At the moment, his bedroom was a sea of boxes that had yet to be unpacked, and would most likely never be. There was no real point in doing anything with them, in the end. The items being held captive by the corrugated containers had probably spent more time within the boxes than not over the past few months, and they would no doubt need to stay there in anticipation of the inevitable.
Besides, unpacking them would remind him of where he was, and that would only remind him of what was still missing.
So he scrunched up his eyes in an effort to block out the tears that would spill with the memories. It would be too easy to drift back to a time when he didn’t wake up in a strange room in a strange city that felt as bleak as the dark side of the moon.
“Stone, hurry up! You’re going to be late!” The moment of reflection and inaction shattered as his father bellowed through the bedroom door.
Stone Spring snorted. “Gee, I’d hate to be late on my third first day of school this year. That’d just be the worst.”
“C’mon, Stone!” his father shouted. “I’m gonna be late for work. Get out here!”
“Why should I?” Stone folded his arms and pouted, but his show of defiance was lost on the door. “I’m gonna get eaten alive. It’s impossible to make friends this late into the school year.”
“You’ve got problems, I’ve got problems, everypony has problems. Nothing new there, bucko. Now c’mon, you need to face this like a grown up. Let’s go.”
Stone stood, grabbed his saddle bags with his magic, and threw open the door. “I want to state, for the record, that I don’t like any of this.”
“Yeah, I gathered as much,” Stone’s father replied. “You do realize this is all in your head, right? Fillydelphia is the city of sisterly love, so your classmates have to be nice to you. Besides, they’re seven year olds. How bad can they possibly be?”
Stone scoffed. “You have no idea.”
“Did you stay up all night again?”
Stone closed his eyes tight. He couldn’t show tears; tears were weak and weakness wasn’t allowed under his father’s careful watch. “Couldn’t sleep. Nightmares.”
“Again?” His father’s voice softened slightly. “Did you try using those tricks that Miss Buttercup told you about?”
“Didn’t work,” Stone muttered sourly.
“Well, that’s three months of my savings down the drain, then,” Stone’s father snorted. “All that psychology mumbo-jumbo was one big lie; I said it from the start.” His father dipped his head down to his son’s level, and he frowned. “You gotta go, Stone. You can’t stay here, hiding away from the world like you always do. Things would be better if you’d just go make some friends, you know.”
“Nopony wants to be my friend.”
“That’s a load of rubbish. You can make lots of friends, if you’d just open up a little. C’mon. I gotta get to work. Let’s get you to school.”
Stone Spring shuffled his hooves while following his father up the broad sidewalk that lead to the main entrance of Overbrook Elementary, and he tried very hard to ignore the laughter and cheers that came from the playground off to his right. He could feel them staring at him, and his ears splayed back when he heard their laughs drop off and their whispers increase. He just knew that this first day would be miserable, just like every other first day he had been forced to endure.
“Hurry up, Stone. This has already taken too long.”
The admonition by his father did nothing to speed up Stone’s miserable trudge through the doors of his new prison and into the Warden’s main office. The carpeting, he found, was a shade of grey-blue, and it smelled new to Stone’s nose. It wasn’t hard for him to imagine that the school had recently been remodeled, but he kept his thought to himself while his father moved to the counter that divided the staff from the rabble.
“Good morning, sir!” A far too chipper voice called out, and a pink unicorn with a soft yellow mane emerged from somewhere in the unseen ‘back’ of the room. “How can I help you?”
“I’m here to register my son for school,” Stone’s father replied.
“Ah, yes! You must be Slate Grey, and this is Stone Spring, right? Just one moment.” There was some rustling of papers, some humming, and then a cheer of delight. “Let me just verify the information we have. Stone is seven now, correct?”
“Yeah.”
“Good, good. And his previous elementary school was Pine Grove, in the Central School District? Excellent! I just need you to sign a couple of forms and we can get Stone checked in!”
Stone continued to stare at the floor while his father wordlessly and efficiently completed the needed paperwork. The jovial warden, however, was not content to leave the sour young colt alone, and Stone soon found two pink forehooves intruding on his view of the carpet.
“It’s nice to meet you, Stone. I’m Principal Mayfly.”
Stone did not acknowledge the cheerful greeting, until his father’s rear hoof gave him a gentle nudge. “Don’t be rude, Stone.”
“Nice to meet you,” Stone said to the floor. “Glad to be here.”
“Where did you move from?”
“Baltimare.”
Principal Mayfly paused in expectation, but when Stone offered no further comment, she continued the conversation. “I have a sister that lives in Oakenshawe. It’s a beautiful city; I always like to visit the harbor when I go for a visit.”
“Never went there. It stunk.”
“There is a distinct aroma, I have to admit. Thankfully, Fillydelphia doesn’t have that problem. Oh, you’re done Mister Slate?” Principal Mayfly took the completed forms from Stone’s father with a smile. “Thank you. Now then, I believe Miss Cinch is waiting for you, Stone. I know you’ll like her.”
~*~
Stone would not like Miss Cinch.
He knew this from the instant he walked into her classroom and saw her tapping the chalkboard with a ruler, a furious scowl on her face that melted away at the sound of the door opening. She stood at rigid attention, her legs locked and her smile like a drill sergeant who was just itching with anticipation while the wagon loaded with new recruits pulled up. Even the bun that held her mane up was as tight as hair could be before it simply snapped from overextension, and Stone took a step back while the prison guard eyed the new inmate.
“Good morning, Miss Cinch!” Principal Mayfly greeted the hag like nothing was amiss, but Stone had found that principals were both very bad judges of character and not terribly observant. “Good morning, everypony! I’d like to introduce you all to Stone Spring. He just moved here from Baltimare, and he’s excited to meet you all!”
Excitedwas far too strong of a word to use for his feelings towards his new class. Indifferent was closer, but even that was overselling it.
