The Naturalist and the Soldier
The Naturalist and The Soldier
“Can I help you, sir?”
An earth pony looked at me expectantly.
“Ah yeah, I’m looking for Lightning Flicker, I’ve been asked to see him,” I replied.
“Yeah? By who?”
“Princess Luna.”
The pony laughed.
“And I own a Kragadile! Princess Luna doesn’t care about Mr Flicker, he just sits around all day and pays us.”
“This is ridiculous; just let me see Mr Flicker please.”
“I’ll handle this, you may go about your duties, Gold Seeker,” said a unicorn, dressed in a suit.
“Thank you for that. My name is Steel Script, I’m looking for Lightning Flicker,” I said, nodding a greeting to the fellow unicorn.
“I see. I am Tuxedo Prism, Lightning’s personal butler. Luna contacted me explaining your purpose, and I pray that you have some success. Now, if you’ll follow me, I will show you to Lightning Flicker, though I cannot say that he is expecting you.”
Tuxedo turned and walked towards a door flanked by a pair of earth pony bouncers.
Tuxedo opened the door, revealing an elevator. We entered and he tapped a button with his hoof, causing the doors to close and sending the elevator upwards.
The elevator slowed to a halt and the doors opened to a hallway. Following Tuxedo Prism’s lead, we walked up to a pair of large mahogany doors, a hammer embossed with a lightning bolt above two nails inlaid into the door in brass.
“I’ll leave you two to talk,” said Tuxedo, turning a corner and vanishing from sight.
I raised my hoof to knock on the door, only to accidently push it open.
“Who’re you?” slurred a voice from among the rafters of the room.
* * *
“Go on, Steel, you know you can do it,” my mother encouraged, my dad nowhere to be seen.
I closed my lilac eyes and focused on the clock that sat on the cart, the tip of my pastel green sparking with magic, a thin beam shooting out and hitting the clock, making the gears glow as the slowly started turn, the clock hands moving along their circular path.
“Very well, Steel Script will be accepted into Celestia’s Academy,” was all one of the judges said before they all left the room.
My mother walked over to the clock as it sat, whirring and glowing.
“Well done, Steel, you did it!” she cried, circling the small cart.
“I know right!” I cried jumping up and down in excitement.
A door opened to allow a severe looking unicorn mare, dark green eyes glaring out from beneath her greying mane.
“This way, please,” she said, stepping to the side as my mother and I walked towards her.
The mare introduced herself as Time Keeper, one of the teachers at the Academy, teaching those who hadn’t gotten their Cutie Marks yet and as such, had no idea what their special talent was. She showed us around the Academy pointing out various rooms of importance, all the while explaining all the rules and expectations of the Academy.
Then we entered the library.
I had always loved books, my mother used to read to me until I was old enough to do so myself. I was a common sight around the Canterlot Library, a pastel green colt with a blue mane reading some obscure book or another, but this library was beyond all my imaginings, it was MASSIVE, putting the public library to shame. Covering two stories, this library housed hundreds of thousands of books, ranging from observations on modern culture to ancient legends; from modern sciences, both arcane and otherwise, to philosophy of long dead civilisations.
This was as close to heaven as I could get.
Little did I know that this was no heaven, it was hell.
* * *
2 years later
“Blank Flank! Blank Flank!”
I was seven and hadn’t found my cutie mark. Therefore I was a ‘blank flank’ and a target for pretty much anypony who was my age and had a cutie mark, in other words, everypony.
“Oh grow up, you immature idiots!” I yelled turning my back on them and heading for the library.
“We have grown up, we’ve all got our cutie marks!” one of them yelled back as the group followed me.
“What’s going on here?”
I looked up into a pair of blood red eyes framed by a light grey coat.
“I’m sorry, I was just going to the library.”
The colt took a step back as the ponies following me came around the corner.
“Were you calling this colt a blank flank?” he asked as I looked up at him in horror.
“Ummm . . . yes?” one of the bullies answered, hesitantly.
The older colt looked at me before spreading his wings suddenly, surprising everypony.
“Leave him alone. Just because you have your cutie marks doesn’t mean you’re better than him. Now scram, or I’ll drag you all to the principal’s office.”
They ran.
“Won’t you get in trouble for that?” I asked.
