Silver's head whipped around the room and settled on a pair of piercing eyes. "Good morning," said Luna from the darkness.
Silver threw off the covers with a mental shove and scrambled to his hooves, falling over in his hurry to be upright. "Luna? Where is Celine?"
"No hello?" asked Luna, then nodded slowly, "I understand. Your visions have proven true, as random and inconsequential as they seemed. I was able to help the one called Sweetie Belle as a result."
Silver managed to right himself, an ear perking, "For Whom--"
"--The Sweetie Bell Toils," finished Luna. "That was some time ago. We have watched, and the trials of Twilight Sparkle and her friends have come to light, though you missed a few." She shrugged softly, "This surprises us not."
Silver gave a slow nod, "That's good, mostly, but what about Celine?"
Luna gave a faint smile, "She has returned."
Silver looked around the room again. He could see the slumbering lump of Fast Change, and the dozing form of Night Watch, propped against a wall. "Returned where?"
Luna raised a hoof and tapped herself, "From where she came."
Silver's eyes went wide, "What? No! You lied! You said she would be with me until I died!"
Luna shook her head slowly, "I said until you were no more. Silver, the pony, must go away for a time. David, the human, must return."
"Why!?" shrieked Silver before he caught himself. He tried to marshal his rapid breath. He swallowed back another cry as moisture began to build in his eyes. "Why? Did I do something wrong? Haven't I been good?"
Luna extended a wing to slowly pet over Silver's head, "You have been very good."
"Then... why? Rrrg, I don't mean to sound like a broken record," said Silver, stomping the floor, "But I'm dying here. Why would you just stab me like this if I don't deserve it?"
Luna let out a slow breath, "Would that you had not woken so suddenly. I planned to show you there. In your vision, Tirek is stopped, but before that, we must surrender all faith and magic to Twilight."
Silver bobbed his head, "Then rainbows and everyone's happy."
Luna gestured vaguely with a wing, "But Celine is a part of my magic. If I do not take her back now, Tirek will rip her from me and consume her. If I do not give it to Twilight, she may not be strong enough to hold him at bay until the true solution comes to light. A whole life, even a false one, is no small feat." She leaned in closer, "It was a sacrifice, one that you have shown worth it."
Silver shuddered in place, "But... there wasn't another way? This is freaking Equestria! There's always another answer."
Luna placed a jeweled hoof on Silver's head, gently rubbing, "And sometimes, there is not. You have my sympathy."
"You have my love," said Silver as he trembled like a leaf. "Give her back..."
Luna shook her head, "I cannot. She is gone. We are v--"
She was interrupted by Silver throwing himself at her. He flailed his hooves at her, lightly buffeting her larger form in an impotent rage. He hadn't become any better at a brawl, and his strikes did little but tire him out. He sank against Luna, wailing muffedly. "I will speak to my sister," promised Luna, "Though your first change was outside the law, I am certain she will grant you a second, given the situation."
Silver jerked back, scrambling back towards his bed, "Don't take that too! Why are you taking everything from me?"
Luna advanced with him, "It is for your own good. When Tirek finds you, and we have no reason to assume he will not, he will consume the spell that gives you this form. You will not return properly to human, yet you will not be a pony. You will suffer terribly. Now, be still." She frowned, "Do not make me regret fulfilling your desire."
Silver blinked, "Desire? What desire? You're taking Celine, you're taking my body."
Luna held a hoof up, "But you will remain conscious. We did not forget this wish." A wave of her magic fell over Silver and he felt the body he had grown to adore be pulled apart. He tried to summon the silver hands, to ward her away, but they fell apart as his horn melted away. He fell to the floor, a strange, hairless version of Silver. He had but a nub of a tail, and his muscles felt weak. Everything felt wrong. "I will return when Tirek is defeated." And she was gone.
Silver cried quietly on the floor. It was still a week until the Games, then who knows how long before Tirek arrived? Why couldn't this wait until after Tirek first arrived?
Night was suddenly beside him, "Silver, what happened to you? Are you alright?"
Silver blinked and focused on her, "Luna..."
Night tilted her head, "What'd you do to get her to do this?" She made a face, then reached to heft him up in her wings. Her wings were as warm as they looked, and their fur tickled his exposed skin. She placed him back on the bed with a frown, "You don't even have a horn. I'll inform the school you went and got very sick." Night Watch gently tucked in Silver as he sniffled and squirmed. "Is this what you looked like when you first got here?"