“Well, we’re happy to have you here in our class, Stone,” Miss Cinch offered with all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile. Given the choice between them, Stone would take the crocodile in a heartbeat. “Why don’t you come up to the front of the class and introduce yourself?”
Stone would rather cuddle with a cactus, but he had no other option but to obey her request. Principal Mayfly had already flitted out of the room with a ‘ta-ta!’ hanging in the air where she had been, and Stone cringed when the door slammed shut, sealing him into the Pit of Despair with no way out.
“So, Stone, you moved here from Baltimare?” Miss Cinch repeated. All traces of her faux friendliness disappeared in an instant, and Stone gulped when confronted with the full power of her glower.
“Yes, ma’am. My Dad was an actuary, but he got laid off.” Stone decided to keep his father’s rather colorful and brutally honest opinion of his former employer to himself. He did not wish to set the ears of his fellow prisoners on fire. “We moved here when he got a new job as an accountant. I bet he makes it six months before we move again.”
“Well, we’re glad to have you here,” Miss Cinch replied with a tone that indicated she hadn’t heard a word of what he’d said. “Why don’t you go take that seat by Juniper over there, and we’ll get on with our lesson.”
Stone slunk his way over to the empty desk without making eye contact with any of his new classmates, and he pulled out a paper and pencil from his bags without a sound. Miss Cinch had already launched back into her lecture, and it took Stone several minutes to figure out what she was attempting to ‘teach.’
A minor victory came when Stone realized he had already learned about the order of operations, and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. If he already knew this, he might already know about everything else that Miss Cinch would be teaching. It would then be easier to acclimate to his new school this way, and maybe it would be easier to make a new friend.
Miss Cinch promptly provided a worksheet for her pupils to complete once she finished with her explanation, and Stone attacked it as soon as the paper hit his desk. The math problems were not especially difficult, and Stone was on the verge of an actual smile while he wrote answer after answer in quick succession.
The worksheet was unexpectedly snatched away from him with three problems remaining, and Stone’s frown matched Miss Cinch’s while she clicked her tongue.
“These are all incorrect, Stone.”
“No they’re not,” he retorted, and he pointed to the last problem he’d completed. “That’s thirty-six.”
“You didn’t show your work.”
Stone gave the old hag the best glare that he could. “So? It’s right. Who cares how I got there?”
“Mister Stone, do not take that tone of voice with me,” Cinch threatened. “I don’t know what those chowderheads down in Baltimare told you, but in my class, you show your work, or the answer will automatically be wrong. Now, correct these, and you will be staying in from first recess as punishment for your little outburst.”
Stone stared at the returned worksheet like it was a poisonous snake, and for a moment, he considered tearing it up and then making a daring escape out the window while Cinch was busy fainting from such a disrespectful destruction of her assignment. He fought back the tears that were surging at the back of his eyes, and his teeth began to grind.
Stone Spring hated this new school.
~*~
The blissful reprieve that was known as lunch couldn’t come fast enough, and Stone had fairly exploded out of the school when the bell had rung, his lunch in hoof and a silent cheer in his heart. Miss Cinch was proving to be quite the efficient torturer, and Stone could only hope that his father’s new job would end as quickly as the last six had.
He sat at a table that was as far away from the other convicts as he could get, and he slowly munched on his carrots while he stared at the grain in the wooden slats. If he closed his left eye, he could see a lion, but if he closed his right eye he could almost make out the silhouette of Princess Celestia.
A familiar dart of bitterness pricked his heart when the shape twisted slightly and brought back a memory he wanted to forget. If he had just—
“Hey, new kid.”
Stone glanced up, and he found a plum colored pegasus filly with a light mint green mane standing on the opposite side of the table. She gave him a lopsided smile, then motioned back towards the playground.
“We’re starting a game of tag. You wanna join?”
Stone shook his head. “No, thanks. I need to finish my lunch still.”
“You sure? You haven’t really been eating at all, and I don’t think staring at the table is very fun.”
“I’m sure.”
The filly shrugged quickly before darting away from another pony who was probably ‘it.’ Stone watched the increasing gaggle of players, but he just couldn’t bring himself to find a reason to join in with them. The filly who had asked was obviously one of the most popular students in the school, based on how ponies tended to bunch up near her, and she had probably asked him to play so she could brag later about how kind and inclusive she was.
Not that the game didn’t look fun. A lot of the players didn’t try to zig or zag when ‘it’ came after them, and Stone was pretty sure he could outrun and outmaneuver whoever gave him chase. Tag was all about stamina, controlled bursts of speed, and strategic lines of retreat.
Stone stood, threw the remains of his meal in the garbage, and then solemnly began walking to a quiet side of the building where nopony was playing. Tag had been a favorite game of his, once. Nopony else in kindergarten could run as fast as he could, and that was an angle he used frequently whenever he and his mother …
Stone stopped dead in his tracks, and he fought back against the crushing tide of emotions that suddenly began to drown him. The last thing he needed was for a teacher to report to his father that he’d been found crying on his very first day. There would be no end to the lecture on how he wasn’t pulling his weight; how he wasn’t working as a member of a team.
Tears are weak, his father would scold. There is no room for weakness here. We must be strong, like the Royal Guard. Emotion leads to ruin. Power comes from control.
The words of council were always empty to Stone, devoid of any truth or basis in reality. It was a cover, a way to keep from having to deal with life and the horrid actualities that were contained therein.
Stone stared at the grass for several long minutes while he sniffled and rubbed at his eyes, his insides twisting and churning themselves into a hopeless tangle of knots. Everything was wrong, and he felt helpless and hopeless against the rushing onslaught.
“I don’t want this anymore,” he whispered to the cold, indifferent world. “With Celestia as my witness—”
A sudden flash of pure light and explosion of golden magic sent Stone Spring and his oath tumbling across the grass with a yelp, but once he reoriented his hooves to the proper earthbound configuration, he took a long moment to study the golden shoes before him.