“Not likely, I’m on liberty from the military academy up in Cloudsdale,” the pegasus colt replied, “I’m Lightning Flicker by the way, Nice to meet you.”
“Steel Script, nice to meet you too,” I said, “and thanks for helping me with those ponies.”
“No problem, though try to stand up for yourself, you might find that something happens. See you around, Steel.”
“Goodbye, Lightning.”
“He’s gone, come on.”
I turned to see the bullies coming back around the corner they had fled around earlier.
“How’s it going, Blank Flank.”
“You lot again, can’t I have a moment’s peace here?”
“No, Blank Flanks don’t get peace until they get their cutie marks.”
I rolled my eyes and started focusing my magic on the sticks that lay on the ground
“Oh look, he’s trying to do magic, but Blank Flank magic isn’t special, just like them!” crowed one of the bullies, summoning gales of laughter from his cohorts.
I just kept focusing as sticks started to form together, making legs, a tail, wings, arms, and the recognisable head of a dragon.
“Maybe you should . . . look behind you.” I said, stammering through the effort of keeping such a large construct moving.
They turned and cowered at the sight of the wooden dragon behind as it flapped its wings and swept at the air above their heads with its thick arms.
“What is going on here?” I heard for the second time that day, as Time Keeper trotted around my construct
“I’m just standing up for myself against these bullies,” I replied, the break in my concentration causing the draconic construct to fall to pieces.
“All of you, report to Fire Spinner for punishment. Bullying isn’t tolerated here, and never will be, Steel Script, you are to come with me,” Time Keeper said, turning towards the library.
I trotted to keep up with Time Keeper’s longer strides as we entered the library.
“Why are we here? Am I to be punished as well? I wasn’t actually going to hurt them, I just wanted them to leave me alone,” I said.
“Steel, do close your mouth and listen for a change, what you did earlier was dangerous, and you would normally be sent to Fire Spinner as well, but because of what also happened out there, you are coming with me to see the head of Magical Constructs, Shimmer Quill.”
“Why?”
“Because you just got your cutie mark.”
I looked down at my flank and saw it.
Two crossed quills over a strange symbol backed by a shield, two scrolls unfurling behind it.
“YES!!” was all I said as I leapt into the air, pumping my hooves as a sign of my elation.
* * *
2 years later . . .
“Can anyone get scroll down without flying or levitation?” cried a unicorn standing next to a five-metre high pole, a scroll balanced at the top.
It was my first time at a country fair, and the new and exotic smells of the rustic food, combined with the experience of various activities rarely seen within walls of the highly cultured Canterlot were overwhelming.
“Mind if I try, sir?” I asked the pony.
“First one to get the scroll down without flying up there or levitating it down wins a prize,” declared the unicorn.
“By no flying, do you mean that nothing can fly up there, or that pegasi are restricted to the ground?” I asked, a plan forming in my head.
“The last one, if you can get a bird to fly up there for you, I’ll be most impressed.”
I focused my magic on a nearby pile of sticks and leaves, just as I had when I had discovered my talent, though this time I had a clear idea of how to go about crafting this construct.
A sleek frame formed out of green twigs before being covered by a coat of leaves, starting at the trailing edge of the tail and wings and sweeping up the body, overlapping like the feathers of a bird.
The avian golem was finished quickly, only taking a slight toll on my magic reserves due to its small size. At my unspoken command it spread it’s leaf-feathered wings and flew up, spiralling around the pole before hovering briefly as it retrieved the scroll before diving straight for me.
As it came closer, I terminated the spell, leaving the golem to disintegrate above me, its materials and the scroll raining down beside me. Levitating the scroll up I walked over to the games-pony, agape with amazement.
“So what did I win?” I asked floating the scroll over to him.
Taking the scroll in his own magic, he turned and opened a box behind him, depositing the scroll and removing a sizeable book, its cover made of dark leather, a crescent moon inscribed in the centre.
“This is what you’ve won, a book of ancient legends of the Princess of the Night, something you intellectual types should enjoy,” the pony said with a flourish as I grasped the book in my own lilac magic, marvelling and the cover, half tempted to open it up and start poring over the yellowed pages, however common sense guided the book into my saddle bags as I moved on, thanking the pony for the entertainment he had provided.
“Whatchya got there, Steel?” asked a familiar voice from above my shoulder.
I looked up to see the grey pegasus I had come to know after we first met just before I got my cutie mark.
