A Change in Darkness

by David Silver

24 - Slow but Steady

Luna paced with slow steps in the spacious chamber, the luxurious furnishings largely ignored in favor of a gilded window overlooking the gardens below. A pair of young bat ponies and their new pony playmates scampered around on the lush grass, a sunlit tableau of innocent merriment. Yet Luna's expression was troubled.

"I sense your concern." Celestia stepped through Luna's door without asking. "Can I help? Last I heard, you were getting exactly as you had planned."

Luna pinned an ear back. "In part. But." She looked down on the frolicking foals below. "Perhaps you were not entirely incorrect, sister mine. This is no fast project. The bats need years to grow, to mature into proper ponies, to find mates of their own and start families." She closed her eyes a moment, envisioning her plans. "My greatest fear is not their potential as soldiers, but that their numbers will fail to increase swiftly enough."

Celestia inclined her head. "Swiftly enough for what? Are you losing patience in them?"

"No! No." Luna turned to Celestia with a huff. "They are everything I wanted, but it feels like staring at a tree sapling and willing it to be fully grown overnight. I adore them. I want them, now, but that is denied. I feel foolish and impatient for such thoughts."

Celestia reached over, hugging Luna tight. "Do you remember what you told me when you first wished to start a family? It does not matter how long it takes, but that you do not rush the growth of your new creatures. Give them a hundred generations if it's necessary. What is time to us?"

Luna sagged at that. "You speak sense, as always." She shot her sister a petulant look. "Perhaps you are right. You ruled over this realm for over a thousand moons, and I grow impatient in just one or two?" She buried her face behind her hooves. "They are doing nothing wrong. They are perfect, that is what drives me wild. We are trotting down the right path, I feel."

Celestia gave Luna a gentle pat. "They are doing well. Skyline will be ready for duty soon enough."

Luna smiled warmly at that. "She is performing splendidly in her dual roles as mother and soldier. Her pups, though." Luna sat, watching the pups playing, both bat and not. "They will be many years, and, perhaps, they won't want to be soldiers at all. They are thinking ponies, and will have the right to be as they wish to be."

"They may take to it like ducklings to a stream." Celestia chuckled. "They are new, and want to learn more. And to play, of course. There is plenty of time to teach them more as the world progresses around them." She leaned closer to the window. "I will admit being wrong in this. They are such lovely creatures, these ponies you helped guide into the world. I am proud to have them among the ponies of Equestria."

Luna laughed, touching her nose to Celestia's. "You have helped more than any other. I would not be the Luna I am now without you. Thank you, Tia." The two were quiet in their gentle nuzzles, the tension fading between them as they cuddled a time. Luna stood up. "Enough pouting! I am getting what I wanted, just slowly, but correctly. I should be down there, playing with them like a caring grandmother, instead of hiding."

"I don't think they mind," said Celestia. "They have a fine group of parents to care for them." She shook her mane. "Besides, there are a number of royal duties you are neglecting right now."

Luna flipped both ears back. "I will see to them, though why you schedule me for things I am no good at is beyond me." She prodded Celestia. "I am no good at random public appearances and you know it."

Celestia wrapped a wing over her sister. "It is a skill like any other. Practice is the only way to improve familiarity."

They wandered away from the window, towards other tasks that called them.

---

Sure sailed in a grand hop, her wings carrying her the rest of the way to the top of a fridge. Other foals watched on with wide eyes and breathless gapes.

"Almost." She reached a hoof towards the grand prize ahead of her, hanging on barely with her others.

Her mother, the only non-pony in the room, applauded loudly. "Amazing. You will be soaring through the skies soon."

The foals who were watching spun around at Skyline's abrupt appearance. She strode forward towards Sure just as the filly got her hooves on the cookie jar, just to have the jar gently taken away and replaced with a fond nuzzle. "My little dive bomber. You're taking after me, hm?"

Sure stuck out her tongue, held up by Skyline, away from her cookies. "I had it!"

"You certainly did." Skyline nuzzled her daughter gently. "But that'll give you a bellyache if you just devour them all." She tucked Sure under a wing. "Back to playing then?"

Sure squirmed. "But!"

"Oh?" Skyline cocked her head. "I suppose you could talk about other stuff."

Sure folded her arms in a mighty pout. "I worked hard for cookies."

"You did." Skyline set Sure down with the other foals. "I suppose you should get something, brave explorer."

The foals, Sure included, looked hopefully on Skyline as they popped open the cookie jar. Sure was the first to grab a cookie, nibbling at it, while the rest reached for one.

Skyline made sure each foal got precisely one of those little sweet treats. "A little snack. Your parents will be sore at me if I send you home with spoiled appetites, hm?"

Sure flopped onto the ground, whining at her mother's joke. "I'm still growing!"