They were shoes that would be recognized by any pony who had lived in the last thousand years, rumored to have been forged from the purest metal by the most skilled of the ancient smiths in an art that had died with them. Stone gulped in concern, and he peered up to confirm who the owner of these shoes was.
His suspicions proved to be accurate when he had to look up even more than usual. Two bright, light purple eyes looked back with never-ending concern, playful joy and ancient wisdom, framed within a familiar face of white and a multihued mane of pastel perfection that drifted upon an endless ethereal wind.
“Good afternoon, my little pony!”
“Princess Celestia?” Stone stammered. The tiny part of his brain that wasn’t busy trying to figure out what had just happened gave him a mental nudge to remember his manners, and he dipped his head quickly in respect to the Mare of the Morning. “What are you doing here?”
“I am here because you summoned me,” she simply stated.
Stone glanced back up to her, and he tilted his head slightly. “I did?”
“Indeed. Did you not just say ‘with Celestia as my witness?’”
It took Stone a moment to recall what he had said. “Um, yes?”
“Well, I cannot witness something if I am not there, can I?”
The logic behind that made sense, yet it also made no sense whatsoever. Princess Celestia, the ruler of a vast a prosperous land, just popped in whenever somepony needed her to watch something? Surely she had better things to do with her time.
“I suppose not,” he finally admitted. “But I didn’t think you would actually show up. It’s just something ponies say, like ‘by Starswirl’s beard’ or something.”
“I am afraid that has become the case as of late,” Celestia replied with a bit of a huff in her words. “Perhaps I should issue an edict on the matter. It would certainly help out my secretary and her efforts to coordinate my schedule.”
Stone didn’t know what to say to that, so he kept his mouth shut and continued to process this odd occurrence.
“What is your name, my little pony?” Celestia continued.
“Stone Spring, Your Highness.”
“Well then, Stone, what will I be a witness to today?”
Stone paused, stammered, and then shook his head slightly. “I, uh … I forgot what it was. I really don’t remember what I was going to say.”
Celestia’s smile wavered slightly. “Are you sure? Perhaps you have a challenging test coming up, and you wish for me to witness that you will compete it with the highest of possible scores.”
“No, it wasn’t that.”
“No? Were you going to undertake a difficult challenge? Perhaps you wish to learn a new sport, or how to play a musical instrument?”
“Nuh-uh.”
Celestia appeared to think the matter over for a moment, but then her smile brightened. “Ah! I bet you would like to make a new friend here. You may have just moved in and you do not know any of your classmates yet. Would you like me to witness your oath to make friends here at your new school?”
Stone was worried that Princess Celestia would spend the rest of the day guessing at his possible need for her witness, so he nodded his head. “I think that was it, Princess. I’m sorry to trouble you for that.”
“That’s quite alright, my little pony,” the Princess replied with pleased smile. She then cleared her throat, stood at her full height, and stretched her wings out to their maximum reach. “Be it known, from henceforth and forever, that I, Princess Celestia, do hereby witness the oath of one Stone Spring, residing in the city of Fillydelphia, in the which he will make new friends at his new school.” She paused, but then dipped her head down to his level. “Would you like to have that in writing, Stone?”
“Um, no. I think that will be fine.”
“Very well. I wish you the best of luck in this endeavor, Stone Spring, and may your efforts result in many deep friendships that will last for years to come.”
Stone really was trying to come up with something intelligent to say, but his mind was refusing to cooperate with him. “Thanks, I guess?”
“You are most welcome. Now, I will beg your pardon, as I am overdue to attend a Ways and Means committee meeting. Good day, my little pony, and congratulations on your new friends.”
And with no further ado, Princess Celestia disappeared in the same way she had appeared, leaving a very confused Stone to sit and wonder what in Equestria had just happened.
Stone Spring was not surprised in the slightest when his father failed to pick him up from school.
He was not surprised when he found himself home alone after making the long and arduous walk back to his new living accommodations, and the not surprise was sustained when his father did appear after several hours with a large mushroom and pineapple pizza for an apology.
Had this day been like his other first days, he might have been annoyed and angry about his father’s broken promises. Then again, if this was a normal day, he wouldn’t be trying to figure out if he had really met and talked with Princess Celestia or if something in his lunch had reacted badly and given him quite the odd hallucination.
Stone didn’t say much as he and his father ate, but the conversation would have been dead, one way or another. Slate was far too interested in the financial section of the newspaper in his hooves to bother with his son.
“So, how was school?”
Stone shrugged and nudged a pineapple bit around on his slice. “It was okay.”
“How do you like your teacher?”
Another shrug. “Miss Cinch said I was doing my math wrong. She didn’t really talk to me after that.”
“Huh, emeralds are down,” Slate muttered. “Did you make any new friends?”
“I invented a mind control device and enslaved the whole school. I plan on using their combined energy to power a doomsday device that will release Nightmare Moon from her prison, and then she will split her candy haul with me fifty-fifty as a thank you.”
“Glad to hear it. It wasn’t that hard, was it?”
“Taking over the world never is, Dad.”
Stone took a bite while his father continued to read, oblivious to his son’s machinations for world domination. It was a shame he didn’t have any real plans; he could probably enslave half of Equestria before his father wised up to him.
“Anything else fun happen?” Slate asked after a few moments.
“I met Princess Celestia. She appeared out of nowhere and told me she was witnessing my oath to make friends.”
“Nice, nice.” A large chunk of pizza disappeared in one fell bite. “Will she be back tomorrow?”
Stone thought over the distracted question for a moment, then concluded that he knew of no reason why Celestia wouldn’t reappear, if he were to say the magic words again. “She might visit again. I wonder what everypony would do if they saw her there.”
“How do they not know what happened?” Slate shook his head in dismay. “I’m sure the Princess would have something to say about that.”
Stone glanced up from his hooves and the grass, and he found the plum-colored pegasus filly from yesterday staring at him with a thoughtful smirk. “Yeah?”
