Every Nightmare's Caveat

by libertydude

An Aide in the Darkness

The room was practically a mansion compared to what Earth occupied the past seven years. A wide bed covered with a black bedsheet filled up almost an entire side of the room. A large desk sat across from it with candles and lamps covering every available inch of the room in light. The bathroom sat close to the door, with a sizeable bathtub and cistern sitting on opposite sides. Soaps along the tub wafted through the air, a strange mixture of jasmine and blueberries Earth could just barely remember.

A clever bribery, Earth thought. Definitely something somepony locked up for too long would fight to the death to keep.

He wandered over to the sink and splashed water on his face. His haggard face stared back at him in the mirror, but he paid more attention to the grime sticking to his hair. One by one, the spots came out of his mane, and the dark black he could remember shining in the sunlight shone in the bathroom’s candlelight.

Earth then began to cut his hair. He’d tried to cut it back in the dungeon, but he’d stopped attempting to find anything to do other than lay in the cot two years ago. Here, he had the proper tools to cut away the loose strands now starting to clump around his hooves. His moustache and beard came next, eliminated entirely from his face.

He wandered over to the bath, a vague recollection of how the red and blue knobs worked. Ten minutes spent twisting them eventually yielded a water just cool enough to not be scalding.

Hot water! he thought, easing himself into the water now close to overflowing. I’d forgotten such a thing existed. He kicked his hooves in the water and felt the mini-waves crash against his face. Maybe I should’ve asked to be imprisoned in one of those erupting geysers near the Whinnandoah Valley.

He sat there for a long time, letting the water seep into his pores for as long as he could stand it. But when his hooves wrinkled more than he could bear, he waddled out towards the towels. It was halfway through drying himself he caught the tub water sitting still.

That’s right, he thought. You’re supposed to drain it once you’ve used it. He pulled the plug, the water letting out a long slurk down the drain. Once dry, he wandered over to the bed. He’d barely landed on it before he curled deep within the warm covers and fell asleep.

---

Knock-knock!

Earth’s eyes shot open. In his mind, it’d been mere moments since he fell asleep, but he could tell looking out at the stars he’d slept at least six hours. He lurched over towards the door.

“Who is it?” he said.

“Nightshade!” a little voice said back.

He sat up and walked to the door. “Who?”

“Nightshade!” the little voice said.

Earth opened the door and was greeted by an empty hall. Only the glowing torches and displayed suits of armor seemed to fill the space.

“Excuse me,” the voice said. Earth looked down and saw a little filly at his feet. She had a black coat with silver hair, wearing a petite dress with a moon symbol on it.

“Hey,” Earth said. “Nightshade, you said?”

“Yep!” she said cheerfully. “I’m supposed to be your, uh…ay-duh?”

“A what?”

“I’m supposed to show you where things are and help you around the castle.”

Earth gave a chuckle. “An aide.”

“That’s it!” she giggled. “Like lemonade.”

“That’s right. So… did you come over here just to introduce yourself?”

“Nope. The Princess wants to see you now.”

“Ah.” He closed the door and shuffled out into the hallway. “I guess we shouldn’t keep her waiting then.”

“Okay!” She took off down the hallway.

“Wait!” Earth hobbled after her, legs still stiff from imprisonment. A little further down the hallway, he saw Nightshade glancing back at him. She waited until they were alongside each other.

“You’re kind of slow,” she said.

“Not where it counts,” Earth said, tapping his forehead. “Probably why the Princess wants to talk to me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I used to be a teacher before… before I ended up here.”

“Was it fun?”

Earth gave her an amused look. “You’re asking a lot of questions.”

“Well…” She looked up and down the halls. “They said I should spy on you.”

“They did, eh?” Earth chortled.

“Yep! They said to watch out for you doing anything suspicious or against the rules.”

“Heh. Not a bad plan. But you forgot something very important.”

“What?” she said with earnest alarm.

“You’re not supposed to tell the pony you’re spying on that you’re spying on them.”

Nightshade’s face fell. “Oh.” She turned and began walking the other direction.

“Hey, where are you going?” Earth said.

“They said if I couldn’t handle being around you, I should just go back to the kitchen.”

“Kitchen? Moonie’s got kids cooking her meals?”

She nodded. “It’s not the worst, but I like it better out here in the castle. Not so hot and not too many ponies bumping into each other.”

“So stay out here.”

“If I can’t spy on you, how can I?”

Earth gave a sigh and walked toward her. “Look, you’re my aide, right? Do you know what that word means?”

She shook her head.

“It comes from the word ‘aid’, which means to help somepony. They wanted you to help me with little things, right? Like finding my way around the castle, or getting things for my room. You can just do those things.”

“But how do I spy on you?”

Earth wanted to laugh, but he kept a straight face. “Look…how about you just tell them what I do every day?”

“Day?”

“Night,” Earth said, shaking his head. “Sorry. Have trouble keeping that straight. Anyway, just go and tell them what you see me doing every night. It’s more or less what spying is anyway.”

“But if you know about it, it’s not really spying.”

“No.” He gave a small smile to the filly. “But they won’t know that. For all they know, you’re watching me without me ever suspecting. Spies are not usually sweet little fillies, right?”

Nightshade nodded, her smile slowly returning. “So we’ll just pretend you don’t know.”

“Yup,” Earth said. “Pretend I don’t know and that you’re watching me all the time.”

“Okay!” She began to pull ahead. “Let’s go!” she said, taking off down the hallway.

Earth shook his head. Such a cheerful filly, he thought. Maybe a distant cousin of mine. Has the same moral flexibility. Or maybe- He shook his head. No. No, a silly thought. It isn’t her. It can’t be her.

He followed after her, now running as if some terrible beast behind him threatened to attack any second.