Skyline walked off with a soft chuckle. "That's right, growing, little one." She put the jar back where it started. "And growing needs the right food. Cookies don't help, but they taste good, don't they?"

The foals nodded. "Cookies are good."

"And apples?"

The foals nodded again. "Apples too."

"Strawberries?"

A third round of nodding.

Skyline smiled gently at the great collection of them. She hadn't envisioned herself as a caretaker for a crowd of eager foals. Then again, she hadn't really thought of herself as a her very much, if one got down to it. Breeding was for specialists. "All of them are good, in moderation. Enjoy your cookie, and get back to playing, out of the kitchen. The cooks don't appreciate hooves on the counter."

Skyline left the foals behind with a satisfied smirk as they returned to whatever game they had been playing prior to Sure's sudden need to see how high she could climb.

She met with a maid. The castle had many of those, and this one smiled at her gently. "I got them back to other things. Keep an eye on them." The maid nodded at the order. "I have to get to work."

The foals were big enough to be away from her a little while. With a rush of flames, Skyline, the stallion, returned. "Missed you." He enjoyed the steps and the feel of the altered form and its play of muscles moving forward. "Off to training, where I will be working, but not sweating."

He wasn't alone, as his captain and commander met him at the doors. "Captain. Commander." They bowed to one another. "It's good to be back. I'll need to spend extra time on the forms today."

The captain put out an arm. "One thing, Skyline. Make that two. One, welcome back." The commanded nodded along with that. "But two, you remain tied up in a vital mission for Princess Luna's pleasure. You won't be sent out on dangerous assignments, even after you're given a full physical clearance. Do you understand? We won't let anything happen to you."

Skyline opened his mouth and shut it. "I suppose I could complain, but." He bowed his head. "I understand, and thank you." He huffed softly. "Still, I want to be back in shape. Chasing after foals is great, but not the sort of shape a soldier is expected to have. Permission to get to the field, sirs?"

They parted their arms with a shared smile. "Granted."

Skyline didn't need to hear it twice. He trotted out across the yard, stretching his wings out, and his arms. It was a common misconception that changelings didn't need to work out, they could fashion muscles however big they wanted, whenever they wanted, but that just wasn't true. A changeling built on what was already there. A strong changeling would be even stronger when they took a new form. A frail changeling would always be a frailer example of what they became.

Nothing in life was free, and changelings didn't get to skip that, or leg day.

He flexed his wings as he charged the gate, wings catching the breeze to lift him off and up into the sky. He glided to the middle of the field, dropping down onto a firm patch of ground.

Pointed was on the opposite end of the field, the unicorn pony smiling brightly at Skyline's return. "Ready when you are."

Skyline extended his hooves, sliding into a fighting stance, a grin on his face.

"Oh, wow." Pointed took on a fighting stance himself, curling his armor-given bat wings. "From nothing to sparring? You're itching to go, huh?"

Skyline responded with a tackle, the fighting begun with swinging hooves and attempts to tackle. As he had feared, some of his edge had been worn away by family life, but there was a pleasure in pressing the blunted metal of his skills against the sharp whetstone of his fellow soldiers, grinding the sharp point back into place with their spirited battles.

But in the end, Pointed proved superior, with a horn spike aimed at his throat. "You've been distracted lately, my friend." He removed the tip from Skyline's neck. "But you're in a much better place now, aren't you?"

Skyline rolled upright and sprang to his hooves. "Shameful, but I'll get better. He closed to thump head to head with Pointed. "I have good ponies to practice with, huh? So, run?"

"Run." They both broke into a gallop, going around the circuit of the practice field side by side. "While you were busy playing mama dearest to those cute fluffballs, we did a decisive strike on those hooligans, the ones that had the tower, remember them?"

Skyline's nostrils flared as he pulled ahead of his partner. "Yeah, I do. They were annoying. How'd you bring them to heel?"

"Diplomacy." They reached the end of the run, and turned around to repeat it. "Their leader was the smart one. We just needed to offer her a little respect, a little leeway, and she gave it right back."

"Hm." Skyline smirked, keeping up his pace with the firm thud-clop of the proper gallop. "Sometimes just talking is the right thing to do. Congratulations, to everypony."

A cheer went up as Skyline and Pointed returned to the center of the field, Skyline bowing for their applause.

The captain stepped in, putting a wing over Skyline's shoulders. "I just told them you're back, as you heard. You're a bit of a popular story these days." He prodded Skyline with a bat wing. "Those foals of yours are practically our mascot, what we fight for, under Luna, of course."

Skyline looked around at the gathered guards and his eyes widened at the sheer size of their support. "I don't even know some of those ponies."

The captain grinned at Skyline. "Because some of them are day guards." He gave those a glare. "Who shouldn't be here unless they're volunteering to practice with the night watch!"