“You got a name? I don't want to keep calling you ‘new kid.’”
“Stone Spring.”
“I'm Raspberry Vine, but you can just call me Berry. What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.”
Berry scoffed. “You've got to be staring at something. Your eyes are open.”
“Fine, you caught me. I’m the one colt in all of Equestria who likes watching grass grow. I also enjoy a little paint drying action, but only if I’m in the right mood.”
“Is there something interesting going on in the grass? Oh! Don't tell me you found a worm.” Berry stuck her tongue out and pulled a disgusted face. “Worms are gross.”
“No, I didn't find any worms.”
“Why are you over here? Nopony can see you when you hide on this side of the school. Don't you want to come play with us? You're not one of those rich, snobby types, are you?”
Stone shook his head. “I just don't feel like playing right now.”
“Why not? Are you sick? Don't breathe on me!” Berry retreated a step and put both hooves over her mouth. “I don't want catch it! Are you contagious? Did you wash your hooves?”
“I'm not sick! I just …” Stone paused for a long moment. “I just don't want to play.”
“Oh.” Berry stood and studied him for a moment. “Well, if you don't want to play, why don't we just talk?”
“Why?” Stone gave her an irritated glare. “So you can make fun of me later?”
“No! I wouldn't do that. I just want to get to know you better. If I was the new kid, I'd want to tell you about me.”
Stone believed every last word in that sentence. “I don't think you'd be interested. I move a lot, so I haven't really done much.”
Berry scoffed again. “That can't be true. What about all the cities you've lived in? That's interesting. Where did you live before here?”
“Baltimare. My dad was an actuary, but he got laid off.”
“Huh. What about before that?”
“This and that jobs. My dad has been moving us around a lot ever since—” Stone hesitated, shuddered, and swallowed hard. “—ever since he left the Royal Guard.”
“Your Dad was a guard? No way.” Berry gave Stone a shove. “Nopony ever leaves the Royal Guard. That’s, like, the best job there ever could be.”
“He just couldn’t do it anymore one day,” Stone murmured to the grass. “He came home, and just threw everything we owned into a moving wagon. Next thing I know, we’re in Manehattan.”
“And your Mom was okay with all of this?”
Stone didn’t reply to her question. He was too busy fighting back the tears and the crushing tidal wave of emotions.
“Oh,” Berry said after a moment. “I’m so sorry.”
“S’kay. You didn’t know,” Stone whispered.
There was a sudden shift, something initially akin to a bump that seemed to linger. It was warm, and not entirely unwanted, but it was unexpected just the same. Stone looked and found himself in a rather peculiar situation. Raspberry Vine was … hugging him? Why was she hugging him?
“I’d miss my mom a whole bunch if she ever left. I bet it really hurts to not have her, huh?”
Stone nodded slightly.
“I'm sorry, Stone.” Berry pulled back and offered a bright smile. “Let's talk about something else. Did you live in the palace? What was that like? My mom says we’re going to visit Canterlot one day.”
Stone sniffled and wiped his nose on his fetlock. “No, we lived in a regular house. Dad was just a Corporal. It was a nice house, though.” He paused for a long moment. “I miss that house.”
“Did you ever meet Princess Celestia?”
Stone glanced up and started to reply that he had not, but then he realized that he had met her, but not in the way that Berry would expect. “I did, once.”
“What was she like?” Berry asked, and her wings buzzed with excitement. “I bet she was so nice, and kind, and that she knows all of the guards by their first names, even though they all look alike. Did she give you all sorts of treats and toys whenever you visited?”
“She’s the Princess, not Santa Hooves,” he retorted. “She’s really busy, and she can’t just give out stuff out like that. Who pays for all of it?”
“Can’t she just make it appear? She raises the sun, after all.”
Stone put a hoof to his forehead. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“Well, how am I supposed to know?” Berry snapped. “You’re the one who’s met her, not me.”
“Look, I didn’t mean it like that,” Stone replied. “I just meant that she doesn’t just make things appear out of thin air.”
“I bet she does,” Berry said while folding her arms tightly. “I bet she totally does, and you just don’t want me to know about it so I won’t feel jealous.”
“Why would I lie about that?”
“Why would you tell the truth?”
Stone inhaled deeply. This illogically logical roundabout they’d gotten stuck in would get them nowhere. He needed to prove to her, somehow, that Celestia was just a regular pony, in the end, and that she had to follow her own rules and regulations. Berry wouldn’t believe anything he could say, so the only options that were coming to him were to somehow take Berry to Canterlot, or …
“What if Princess Celestia told you herself?” Stone asked with some concern. “Would you believe her?”
“Yeah, but I hope you’re not suggesting that we go to Canterlot.”
“No, not that. I could probably have her come here.”
Berry scoffed. “Princess Celestia, here? There’s no way you knew her well enough to make her come to you on demand.”
“I can too!” Stone protested. “I can have her show up, right here and now!”
“Oh yeah? Prove it.”
Stone stammered for a moment. He hadn’t expected her to call him out like that, and he wasn’t completely sure if asking for Celestia to be his witness would work again, especially since he had nothing for her to actually witness. “Um, well …”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. You can’t do it. You’re a big liar.”
“I am not.” Stone stomped a hoof. “With Celestia as my witness—”
Stone was both startled and relieved when the Princess did, in fact, appear again with the same bright flash of light and burst of magic that sent both of them tumbling.
“Good afternoon, Stone Spring!” Princess Celestia gave the young colt a smile that filled him with a warm inner peace. “It's good to see you again. Who is this? Have you made a new friend already?”
“Stone!” Berry grabbed him by the shoulders and began shaking him furiously. “It’s Princess Celestia! You actually brought her here!”
“Should I take that as a yes?” Celestia asked with a small giggle.
“I didn’t mean to call you again, Princess,” Stone replied, once he had broken free from Berry and her hyperventilating. “It just kinda slipped out.”
