself. “Yes, Queen Night.”
Night snorted and stomped at Stick's words. "We don't know each other well enough for me to be your Queen, don't rush."
Penny had gathered herself, looking a little relaxed. “Oh she likes to rush, I try and hold her back but we are a little alike in that regard. Stick is finding the world for the first time, I have promised myself I would live it, here, with less holding me back. We do need to get to know each other.” Penny smiled up at Night but not trusting her emotions to really look at Silver. At least, not for a few more moments.
Something occurred to Penny then, however. “Wait, why are you confined to here? More Silver-problems?”
Night pointed to herself. "Me? I'm not, and yet, I'm his guard. So there we are. This lovable figure found himself a new trouble."
Silver grunted softly. "A problem that needs fixing. Several, actually."
Stick and Penny both looked intrigued. The changeling, however, spoke first. “Well, is there anything we can lend a hoof or two to help with? We aren’t diplomats, but we aren’t stupid, either.”
Silver perked his ears. "Actually…"
Night cuffed him on the head, earning a sour look. "No."
Silver squirmed a moment. "Fine… Then you can act on my behalf. I'm pretty sure I can do that. How do you feel about going around the city, seeing what's needed and helping make it happen? An outside opinion is just what ponies need, and someone, er, pony, aimed at the greater good without a personal investment."
“So long as you don’t need heavy lifting.” Penny says with a sly grin.
Stick raised one brow. “What about me, or do you think seeing a changeling and a lunar pony together will put them off balance enough that they might just say what they need, instead of what they want?” Penny blinked at her, having just seen a sneakier side of her marefriend.
Night nodded. "Besides, you two are a team, in all meanings of the word. There's no reason to send just one of you." She rolled her eyes. "I was a bit of an idiot thinking he could be away from me for a moment, and here we are."
A roll of green flame enveloped Stick and, beside Penny, another nondescript lunar unicorn sat. She had made her usual concession with a changeling cutie mark, of course. “I meant, this. You want us, you got us, but think about what we can do.”
Penny blushed a little at this, apparently having seen another side of things that caused her to blurt out in haste. “For this job, she means what other things we can do to help with this.”
Silver shook his head. "Use your discretion. You're both clever people. You'll see the situation before us, and unless you want to come running back to check in each time, you'll have to decide how to approach. Of course, you might want to do that anyway, depending on what you see."
“Make a list of ponies you want us to talk to.” Stick flickered in green flame again and was back to herself. She got up and poked Penny in the shoulder. “Weren’t you supposed to get magic lessons from him? I come up here, thinking you would be hard at training and you are talking foals?” She was approaching Night. “I almost fear to know what would happen if they were really alone, without you to keep an eye on them.”
Penny blushed and brought her book closer in her magical grip. “I wish she wasn’t that right…”
"You took my kingdom from me!" A flash of brilliant green energy lanced from Chrysalis' horn as she hovered across from her opponent, striking Fast's shield, splintering and cracking it, but not piercing it.
"You gave it up." Fast spread her hooves. "These ponies have given it to me just the same."
"Stop talking and fight!" She darted in and smashed a hoof into the shield, shattering it and lashing it across Fast's chin and driving her back. "Stop blocking and fight, or admit you've lost."
Fast smiled slowly. "Was that your best swing?"
"What?" Chrysalis bristled and brought a hoof in, driving it into Fast's chest, but it was like kicking a tree. She barely vibrated. "What is this?"
"You must be so tired…"
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I think you meant "I can be a light?"
"Can" comes first make it sounds like she is asking for something not questioning something.
6861160 Can a man fix a typo? Would not doing so mean fixing himself, and what man could claim to be able to do that?
Perhaps it would be better to learn from our errors, but we are what we are. Can a man fix himself? I posit not.
6861217 So it seemed, as it deemed.
Sorry, but I'm not good enough with words to do proper poetry
Wow, now THAT was an awkward conversation
Just try not to blow up the universe this time. 