Silver shook his head quickly, "No! I had hands, remember, and straight long legs. I'm a deformed pony, not a human." He squirmed under the sheets lightly, trying to move them with magic he no longer had, "I feel worse than naked."
Night gently pet over his mostly fur-free head, "Well it's still my job to watch you. You're not alone."
Silver gave a gentle smile, but the expression didn't last. "Celine, she's gone. Forever."
Night winced like she bit into something especially sour, "Forever? I... Sorry. Just, sorry... Are you OK?"
Silver raised a brow at her.
"Stupid question," admitted Night, "but I'm here. I'm going to get you a drink." She raised and trotted from the room lightly, leaving Silver to his dark thoughts.
Silver eventually fell back to sleep after getting his water. He dreamed of nothing, and awoke to find the room mostly empty, save Night Watch. She was rolling some dice on the ground gently, letting them tumble. Silver slowly rolled over himself onto his belly. He tried to snatch one of the dice with his silver hand, but he had no more silver hands. He reached out a naked hoof instead, "Can I see?"
Night lifted a die with a wing and brought it up to where Silver could get at it, and Silver began rolling it on the bed. "Good morning," said Night, "Feeling any better?"
"No," said Silver simply.
"Too bad," said Night. "You made a promise, and I'm holding you to it." She looked up at Silver's sour expression half-hiding under the covers. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not letting you hide under there forever. You said you'd run a game of Humanway, and you still have two players, three if we invite Lyra. She plays right?"
Silver nodded lightly, "She does. She..." He sighed softly, "No wonder Celine wanted me to get mares so quickly..."
Night twitched an ear lightly, "Well, you're not in a herd anymore, I guess?" She fidgeted, wings rubbing against one another, "That came out poorly."
Silver reached out, barely brushing one of Night's wings with a swat, "Welcome to the doofus club." His eyes closed, "I should have guessed. Celine wasn't a dork, she didn't... really belong."
Night looked increasingly uncomfortable for a moment before she sat up, "Let me get you another drink."
Silver tilted his head, "I'm fine. Sit." He pointed to a spot in front of his bed.
Night hesitated a moment, then sat, looking at Silver, "You're a sorry sight. You look like a pony recovering from a terminal illness."
Silver snorted weakly, "If it was terminal, you don't recover from it. Do I look that bad?"
Night raised a brow, "No offense, but yes. You look awful. Is this forever?"
Silver shook his head a bit and batted at the die, "It sounded like the Royal Sisters would reconsider after the, uh, event. Until then, I get to be a shadow of a pony, with no magic, no strength." He snorted gently, "No fur. I'm sorry to ask, but could you get some food? Thank you for staying with me."
Night flashed a light smile, "I'd say it was my job, but that would be a lie."
Silver tilted his head, "Huh? What do you mean? Isn't this Luna's direct assignment?"
"Was," said Night.
Silver glanced left and right, "I... don't understand. I'm not complaining. You're nice to have around, but why?"
Night gave a sad little smile, "She said, 'My guards are not seen in the upcoming trials. Flee and be safe. I will call for you when the time is right.' And most fled. I already told my family, but I'm not running."
"Why not?" asked Silver. "I mean, it may be a stupid question, but... I would, if I thought I could... if... I had someone to run with."
Night reached up with a wing, softly patting Silver on the head, "You're awkward, but I'm staying. Somepony has to watch over you, and that somepony is clearly not... her, so here I am."
The door swung open suddenly as Fast Change sauntered in wearing the skin of a griffon. He kicked the door shut, "Hey Night! You seen Silver around?"
Night pointed under the blanket where Silver was hiding. "Fast, I presume? You're doing better with the griffon form."
Fast quickly nodded, then looked over Night before moving quickly up to the bed and rearing up, flexing his talons, "Rawr! I'm hungry for little unicorn meat!"
Silver looked up at her from his blanket cave and snorted, giving half a giggle, "You can go back to your usual self."
Fast huffed and became her red self again, "Why are you hiding under there? And what's up with the super close shave?"
Silver's eyes fell a bit, "She's gone, forever. Luna took her, and most of what made me Silver."