“I understand, my little pony, and no harm has been done. Now, who is this energetic friend of yours?”
“This is Raspberry Vine, Your Highness.”
“And I have wanted to meet you for the longest time!” Berry surged forward in an explosion of excitement, and she danced on the tips of her hooves while her wings buzzed in delight. “You’re even more pretty than the paintings show! Do you have any gifts for me? I’ve been a good little filly, I promise I have!”
“My dear little pony, I think you have me confused with Santa Hooves,” Celestia replied. “Though, if you would like, I can put in a good word for you the next time I see him.”
Berry’s eyes shrank to pinpricks. “YOU KNOW SANTA HOOVES?!”
Celestia didn’t reply, but she did offer a sly wink before turning back to Stone. “Now, Stone, I know it may be difficult, but I need you to be careful about summoning me. I do have a kingdom to run, and while I am happy to offer my witness, I cannot neglect the needs of my other ponies.”
“I know; I promise it was an accident. I won’t do it again.”
“Good. I do have a few minutes I can spare, however, so why don’t we take a moment for proper introductions?”
~*~
“Stone!” Berry grabbed her new friend and shook him in excitement yet again. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew Princess Celestia?”
“Because I don’t?” Stone replied.
“Oo! Wait ‘till I tell everypony else about this! Torque will be so mad when he finds out he missed her!” Berry released her helpless victim, and they both began walking back to class. “And Sweet Berry will freak out! Light Heart will be grouchy about it, of course.”
“Who?”
Berry either didn’t hear the question, or simply chose not to answer it. “Stone, you have to introduce Princess Celestia to everypony else!”
“I can’t do that! I promised her that I wouldn’t call her again!”
“Stone, you gotta!” Berry gave Stone a shove that nearly knocked him over. “Once I tell Sweet Berry—”
“No! You can’t tell anypony what happened here!” Stone pleaded. “I'll get into so much trouble if my dad finds out about this!”
“Why? Didn't you say he used to be a guard?”
“Yeah, but he was on city patrol. He never guarded anything in the palace.”
“C'mon, Stone! Do you wanna make new friends or not?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“But nothing. Most of the other kids already have you labeled as a loner, and they’re not going to talk to you. Unless you do something super spectacular, you’re already sunk.”
Stone snorted, and he stared at his hooves in frustration while they continued to walk. “I used to have friends. Lots of friends. Then all of this happened.”
“Hey, at the very least, let me tell my friends about what happened. I gotta tell them about this! I’m gonna explode if I have to keep this a secret.”
“No! Not a word, please!”
“Fine, fine,” Berry grumbled. “But this isn't very nice, you know.”
Stone Spring glanced over the sea of cardboard that was his room from the exalted position known as The Top of His Bed, puzzling over the uselessness of it all. He had finished his homework and had enjoyed yet another silent dinner with his father, and now the few remaining hours he had before bedtime were his to whittle away. There was the temptation to simply crawl into The Bed and be done with it, but he didn't feel tired and he would rather sit up with his thoughts, since he had a choice.
“Stone? You in here, bud?”
“Yup,” Stone replied while his father walked in and surveyed the mess.
“You're not unpacking?”
“Nope. I don't know why I should.”
Slate Grey let out a long breath, and he sat next to his son with a heavy whumpf. “Hey, look. I get this has been hard, and I really thought that last job would last longer. I liked Baltimare too, but this is home now, and we're not going to go anywhere for a long time.”
“That's what you said in Baltimare,” Stone shot with a bit of anger in his words. “And in Vanhoover, and in Manehattan, and in—”
“I know,” Slate cut off the rant, “but this is different. Mister Budget likes my work so far, and the other ponies in accounting have already asked me to look over a few other accounts. Things here are going a lot better than they have anywhere else.”
Stone didn't have any reply for that.
“Stone, I need you to help me out with this, okay?” his father continued. “We gotta work together on this, just like the Royal Guard works together.”
Stone closed his eyes. He didn’t want to hear yet another lecture on how working together as a cohesive unit was the only way to fly. “You're right, Dad. I'll work on pulling my own weight and giving you the backup you need.”
“I appreciate that, son.” Slate gave him a pat on the back, then stood and moved to the closest box. “Why don't you unpack your books first? That way, you can…”
Slate's words died in his throat he beheld the item he had grabbed. A small purple picture frame with seashells hot glued around the edge held a photo of Stone building a sandcastle, with his mother happily placing a flag on one tower and his father dutifully engaged in shoving more sand into a bucket with a smile.
“Our trip to Seaward Shoals,” Slate murmured while a hoof gently touched the image of his wife. “You couldn't be any older than four in this picture.”
“I made the frame in school,” Stone added. “Missus Willow told me Mom would love it.”
“I, um…” Slate gently placed the picture back and moved to the door with a not-so stealthy swipe of his nose and eyes. “I've got some work to get to. Why don’t—” Slate cleared his throat and inhaled sharply through his nose. “—why don’t you get unpacked, and I’ll check on you when I’m done.”
“Sure thing, Dad.”
Slate looked like he wanted to say something more, but he clamped his mouth shut and moved quietly out of the room instead of sharing. Stone’s gaze went back to the boxes after his father’s retreat, and after a few minutes, he simply crawled under his blankets and buried his face in his pillow.
That way, his dad wouldn’t see his tears.
Stone dutifully trudged down the sidewalk towards school, eager to forget the maelstrom of nightmares that had overrun his dreams last night. They had been growing in intensity over the past few weeks, and Stone was scared that they would never stop.
“Hey, Stone!” Berry called out, and she gave him a playful shove once she caught up to him. “Good morning! How are— wow! You look awful!”
“Thanks,” he grumbled.
“What happened? Did you get into a fight with a puckwudgie and lose?”
“No. I just didn't sleep well last night.”
“Oh. Your mane is all over the place.”