Yikes, Silver might be spreading himself a bit too thin as he adds to the unconventional herd. Then again, if it works out, it'll be a beacon of harmony not unlike Ponyville (with all three tribes living together nicely)... and an irksome reminder to the purists,
Heh, I almost feel bad for Chrysalis. Trying to beat up a Queen that's at full strength while her own reserves are edging towards the big E. I would not underestimate her however. No telling what underhanded move she could lash out with, in spite, with her last dregs of magic. (I'd feel safer when she's sporting a horn suppressor, then they can sit down and talk like civilized beings)
o this is a good chapter.
good work to all involved.
Penny nods - Penny nodded
I problem - A problem
*****
Am I alone in imagining Night Watch as Silver's Rafiki?
Fast has the resources of her hive to draw on, while Chrysalis must be running low, especially after wasting what she did on Stand In. So perhaps Fast has a path to victory, especially if reinforcements are on the way. Still, Chrysalis probably has some sort of magical haymaker to throw as a desperation attack if Fast leaves herself open to it. The bad guys always seem to have something in reserve for the unwary hero.
Silver better be careful. He could end up with a Griffin, Buffalo and Dragon wife this time before he can blink, if Night isnt careful. Then have to work with the rest of Destinys Child.
I hope Fast doesnt go for the hive absorb to finish off Chrysalis, Thats just asking for her to Trojan Changling.
6861409 Typos fixed. Fast is sort of on her own(She still has a hive to call on). Thoughts on their supposedly fated conception?
So Fast is holding back? Atta girl! Still poor, but we eagerly await the next chapter!
If seems Penny is in agreement with Silver about the necessity of destiny. The adventure stays doubled!
Keep going! ;)
6861553 wait, unless the Fast we're seeing isn't.... Ooh, anticipation increases!
Given that I feel that Silver truly had a vision of a potential future; his son seems intended. However, I would submit that their is still free will and his son is not fate or destiny.
6861504
Deleted and reposted because I posted from the wrong place, again.
If this were anyone but Silver I'd be feeling that he's moving way to fast.
It's understandable that he is desperate to fill the void in his heart, but what I do not understand is Night Watch's quiescent attitude on the matter beyond working out in advance how such a foal shall be cared for.
Perhaps she figures that since nothing can happen right away, that there will be time for passions to cool and for more thought to be given to the matter by Silver and Penny before anything permanent happens.
With the dream so fresh in his memory I would think Silver would remember how strained Night was as first wife in a herd built around him.
On matters of fate, I can only shrug.
Fate seems to be a force in Equestria and must be taken seriously, but poor Silver may be deceiving himself if he thinks his dream is a roadmap to the future. It's already been wrong though I can't discern the pattern yet.
I still think Silver is a good pony though. But he's also a pony with a broken heart.
6861805 You seem to have avoided commenting on the serendipity of it all. The pattern thus far seen, that being a lunar and a solar unicorn at the right place at the right time being exactly what creates what never was, potentially. Last time it was Twilight (solar) and Silver (lunar), this time, different, but eerily similar, with Silver (solar) and Penny (lunar).
6861817
Oh.
Sorry, not avoiding the issue so much as not perceiving it as an issue in the first place. Coincidence to get Silver into situations is fairly normal and didn't register for me. Coincidence to get out of a troubling situation would be more problematic.
I see now how it all lines up now that you've pointed it out, though. I was also still tending to think of Silver as a lunar pony as well.
My my Silver extending your reach to those around you once more.
We wonder just how closely you'll follow in the footsteps of Icarus.
Stick
pegasus
This doesn't need commas.
7161087 Collab chapters mean twice the typos!
its
has Text's number
The reasoning behind his proposition is "I'm having severe deja vu, claiming it's a sign of impending destiny, so let's try to recreate the foal I once had while dreaming?" I thought Night was more level-headed than this.
Silver, stop thinking with your loins.
Found a few more.
Should be She, since that's Penny, I believe.
This comma is extraneous.
8887881
Such old mistakes. They were this close to retirement.
This is strange the rum is making this easier to understand.
Convenient.