A few guards fled, but some stuck around, joining the night guards in their spirited exercises. Skyline chuckled, basking in the love he felt radiating from the guards of Equestria, for him, for the little family he had made, and for the kingdom itself.

After a few hours of that, Skyline slowed to a stop, slick with sweat and huffing for breath. "Ugh, I need to get back into shape. That shouldn't have me huffing like this so quickly."

Pointed thumped against him. "You've been busy with other things. We'll beat you into shape, promise."

Little clops sounded from the edge of the field. Skyline turned to see his foals charging right at him with radiant smiles. He started in clear surprise. "What are you two doing here?"

The two dashed into his waiting arms. He swept them both up with a delighted laugh. "Oh, you're sticky. I wonder why." He flicked a hoof against Sure's nose. "Naughty little monster."

"And you're stinky," taunted Sure in reply.

That didn't deter Night Wind from snuggling in against his hardworking parent.

Skyline inclined his head. "I thought you'd be a little less eager to charge at me when I was a stallion, and working. Not even a little surprised?"

Sure shook her head quickly. "No way. You're still mama." She looked ready to kiss, but thought better of it. "Stinky mama."

"Yep." Night Wind stretched up against Skyline's chin. "Even when you change, you're still you." He giggled at his little pun.

Skyline rubbed cheeks with his foals before setting them down. "Well, now you got my stink all over you. Time for all of us to enjoy a shower, hm?" The foals cheered, seemingly eager to follow Skyline anywhere, shower included. "One thing." He detoured to the captain with a salute. "Permission to head out, sir?"

"Granted." His eyes were past Skyline, to the foals. "Cute little things. I'll expect you back tomorrow, soldier. We have a lot of work to do with you."

Skyline nodded, turning to head back to the castle proper, to the showers. "Yes, sir. Tomorrow. But let's get the little ones home for now."

They scampered around Skyline, teasing him with little hugs and calls. He smiled the whole way, unable to resist with the presence of his foals and their eager trotting. He was a father also, and that felt like a fine thing to be. Everypony in." He gestured into the shower stall. "Let's get all that stink off of us."

There was one little problem. The shower refused to turn on. Skyline scowled at the controls that didn't respond. "Hm, just." He tapped it insistently, but it hit him. "Right. Stupid thing. They're not a stallion or a mare. They're fillies!" He glared at the shower that refused to be co-ed. "Now I have something to yell at Celestia about." He grunted, pushing the shower's buttons in sequence. "It'll have to be that or just separate the water systems."

Skyline led his foals out of the shower just to spread his wings. "We each have to take a shower. A contest, let's see who gets clean first, and best. If I can smell any stink, you fail."

The foals shrieked with delight at the idea. All three of them went into a separate stall and the giggling cries of the foals filled the showers as they raced to get soapy and clean.

Skyline, fresh from the shower, watched with a smile as his foals chattered amongst each other, curled together in a happy heap.

"Let's inspect you." He snuffled at the foals, detecting only the fresh scent of the soap on each of them. "Good job! Looks like Sure Arrow is the speedy one today, but I'm proud of you both, getting nice and clean. I'm so proud of all the hard work you put into getting all of that dirt off of you."

The foals wiggled against him in happiness.

Skyline nodded to himself, feeling ready to start his trip back to his room with the two at his sides. "Do you know what daddy does for work?"

"He protects us." Night Wind pressed gently against one of Skyline's legs.

Skyline nodded. "Exactly right, but it's a little more complicated than that. We protect the citizens of Equestria, all of them, and, yes, you two." He nuzzled at the snuggly Night Wind. "We fight so other ponies never have to." He thought a moment, wanting to pick his words carefully. "Do you two want to be fighters, like daddy and mama?"

Night Wind frowned. "I like hunting..."

Sure Arrow held up her arms, extending her wings. "Duh! We're your foals." She stuck her tongue out at Skyline as she stomped along. "But I'm gonna be even better than just a soldier, just you wait!"

Skyline felt his heart swell. He spread his wings over the both of them. "I'm so lucky to have you two."

Author's Note:

Foals are best once they start throwing words back at you, I say.

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Comments

[redmar]

Skyline's return to duty went fine.

[Eroraf86]

Hmm, so Night Wind prefers hunting to fighting, while Sure Arrow has more militaristic aspirations. Apt.

[Bloody_Tofu]

Flicked a finger against Sure’s nose,

Do you mean flicked a hoof?

[David Silver]

11861656
Oops, wrong limbs are bad.

[Moonlight_Mist]

11860920
I'm imagining Night Wind either being inducted into SMILE or becoming an assassin when she grows up.

[tsaukpaetra]

Already thinking tactically, rising stars will be their hallmark.
Anti-hanky-panky showers? Interesting...