“Yeah, well, I don't really care,” Stone replied while taking a swipe at the mess that was perched on his head.
“Hey, you know how I promised not to tell anypony about Celestia?”
Stone instantly didn't like where this conversation was going. “What about it?”
Berry's ears folded back, and she offered a nervous chuckle. “In theory, how bad would it be if I did manage to tell somepony about that? Would it be just a little bad, or like a really big bad?”
Stone stopped in his tracks and put a hoof to his forehead. “Really really bad. Who did you tell?”
“Wait, now see, get this,” Berry replied. “I just had to tell Sweet Berry. She's been my bestest best friend since preschool. But I told her not to tell anypony else, so that makes it okay, right?”
“Until she tells somepony else about it, like you did.”
“Nah,” Berry waved a dismissive hoof at Stone. “Sweets is better than I am about keeping a secret. She won't say a thing.”
“Berry! Wait up!” A pale yellow unicorn dashed out from a house, across the lawn, and fell into step next to her friend.
“Hey Sweet,” Berry greeted the newcomer with a smile and a rhythmic five tap hoofbump.
“You must be Stone Spring,” Sweet leveled her gaze at him and tutted to herself. “The Bringer of Princesses.”
“It was all an accident, okay? I really didn't mean to.”
“When are you going to talk to her again?”
“Um, never?” Stone replied.
“Yeah, right. You're obviously on a first name basis with her, so she's bound to come back eventually. Do you think I could meet her too? I want to ask her a couple of questions.”
“No, because she's not coming back.”
“Oh, c'mon! Please!” Sweet folded her ears back and stuck her lower lip out. “I wanna meet her! You let Berry meet her!”
“Yes, but—”
“Please? Please, please pretty please with extra whipped cream and a cherry on top?”
“She's not gonna stop until she gets to see the Princess,” Berry casually added with a grin.
“No,” Stone repeated with a hard edge. “I promised the Princess that I wouldn’t do that again. She’s got more important things to do than meet-and-greets with us.”
“But what if she likes getting away from all of that?” Sweet retorted. “My Mom says she hates all of the boring meetings she has to go to. I bet the Princess likes being outside and with her subjects a lot more than she likes being cooped up in the palace.”
Stone opened his mouth to offer a rebuttal, but none came. “I suppose she might…”
“And shouldn’t a Princess talk with her citizens every now and then? How can she make things better if she doesn’t bother to find out what our problems are? By bringing her here, you can help her know what she needs to work on.”
“Maybe.”
“And after this, I promise I’ll never bug you again for anything, not even a pencil or an eraser. This’ll be the last time you need to bring her here, I promise.”
Stone was then abruptly stopped by two fillies blocking his path. Two fillies with bright, eager eyes and playfully pleading smiles, two fillies who, when he really looked at them, did look kinda cute…
“Oh, fine,” he finally huffed. “But this is the absolute last time, got it?”
Two heads nodded vigorously. “Of course! We’ll never say anything about it again, will we, Berry?”
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Berry added while adding some odd pantomime motions to the words.
Stone tried to hold out for a moment more, but his defences had been overwhelmed and he knew it. “All right, all right. But turn around.”
“Why?” Sweet asked.
“Do you want to meet the Princess or not?”
The two fillies quickly turned, and Stone inhaled. “Celestia forgive me,” he whispered, “and with Celestia as my witness…”
Stone remained impassive while the bright flash of light startled the two fillies and sent them scrambling for the nearest bush. Princess Celestia had her back turned to them, and in her magic, a piece of chalk continued to write on the no-longer-there chalkboard.
“...and make sure you let me know if you have any questions, Twilight. I will— oh!” Celestia turned to Stone, then glanced around the neighborhood in confusion. “Good morning, Stone. I’m afraid you’ve caught me at a bad time, so I’ll need to ask you to be quick. What is it that you need me to witness?”
“It’s her!” Sweet Berry rushed the Princess and began dancing on tiphooves in front of her. “I can’t believe it! I thought Stone was just making it up!”
“Stone?” Princess Celestia gave him a slight glare, and he wilted under the intensity of it.
“I’m sorry! I just wanted to get Sweet Berry to quit pestering me, I swear! I knew I shouldn’t, but she talked me into it!”
Stone glanced to the two overly enthusiastic fillies, and Celestia chuckled. “Is that the only reason?”
“Um, well…”
“Young love.” The Princess shook her head slightly, but with a smile. “I can forgive you for this time, Stone, but I will need to witness your promise that you will not call upon me again unless it is for a serious need. Can you do that for me?”
“I can, Princess. I promise not to summon you again.”
“Thank you. Now, I can answer one question from each of you before I need to return to Canterlot,” Celestia said to the bundles of bouncing energy. “Sweet Berry, what is your question?”
“How often you have to dye your mane? Mom says you're super old, and that it's impossible for you to not have a ton of grey hairs.”
Stone slowly opened his lunch bag, fearful that his father had packed nothing but celery sticks, given that his rush to get to work had resembled a hippopotamus breakdancing to Tchatrotvsky's Danse des Bouffons while trying to drink a glass of orange juice. Thankfully, there was a sandwich of questionable composition and a carton of apple juice with the celery, and he wondered if Berry or Sweet would be willing to swap while they approached.
“Hey Stone,” Berry greeted. “Can we sit by you?”
“Sure,” he shrugged, and Berry gave him a warm smile while they took their seats and unpacked their lunches.
“Hey, you wouldn't want to swap your celery for some chips, would you?” Berry asked, and Stone shrugged again before passing over his cache. “Thanks. My Mom always packs the same cool ranch chips. They're kinda gross after the first dozen bags.”
“You're welcome.”
“You know, you’re a lot more polite than I would expect,” Sweet remarked. “Most new kids are usually kinda rude.”
“You can thank my Dad for that. He drilled all sorts of etiquette rules into my head. ‘A good Royal Guard is always courteous and polite.’”