Fast shook her head, "You look like Silver to me." She reached out and batted at Silver's dangling heart crystal, "Still glowing, still Silver. What do you mean gone though? I didn't think Princess Luna foalnapped people."
Night frowned, "She does not. Celine..." she wobbled a wing, "She and Luna were the same pony, mostly? Don't ask for specifics. They're one pony again."
Fast raised her brows as one, then scowled, "Well, dang." She suddenly hopped up onto the bed and squeezed Silver through his sheets, "You poor thing! How'd that get your horn cut off though? They find out you're a war caster?"
Silver tensed, but slowly relaxed into the hug. Being hugged was... "Thank you, but no. She said it was for my own good, until things settled down."
Night nodded her head, "So he's mostly bedridden until then."
Fast flashed a bright smile, "We'll keep you company." She looked to Night, "Is the game still on?"
Night nodded at Fast, "I made sure of it." She produced a slip of paper from her pouch, "I have your character ready."
Fast snatched the paper in her magic, "Lemme see." She looked it over curiously, "I don't know what all of this means, but it looks good to me."
Silver sat up and Fast glanced at him before bursting into loud laughter, falling off the bed with amusement about something. Silver tilted his head, "What? I didn't say anything."
Night stepped over and put her forehooves on the bed, rising up to see whatever Fast had looked at. Her face began to darken, "You're... exposed." She fell back down and turned away. Silver quickly drew the blanket tighter around his truly naked form, blushing brighter than he ever could with the brown fur in the way.
"You're both being a bit..." He bit the words back. He didn't want to dwell on Celine either. He said quietly, almost under his breath, "No one likes a whiner." He fidgeted a little in place, "I'll need some paper, big paper. I have some maps to make."
Night's expression brightened as she turned back to face Silver, "That's the spirit." She glanced away, then back, "I know it hurts."
Silver flinched, not expecting the topic change. Night continued, "I mean it. I lost my brother a long time ago... I had my parents, you have us, and your parents." She sat up on her haunches, "You should visit them."
Silver gave an uncertain smile, "I'm not sure either of them would really... understand? Rough's first love is who he just married. Trixie is... Trixie. I love them both, but..."
Night waved a wing, "You're being silly. They love you."
Silver smiled gently, "And I love them, which is why I won't bother them with it. This is practically their honeymoon, with me out of the house. I won't bring it crashing down with bad news."
Night slowly nodded, glancing at Fast. Fast nodded back at her, then turned to face Silver, "Well we already know about it, so don't be shy, right? You can whine and complain all you want, no hard feelings."
Silver winced, "I don't want to be a whiner."
Fast rolled her eyes. "Whine, go on. Night told me about you, how you run around trying to fix everypony's problems like you were Celestia herself. This time, shut up, and start whining."
Silver smiled gently, "I can't do both of those at once." He was softly bopped by one of Night's wings as Fast burst into laughter.
Fast put her hooves up on the bed, "Good to see you're not all out there. We're serious though, super serious. You want to talk? You need a hug? You got two mares." When Silver and Night began to flush dark, Fast tilted her head before it hit her, "Not like that! Unless you want that?"
That's a title of a particular episode, so the "whom" should be capitalized.
I'm pretty sure that "friend" should have an "s" on the end, since she's likely referring to all of the Mane Six.
I really feel like that should be "the" dozing form of Night Watch.
There are two spaces between "moisture" and "began." I'd also end this with the phrase "in his eyes," since it doesn't otherwise indicate where he's becoming moist, which is rather "ew."
No real error here, but the phrase "you have my love" can mean that she is in possession of his beloved (which I believe is what he means), or it can mean that she is the recipient of his loving feelings (which clearly isn't what he means). If you want to eliminate the ambiguity, I'd change that to "You have my beloved."
The phrase "did little but tired him out" should drop the "d" from "tired," since the "but" here means "except."
No error here, I'm just honestly confused by this line. Is he talking about Celine? Belong to what, a herd?
This should be "You seen Silver around?"
"Bedridden" is a compound word.
Eliminate the "a" in "a loud laughter."
Wait, the wedding happened? When?
5742645 Mostly fixed, though making sure spoken words are grammatically correct feels... odd. People don't speak proper English, no matter how much English teachers wish it were so.
Did you read before or after I added a bit to the end?