“Just a book I won using a magical construct, why?” I asked of the curious Lightning Flicker.
“Just wondering, and aren’t those toys of yours kinda cheating?”
“He didn’t say they weren’t allowed,” I pointed out, “Anyway, how’s the Cloudsdale academy going?”
Lightning landed and stood straight throwing a quick salute. “I graduated into the military last week, Private Lightning Flicker of the Equestrian Military at your service.”
I raised my eyebrows, impressed.
“Congratulations, Lightning, that’s quite an achievement.”
Lightning shrugged a little, “Yeah, I’m awesome like that.”
“That ego is also quite the achievement, though for all the wrong reasons,” I muttered.
“So how about you? How are you going at the egghead school?” He asked as we weaved through the crowd.
“My studies are going well; my prowess with magical constructs and shields is progressing nicely, according to Professor Shimmer Quill,” I replied.
“That’s good . . . I think,” said Lightning, jumping into the air, “I gotta go duty calls.”
The pegasus turned towards the Canterlot barracks and disappeared from view over the tops of various shops and homes as I headed for my house, eager to settle down and crack open my new book.
* * *
When the games-pony had said that the book had contained legends about the Princess of the Night, I had thought about a history book I had read detailing the ancient evil of Nightmare Moon. What I had found was far more interesting.
I was reading about a ‘Princess Luna,’ sister to our own alicorn monarch, and once the Princess of the Night, raising the moon and arranging the stars to her whims, intricate constellations filling the night sky, each star a fierce point of light on a swirling backdrop of various shades of night.
As I read further, the greater my interest grew along with my desire to learn the fate of this princess who no longer ruled along with Princess Celestia. Tales of the battles fought to win freedom and land for ponykind, stories of the two alicorns interactions with the other races that inhabited Equestria.
I read well into the night before I closed the book and looked up at the night sky. It seemed . . . lacklustre compared to the pictures from the book, as though little thought had been given to their placement. And at the centre of it all, hanging forlorn, as though it missed the touch of the one who used to guide her across the sky, was the moon, the circular craters forming the horned head of the Mare in the Moon.
“I wonder if Luna can ever return?”
* * *
6 Years Later . . .
Rays of golden light bathed the wonderstruck ponies as Celestia raised the sun on the morning of the Summer Sun Celebration.
The crowd soon broke up and I spied a familiar face amongst the gathered guards.
“Lightning?”
“Hey Steel, I thought you were down Ponyville?” the pegasus replied, trotting over.
“Well, I had time between jobs so I thought I would come and say hi to my parents and see the Summer Sun Celebration before I start writing some noble’s self-obsessed biography.”
“You do biographies?”
“I happen to be good at writing. And pays the bills better than reports on rabbits.”
“Rabbits?” asked Lightning, hiding a smile.
“I would prefer to be studying creatures from the Everfree, but of course some prissy Canterlotian noble wouldn’t dare consider going near such a place, and where I live now is too far for me to do any kind of worthwhile study safely.”
“So you study rabbits,” concluded Lightning, smirking
“And write biographies for the likes of the blasted blue bastard, Prince fucking Blueblood,” added Steel in an undertone.
“Damn. I pity you.”
“Thanks.”
The duo moved away from the main group, Steel levitated the black-bound book into view.
“You remember when I won this?” Lightning nodded. “I’ve read it, a few times now, and today marks the nine-hundred and ninety-second year since Princess Luna’s banishment!”
“Have you been drinking? Nightmare Moon was banished, not this Luna pony.”
“Look here: Principem et Luna, nunc Somnum Luna, ut in exilium per eam sororem lunam, Principem Caelestibus.”
“Steel, go home. You’re drunk.”
“It says: And so Princess Luna, now Nightmare Moon, was banished to the moon by her own sister, Princess Celestia.”
“Wait, Nightmare Moon was Princess Celestia’s sister?” Lightning asked in a hushed tone.
“Yes, and was known as Princess Luna. She controlled the night sky, raised the moon, positioned the stars.”
“Damn. Imagine how Princess Celestia must feel, being reminded of banishing her sister each year.”
“It would be tough, I guess.”
* * *
The Return of Nightmare Moon . . .
“We seem to run into each other at these Celebrations don’t we,” I asked the grey pegasus next to me.