“Your dad is a Royal Guard?” Sweet gasped. “Get out! No wonder you know Princess Celestia so well.”
“Was a guard,” Stone corrected. “He quit not long after my …”
“Oh, right. Your Mom. Berry told me about that. I’m sorry it happened.”
“S’kay.” Stone sniffled. “Anyway, I’ve got all sorts of guard stuff rattling around up here.” He tapped the side of his head. “And no, I don’t know Princess Celestia.”
“You don’t?” Sweet glanced to Berry, who held up a celery stick to her as a reply. “But, how did you get her to come visit with us this morning?”
“I kinda found that on accident. Apparently, whenever somepony says ‘with Celestia as my witness,’ she shows up to actually witness it.”
“But she didn’t show up just now.” Sweet took a bite of her celery and began to chew loudly.
“I think that’s ‘cause I didn’t need her to witness something.”
“But you didn’t have her witness anything earlier, either,” Berry interjected. “Why did it work then, but not now?”
“Search me. Honestly, I would be fine if it stopped. I don’t want to get in trouble for bringing her here.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” Sweet remarked. “You could make a lot of friends here with that, you know.”
“I could? How?”
It was just then that a blue earth pony cleared his throat and smiled. “Hey, are you Stone Spring? I heard you could summon Princess Celestia, and I wanted to see if it was true.”
Stone glanced to the two fillies, who both had eager expressions, and Berry nodded in encouragement. Stone mulled the thought over for a moment while telling himself he was trying to come up with a way to say no, but when two more ponies approached and asked the blue unicorn if Stone was really going to bring the Princess there, Stone made up his mind.
“With Celestia as my witness…”
Stone sat as the bright flash of golden magic cleared from the eyes of the four new ponies who had come to ask about Princess Celestia, but when he got a good look at the Princess, he instantly realized he’d gone too far. At that moment, she was singing a little nonsense tune to herself while her hooves worked the shampoo in her mane into a vigorous lather, and two brushes were hard at work on the undersides of her wings.
She then realized where she was, and with a small ‘eep!’ of alarm and a rapid burst of magic, Princess Celestia cleared the brushes and soap. Another flash restored her regalia, and she then stood before the crowd with a frown for Stone, despite the water that continued to trickle down her withers and pool by her hooves.
“Woah! It actually worked!” a pony exclaimed. “Princess! Can you come to Fillydelphia for the next Summer Sun Celebration?”
“Perhaps, my little pony, but may I have a word with Stone Spring in private?”
The small gaggle of ponies quickly parted, and Stone was sure he heard somepony proclaim that this meant big trouble for the small colt. Stone’s ears folded back and his eyes went to the ground, but he followed the Princess around the corner of the school and stopped with her when they were away from eager ears.
“Stone, this needs to stop,” Celestia said in a soft but firm tone. “I have been here six times in the last two days, and not once have you actually needed my witness for anything.”
“I know, I know,” he moaned. “But you don’t understand! It’s been so hard to make friends before now. Everytime I could get one pony to talk to me, my Dad would make me move to a new city, and I’d have to start all over again. I’ve got at least a dozen new friends now because of you, and I just …”
Princess Celestia waited for Stone to think through the end of his statement.
“I just want things to get back to normal, that’s all.”
“I understand, Stone, but imagine if every pony who had trouble making friends summoned me to assist them. I would have no time to take care of my other duties, now would I?”
“I suppose not.”
“Please also consider that you are making friends under false pretences. Your classmates want to be your friend because they think you have a personal relationship with me. What will happen when they find out the truth of the matter?”
Stone nodded slowly. “They’ll probably be mad and stop being my friend.”
“I realize this is difficult, but anything in life that is worthwhile tends to be so,” Celestia offered with a note of kindness. “I believe you will have great success just by being yourself, and by showing ponies who Stone Spring really is. Trust yourself, my little pony. Make your life the way you want it to be with your own actions, not because of anything I have done.”
Stone thought over this for several long moments. “Okay, Princess. I’ll try.”
“Good. Perhaps you should speak with your father regarding these frequent moves as well. The two of you can work together, and he may be able to offer a great deal of support, once he understands your predicament.”
Stone again hesitated, and when he replied, he could hear the hesitation in his own words. “I guess I could try, Princess, but I doubt he’ll listen.”
Stone Spring gave his bed a nudge to the left. He took a step back, eyed the new position, and then gave his bed a bigger nudge.
He then nodded to himself. A perfectly squared bed, placed in the exact center of the room.
Stone was really that bored. It was bad enough that he had emptied the boxes with his books and sorted his meager collection by author, by title, and then by color. He had moved his waste basket to the left side of his desk - a rather bold and innovative move, if he did say so himself - and he had made sure the curtains on his window were operating within normal parameters. Having now completed the epic Moving of The Bed, there was little else he could do.
There were two options that he was left with in his own mind. On one hoof, he could undertake an intensive reread his favorite book, but Hamster Huey and The Gooey Kablooie did tend to become dull when it was read four or five time in succession.
The option on the other hoof both frightened him slightly, and held the greatest potential for fun. On his way home from school, he had happened upon a nearby park, and from his first impression, it was one of the finest parks he had ever seen. There were several corkscrew slides, an impressive and towering jungle jim, some trapeze rings and a few seesaws, a swing set that had to be at least twice the size of his house, some rope ladders and a zip line, and even a small stream filled with little fish, as the icing on the cake.
He wanted to go explore the potential of this grassy garden, but it just wouldn’t be the same without a friend. By himself, the saws would only see, the swings would be underutilized, and the jungle gym would be not much more than a lonesome tower from which he could peer out upon the world. He could ask Berry or Sweet, but they had mentioned they needed to work on a science project together that afternoon.
There was another pony he could ask, but he feared the response he would get, and the repercussions of so doing. It had been years since his father had joined him at any playground, and Stone was sure that the status quo would remain in place.