5742741 Both. I caught the original ending, and when I was editing I saw that it had changed.
I was caught by surprise by Luna's confession that Celine had already returned to her, in every sense of the word. While Luna's reabsorbing her wasn't totally unexpected, the fact that it happened so quickly and with such little fanfare was. I had expected that Celine would want some sort of "proper goodbye" before she wandered off to, in effect, die. Some sort of last night together or something. That she's now permanently gone is a shockingly fast and brutal development. That said, it's not an unpleasant one, purely in terms of narrative development - this is something that you don't often see in fiction, and while it may undercut some of the emotional gravity that we'd expect from the loss of a major character, you're doing a credible job working the fallout that such a sudden and total loss creates.
I do hope that you'll stick to your guns with Celine's passing though; if Discord just waves a paw and she's back again, that'll be a little too deus ex machina. At this point, her loss has been confirmed, so the possibility of her "resurrection" should be - barring some sort of obvious loophole that I'm not considering - so distant and so remote that it should take a truly herculean effort to accomplish...if it could be accomplished at all.
One thing I didn't understand was the current condition that Luna has inflicted on Silver. She stated that he had to become "the human David" again to avoid any permanent damage when Tirek drained his magic, which would make sense - at least somewhat, since he had quite a bit of magic tangled up in him before he finally became a pony - except then that's not what happened. He just sort of became a pony with mange. How exactly does that work?
That aside, there are several other interesting tidbits that come to mind with this latest development. One is that Luna's justification for reabsorbing Celine is that she needs that magic back to give to Twilight; but what does that mean for Twilight's magic in Silver's/David's heart crystal? On a similar note, there's a technical distinction to be made regarding Celine's current state of being - she's not dead, per se, but rather reabsorbed into a greater whole. It does follow that she can't be brought back, anymore than you can empty a cup of water into the ocean and then gather up the exact same water molecules into the glass again...but at the same time, that water isn't lost. Luna should have some aspect of Celine within her again - including her own memories and those from when she saw Silver's soul - even if they can no longer be separated from herself.
The part about Silver running a Humanway game almost felt forced. The problem I had with it wasn't that it happened at all, but that the reason behind it was left entirely to the reader's intuition, rather than being laid out. To be fair, it is (at least to me) plainly obvious what's happening here - the girls know that Silver is grieving and depressed, and are determined to not let him wallow in it. However, that's never made plain within the narrative itself. It's implied, but I wonder if some readers could miss the underlying reason there.
One thing I'm struck by is how, were Silver not so passive, this could very well all be the origin story to how he became a villain when he grew up. I say that because, at this point, he has good reason to come to hate Luna. Everything she's ever done has now come back around and hurt him. He's clearly afraid to show any sort of anger or unpleasantness, due to fear of being abandoned, but surely even he has his limits; Luna has now become his tormentor in Equestria.
She granted him a new lease on life as a pony, only to demand thirty years of it.
She sought to bring his attacker to justice, only to fail and ostracize him from much of the community.
She tried to reopen the trial, and in doing so knowingly violated him in the most intimate way possible.
She attempted to make amends for her prior misdeeds and gave him a large portion of herself to be his mate, only to snatch her back a short time later and play word games with her original promise to justify doing so.
I can't quite see Silver developing any sort of real, long-lasting grudge, but in all honesty he has good reason to do so at this point. It doesn't matter that Luna's intentions were good, it doesn't matter that necessity motivated her, the end result is always that he is the one who is forced to pay for what she does. He is the one who suffers for her actions - he may be called a squire, but he's really her whipping-colt.
Having said all of that, I find that Night's character is growing on me more with this chapter. Her admission about losing her brother, to say nothing of her decision to stay with him of her own accord, is a testament to their relationship. That she does it so quietly, letting her actions speak louder than her words, feels quite right for her character; despite her "geek" status, she very much feels like a pony of action. Fast contrasts nicely with her, being clearly the type who wants to draw positive attention to herself and is willing to be shameless to get it...except, of course, when it comes down to her real feelings. Then she's a shy, nervous little filly. And of course, Lyra is waiting in the wings.
Silver may not have Celine anymore, but at least he's not alone. It's a bitter irony that her "death" may be the thing that finally causes a proper herd to form around him.
5743032 Phew! This chapter clearly brought up some thoughts, which is good! Celine's choice was one of... bitter mercy. She has Silver's memory of grieving. He has never been good with goodbyes, as hinted when he went all wibbly with the simple moving out with Rough and Trixie. If they did have one last date, he would have spent the entire evening being destroyed, rather than enjoying it.
