Fallen Angels

by Lt_Voss

Chapter 14 - Mind Games

It began to rain halfway through. No one was "invited" except Bill, my aunt and my mother, and our respective Guard Captains. I didn't want to have Fluttershy here, but in an act of rare assertiveness she told me she would be next to me no matter what, so I had no choice but to "allow" her to come. We had to cancel the coronation, but I felt that this was more important. The grave itself wasn't that deep, but I didn't have time to dig the whole six feet. As it stood, her grave was only about a foot deep, with dirt piled up in a mound over it.

I myself made her gravestone. It read:

Styx
Goddess of the River
Lived Misguided,
Died Reformed
Live on Forever,
Or Rest in Peace

The funeral itself was held in silence. I felt bad for not even having an on-the-spot eulogy, but it had all occurred so suddenly and my mind was racing with so many different thoughts that I simply couldn't concentrate on it. Zeus made an appearance, which had surprised me a bit. It was towards the end, when Celestia and Luna had bidden me good night and retired for the night. Even Captain Lightstar left, but not before a bit of insisting from me.

In the end it was just me, Bill, Fluttershy, and Zeus who remained at the shallow grave. Several silent minutes passed with only the sound of the falling rain to show time was still passing. At length, Zeus said, "Styx. I..." He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I know a lot of this is my fault. If I hadn't said that we needed more Wraiths, this mess would never had happened." Sighing, he continued. "Nothing can bring you back." He turned to Bill and I, saying, "When one of us dies, it's permanent. It isn't like other species where we can bring you back."

"I'm sorry, Lord," I told him. "If I hadn't acted so selfishly that time ago, she would never have been able to have picked me to be a Wraith. If I had left well enough alone, none of this would have happened. She just happened to inherit a stubborn, selfish guy like me."

Zeus let out a grim chuckle. "How about we agree that we both are at fault here?" He stuck out his hand.

I took it, replying with, "Agreed."

"Well," he said when the shake finished. "I must go. This whole debacle, unfortunately, has caused me no end of strife back home. I will, hopefully under better circumstances, see you three later." With a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, he was gone.

By now, Fluttershy, Bill, and I were all soaked just about to the bone. "How about we go inside and dry off," I suggested. "Maybe even get a cup of hot chocolate or something." Naturally, there were no objections. Once inside, I flagged down a Royal Guardspony. "Could you, please, direct us to the kitchen?"

"Of course, my Prince." He led us to one of the kitchens in the castle, as there are very many and this was the closest. I noticed the halls, while clean, had a very... dark feeling to them. Not necessarily evil, but... let's just say you wouldn't have found these kinds of walls in a children's house.

It is your imagination. Before I could respond, our guide proclaimed, "Here we are, my lord. The ponies inside will help you from here."

"Thank you so very much, sir. I hope the rest of your rounds will be dull if not boring." He chuckled, thanked me for the well wishes, and continued on his way. The three of us entered the kitchen, and to my surprise there were actually ponies still working. They looked miserable: their eyes were sunken, their legs trudged along the ground. Many of them were shackled to the floor, unable to move much more than a few feet in any direction. Fight it!

'Fight what?!' Fight the feeling in your mind! Look for it! It wasn't there! Not ever, until now! Kick it out! I looked through my mind, trying desperately to understand what was going on. Eventually, though, I discovered what Bill was talking about. Within my subconsciousness, I found an anomaly. It was powerful, strong, but it was not very effective at maintaining its presence. Several shoves, with ample help from Bill, and the thing disappeared.

Check Fluttershy. I don't know what that thing was, but it could be able to jump from brain to brain. "Fluttershy," I began, turning to her. "I need your permission to, essentially, rack your brain. Bill and I discovered something in my own head and I need to make sure it didn't try to use you."

"Uh," she stammered. "O-o-okay, I guess. Will... will it hurt?"

"Bill and I will search you, and there won't be any pain. When we fought it, whatever it was, it didn't hurt either of us. So you shouldn't feel any pain. Let us know if you do, though, so we can help. Alright?" She nodded. Bill and I, upon entering her mind, split up. I floated throughout Fluttershy's memories, her personalities, her feelings. I saw many things I was never meant to see, and for that I felt terrible. Luckily, that was the worst of it. Fluttershy had not obtained whatever that thing was.

We returned to our own selves, and I said, "Thank you, Fluttershy. We didn't find anything, so it's alright. I do, however, apologise for seeing your memories. I know there are some things in your life you would rather keep a secret, but we couldn't leave any stone unturned, as the saying goes."

"It's... it's okay, Will. As long as we're all safe."

With that, I turned to look at the cooks in the kitchen, and sure enough, they were upbeat. Many were whistling along with each other, and they all wore smiles. A little browsing around garnered us some hot chocolate to warm us up from the cold outside, some fresh bread still warm from the oven, and fresh cheese. Thanking the cooks, we went on our way. Earlier that day, Luna had shown me my chambers, which were very near her own, and she told Fluttershy she was welcome to stay in my quarters whenever she wanted. Being Fluttershy, she asked me if it was alright with me, and being me I said it was perfectly fine.

So that was where we found ourselves after about half an hour trying to navigate the corridors correctly. A spare bed had been brought in for Bill, but I doubted he would have slept there any way. He had resumed his position by my mother's side as her husband, saying to me that he had quite a bit of time to make up. As long as that didn't mean they were going to try anything I was fine with that. After all, Fluttershy had nine years to make up with me.

"Will?" She asked after our main conversation had pretty much ended and we lay on the bed.

I looked over at her, looked into her beautiful, captivating eyes, and asked, "Yes, my love?" She hesitated, which didn't really prompt a response from me considering Fluttershy hesitated with just about everything, especially when it was about a touchy topic. Not that I minded. It's one of the things I fell in love with her for, after all.

"Um," she mumbled. "Uh..."

I put on my best smile and kissed her lightly. "Come on, love. Go ahead. We're alone here; you don't have to be afraid. What do you want to ask me?"

Her lips twitched in a hint of a smile, though they never reached "smiling" status. She opened her mouth to take a breath, and asked me a question I really was not at all prepared for.

"I... can we... if it's okay with you, I mean... do you... want to have a foal?"

Comments

[the onlyoneofmeisyou]

Well that was unexpected.