“Yes we do.”
“I take it you’re accompanying the Princess?”
“Yep, just got promoted to Captain, and me and my team are here to protect Celestia.”
“Fair enough, anyway, the ceremony’s about to begin.”
The purple curtains were drawn back as the yellow pegasus Fluttershy conducted a choir of birds.
Everypony gasped as the stage lay empty.
“She’s gone!” exclaimed the seamstress, Rarity.
Suddenly, a pony screamed as translucent blue smoke billowed out across the stage, parting to reveal the tall, black form of an alicorn: Nightmare Moon.
I was not the only one who recognised the Mare of Darkness; Twilight Sparkle, a student and acquaintance from the School for Gifted Unicorns, fell back from fear and horror.
“Oh my beloved subjects; it’s been too long since I’ve seen your precious, little, sun-loving faces.”
“Shit!” I swore quietly.
“Steel, do you know who that is?” Lightning asked, face fixed and warlike grimace.
“Nightmare Moon, she probably kidnapped Princess Celestia so she wouldn’t interfere with Nightmare’s plans.”
“Then she’s going down!”
“She’s an ALICORN!” I hissed to Lightning, “She’ll crush you like a foal!”
“You haven’t seen what us guards can do!”
Without waiting, Lightning charged at Nightmare Moon with two other guards, the black alicorn brushing them aside with a blast of lightning, crying “Stay back you foals!” before turning into a cloud of smoke and vanishing.
I rushed over to Lightning’s side, helping him to his feet.
“Told you so.”
“Not now Steel; Alright ponies, we need to find Princess Celestia so that she can deal with Nightmare Moon, now our best bet is to find someone knowledgeable of the area and of Nightmare.”
“Standing right behind you, featherbrain. Look, if my books have taught me anything about Nightmare, she’d basically on par with Princess Celestia. The Princess has likely suffered a fate similar to that which she inflicted on Nightmare Moon.”
“You mean Princess Celestia’s been banished to the moon?”
“Or the sun. Unfortunately, the only way to get the Princess back is to defeat Nightmare Moon, and good luck with that, or wait for the banishment to end, if at all it does.”
“Not good enough. Do you know where Nightmare Moon might be headed? A place from a thousand years ago?”
“The ruined castle in the Everfree, you can see it from here,” I said, pointing to the tops of the ruins barely visible in the moonlight.
“Thanks Steel; alright team, let’s go.”
That was the last I would see of Lightning Flicker for a long time.
* * *
2 Months Later . . .
I gazed up at the night sky from a balcony at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.
“It’s so much . . . more beautiful than before,” I whispered to myself.
“Does thou really think as thou speaks?” asked a soft voice from behind me.
I spun around, dropping to my knees as I found myself face to face with none other than Princess Luna.
“Princess, I had no idea you were there . . .”
“Thou did not answer our question.”
“My apologies Princess Luna. Yes, I was speaking my mind just now.”
“Thou does not fear us?”
“No, Princess, I respect you, and . . .”
“Continue, please.”
“I truly believe that the night sky has never been so . . . wondrous.”
“What is thy name?”
“Steel Script, Princess.”
“We thank thee for thy honesty, Steel Script.”
“Princess,” I said, bowing as the alicorn flew into her night.
* * *
4 Months Later . . .
“Steel Script, a pleasure to see you again,” said a voice behind me.
Turning, I bowed to the midnight-blue alicorn behind me.
“Princess Luna, A pleasant surprise.”
“I’m afraid it is urgent. A pegasus under my command is troubled.”
“Forgive me, but why come to me?”
“Ponies say that there is a friendship between you, his name is-”
“Lightning Flicker? He’s in trouble?”
“As I was saying,” I quailed under the glare she gave me, “He is troubled, and you may be the only friend he has left. I was hoping you would be able to help him.”
“How?”
“Be with him, work for him if necessary.”
“I can’t leave the Everfree, I’ve barely started studying the creatures that live here. If I am to help him, he’ll have to come here.”
“I believe arrangements can be made, and you will be compensated for your services. Thank you for agreeing to this.”
“I’ll do what I can, but I need to find him first.”
“He’s currently staying in Las Pegasus, at the Lightning Struck Casino. They should be expecting you.”
“Well, I’d better pack my bags then.”
* * *
“Who’re you?” slurred a voice from the rafters.