Does this mean he'll appreciate her decision to just walk off and die? No. It hurts, a lot. It hurts in place he didn't even know he could hurt. It hurts because he still believes if she had just had faith, he could have eventually figured out another way, some way. It's freakin Equestria, there's always some other way to fix things in the nick of time, right? Right...? Where are his rainbows? Why doesn't he deserve a few rainbows?
Discording her back would be... cheap. Not that he'd be above asking him if they met again. That doesn't seem up his alley anyway. Creating order from the relative chaos that is being part of Luna? Nah.
Luna sucked out all the pony magic she could out of Silver, leaving him quite the stunted wretch. As she implied, he had quite a bit in there, keeping him the unicorn colt he was. If Tirek had done it, it would have gone a much less pleasant route. Luna kept it, relatively, benign. He has no magic though, not even the basic pony magic, which is why he's puny and naked. He's as close to human as he can get without a human template to fall back on.
His Heart Crystal, so far as shown, resonates with her, but doesn't actually draw magic from her. Provided Silver doesn't use magic while she's busy doing the big Tirek battle, which would be hard without a horn, he shouldn't interfere with her.
I thought the girls actually came out and said they weren't letting him wallow in his misery? I wasn't trying to be super subtle about that.
It is true that Luna has not been a kind pony to Silver, despite her best intentions. He doesn't want revenge, he just wants the hurting to stop. How can he prove he's a good pony? When will be enough?
Fast and Night are nice contrasts that are getting along well. They were scheming 'against' Silver near the start of things. If anyponies could drag a smile out of him, the two together have a good chance. They'll probably get Lyra involved, then Silver is doomed to smile at least once.
Phew, that was a lot of stuff! I hope I made some kinda sense. If something didn't echo properly in the story, let me know, and thanks for being an awesome reader/editor.
5742741 -_- even many English teachers don't do 'proper' English as you put it.
Another thing...This guy life is horrible.
Hurting after hurting...It's like he is a toy to be played with by the world...<= Like Alzrius said, Villian materials...Though, he focused too much on what Luna has been doing and not what the world and everyone in it has been doing to him...<= Reasons for deep hatred right there. One or two people is nothing compare to hating the world...He has not received his justice, his right to live, to love...All he gets are pain and sorrow...That is not a way to live a life...And Luna. Nothing is compensated to him. He had lost what little he has and it hurt...She owned him a lot after all of this.
Where is the "Mother Earth/Mother Nature" when you need one?
Hm... something I noticed here. By taking back all of the gifts given as part of their contract, hasn't Luna effectively nullified it? If Silver could pull his head together for all of about two seconds and actually man up, he could easily take advantage of that and finally start to make his new life on his own terms.
Seriously, if Silver doesn't finally grow a pair soon, I'm not sure I can keep reading this story.
ok that was really hard on silver.
but I am thinking Luna may be having a harder time Celine is not part of her agene but along with that she can now see how much Celine loves silver , will this be a problem in the end game?
will all of Luna's love for silver over power her? and now she has all the memory's back also?
so many possible things that can go wrong with this or right ??
Harts Fire
extra space
One of these should be Fast, probably the first one.
Wow, so much for Celine, you just went and killed her. I guess that's one way to resolve the issue. She didn't even get a death scene or a heroic sacrifice, it was more of a "her actress quit the show, so she died offscreen" kind of death.
Night reached up with a wing, softly patting Silver on the had, "You're awkward, but I'm staying. Somepony has to watch over you, and that somepony is clearly not... her, so here I am."
This one was a little to obvious, missing an "e".
Should this be Fast?
6925250 Typo neutralized. No matter how long it takes...
Celine is dead? Darn. You sure this doesn't need a sad tag? Cause it seems pretty sad to me. Or dark.
7128640 Tags are for themes of a story. A sad moment, while certainly sad, doesn't make for an intrinsically sad story.
I hope I'm making sense. I like to think this is a story of unrelenting hope and growth in the end.
More words at the end means more chance for typos.
There's nothing here to signify that fast is talking other than the fact that it can't be night (for self referencing) and is being said to silver.
So, not wrong but it took me a bit to figure it out.
7353478 Fix'd!