“Lightning?” I asked looking around the seemingly bare walls of the room.
“Go ‘way, I’m busy.”
“Lightning?” I asked again, this time looking up to see a large platform suspended from the roof, a pair of blood red eyes looking over the edge at me.
“Steel?” the grey pegasus asked as he stood up, the movement accompanied by the clinking of glass on glass; “what are you doing here?”
“Princess Luna asked me to come. She said you were . . . troubled.”
“Not troubled, go ‘way.”
I facehooved and sighed. This was going to be . . . interesting.
“Look, can you at least come down so we can talk face to face?” I asked.
“What do you even want t’ talk about? There’s nothin’ to talk about.”
“Come down here and I’ll tell you.”
“Fine,” grumbled Lightning, as he stepped off the platform, almost hitting the floor before wings snapped open, the pegasus hovering a foot off the ground.
“Right, that’s marginally better. Now, as for what there is to talk about, all the Princess told me was that she was concerned, she never gave me any specifics.”
“Look, I might have bothered her with a few nightmares, but I’ve found that if I get blackout drunk, I don’t dream. Problem solved, you can leave now.”
“Nightmares? About anything in particular?”
An expectant silence settled as I watched Lightning, his eyes riveted at the floor between us.
“Okay, you don’t want to talk about it, but could you at least stop hovering? It’s kind of distracting.”
“NOPE! Not landing! No ground, never again!” cried the pegasus as he tried to fly back to the platform, only to be stopped by a chain wrapping around each hoof. Looking down, Lightning saw that the chains were anchored to the floor.
“I see what the Princess was talking about,” I muttered, the strain of holding the desperate pegasus starting to show. Slowly, I started the shorten the chains, dragging the pegasus back down to eye-level, Lightning muttering incoherently.
“Alright, fine, you don’t have to land, but if I let you go, you have to listen to me, okay?” I almost shouted.
“Ugh, fine,” growled Lightning, rolling his eyes.
I released the magic holding him only to be buffeted by the backwash of the pegasus’ wings as he raced back to the platform. As I recovered, the sound of a cork being prised from a bottle reached my ears.
Well, rationalising with him didn’t work; let’s see if his ego survived . . . whatever happened.
“Oh well, I guess that means I don’t have to write about any adventures you may have in the future; a shame really, after all, you could have been the next Daring Do,” I said, turning and place a hoof against the door.
“What?”
I looked over my shoulder, again spying a pair of eyes watching me from the platform.
“Well, as you may recall, I am a biographer for hire, and I figured, since I was here, I might as well offer my services to such an . . . awesome pony, such as yourself.”
“You make good points, I am awesome, maybe we could try . . . something?” Lightning had left the platform and was hovering halfway between it and the door.
“Well, my standard fee is generally around 30 bits an hour for a standard interview based biography, however, I am willing to not only drop the price on account of our friendship, but also offer a new type of biography, companion-based biography.”
“What?”
“Basically, I follow you around writing down any adventures you have while you have them.”
“Awesome, let’s do it!”
“Glad we have an agreement, now, I’m afraid that I can’t abandon my other studies, so you’ll simply have to move to Ponyville.”
A flicker of some dark memory flashed across Lightning’s face.
“So long as we don’t go near the Everfree Forest that’s fine with me,” he growled, the sudden hostility in his voice causing me to jump.
“Sure,” I said quickly, pushing the door to Lightning’s room open.
* * *
“OH, COME ON!” yelled Lightning as he realised where we were heading.
After a rather uneventful train ride back to Ponyville, I had led my newest employer towards my home.
A home situated on the borders of the Everfree.
Lightning was making his objection known by repeatedly bucking the storm cloud he had placed above my head, the bolts of lightning arcing across the shield I had thrown up after the first bolt.
“You said we weren’t going to go near this fucking forest!”
I rolled my eyes and lit up my horn. Using what little magical energy I had left, I summoned a large hoof just in front of the irate pegasus’ nose, Lightning barely having time to react before the construct struck, almost knocking him out.
“If you’re done, I would personally like to get inside,” I grumbled.
“Fine, but that was a cheap trick,” he retorted, following behind me, his eyes constantly flicking from side to side.
It will be interesting to see how this turns out, I thought, raising my eyes to the newly risen moon, I almost want to say you owe me one, Princess.