But he was really bored, he was going a bit stir crazy, and he felt a small trickle of warmth in his chest when he thought of the last time his father had accompanied him to a park. He was sure that he was going to end up meeting Nightmare Moon if he had been pushed any higher, and he always remembered the game of catch they had played right at sunset with deep reverence and happiness. Maybe, if he reminded his father of that time, he would be a little more willing to go out with him tonight.
With his mind halfway settled on the matter, Stone made the long walk down the stairs and towards the front room, and he found his father in the overstuffed chair, reading the paper and making thoughtful noises to himself.
Stone approached, stalled, retreated a step, and somehow talked himself back into asking. “D-dad? Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, bucko. What is it?” his father asked without missing a line in the news article.
“Well, there’s a playground over … I mean, it’s just a few streets away, not too far, and I was wondering if … I mean, you don’t have to, but I thought, maybe …”
Stone’s father glanced up from his newspaper, but his gaze went to a picture that had recently been hung on the wall. Stone knew it all too well - it was a picture of his mom, his dad, and him in the backyard of their home in Canterlot, and all three of them were mugging for the camera without a care in the world.
“Why don’t you go check it out, eh?” Stone’s father said in a soft tone. “I bet there’s some kids there your age who would love to play.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Stone whispered to the floor. “But I didn’t … I mean, I don’t know if it’s safe for me to be without an adult, and …”
“You’ll be fine,” Stone’s father said after a moment. “This is a safe neighborhood. Go on, go have some fun. I’ll get started on dinner while you’re gone.”
Stone nodded weakly and turned to the door. “O-okay, then. Thanks.”
“Be back by sunset, all right?”
“Sure thing.”
~*~
Stone stared at the wood chips beneath his hooves while he gently rocked in the swing. The playground had been lightly occupied when he had arrived, but even those few ponies had headed home for dinner shortly after his arrival, leaving him alone with his own feelings.
This had been a mistake. Without his father there, and with no other distractions, the nightmarish memories had begun to flood his mind, leaving him with a deep void in his heart and mired in a futile battle against an onslaught of tears.
It was his fault.
“With Celestia as my witness,” Stone murmured to the ground. He then hopped out of the swing, but he remained still and stared at his hooves for several minutes.
“I know I said I wouldn’t summon you again, Princess,” Stone finally said to the ground. “But I really do have something for you to witness this time.”
“Very well,” Celestia’s voice came from behind him. “What is it?”
“My confession,” he whispered. “Princess, I killed my mom.”
“I doubt that you could ever be guilty of such a heinous crime,” Celestia replied. “Why do you think you are responsible?”
“Because if it wasn’t for me, she would still be alive.”
~*~
“You’ll never catch me, Mom!” Stone shouted while he took off across the grassy field, zigging and zagging as he heard his mother laugh and swipe at him with her hooves. The other families at the park had already packed up and returned to their homes while the Weather Patrol had begun to piece together that afternoon’s rainstorm, but Stone had managed to convince his mother to stay for just a few more minutes. The rain had begun while they were playing, but Stone didn’t care about how wet he was getting. Tag was his all-time favorite game, and he was having far too much fun to quit now.
“Oh!” Stone’s mom slowed, then stopped to catch her breath. “You little monkey! You’re too fast for me! You win, you win!”
Stone cheered, but he gave his mom a quick hug while she smiled and stroked his sopping wet mane. “You did good too, Mom. Maybe next time you’ll catch me.”
“I hope so,” she said with a short laugh. “But I think we need to head home now. It’s getting late, and we’re both soaked to the bone.”
“Aw! Do we have to?”
“We can come back tomorrow after we go to the market,” Stone’s mom replied. “C’mon. I’ll run a nice hot bubble bath for you and get some bread going. When your father gets home, we’ll be ready for dinner, and maybe after that we can read a book together.”
“Okay,” Stone replied with a chipper smile. “Can I have extra butter on my bread?”
“Did you brush your teeth this morning?”
Stone flashed a wide, toothy grin. “Sure did! See how white they are?”
“They are indeed! I think a charming young stallion who brushes his teeth can have some extra butter.”
Stone cheered, and with a hop and a skip, he took off towards home with his mother. They only managed a few paces, however, before Stone’s mom suddenly stopped, gasped, and put a hoof to her chest.
“Mom?” Stone quickly backtracked and watched his mother with deep concern boiling up inside of him. “You okay?”
“I think so. I might have run just a bit too much back there. It’s okay, though. I’ll catch my breath once we get home.”
Stone didn’t prance ahead as they began again. He stayed right by his mother’s side, and his own heart began to pound when he felt his mother stagger and limp her way forward. “Mom?”
Stone’s mother gasped, gagged, and then collapsed to the ground, despite Stone’s cry of alarm and his efforts to catch her. She began to wheeze and huff while Stone repeatedly asked what was wrong, and it took her a moment to find her voice.
“Go get help, please. I think … I might …”
Stone staggered back a step as his mother’s breathing became shallow, rapid, and raspy. He tried to force his hooves to move, but he was scared and he didn’t want to leave his mother alone.
But when his mother’s breathing stopped, Stone began to scream.
“Some of Dad’s coworkers heard me and rushed to help,” Stone said. Large tears rolled down his cheeks and plopped around his hooves, but he didn’t care. “They just happened to be walking by at the time. They took her to a hospital, but she never woke up.”
“Stone, that was not your fault,” the Princess offered.
“Yes it was. We should have gone home sooner. We should have left when the rain started. I should have gotten help sooner.”
Princess Celestia said nothing, and for several minutes, there was nothing but silence.
“Dad blames me for what happened,” Stone finally added, while he turned and looked up to Celestia. “He never said so, but I know he does. He looks at me, sometimes, with so much sadness and pain in his eyes. Two days after Mom’s funeral, he packed up our whole house, quit his job as a guard, and moved us to Manehattan. He kept muttering something about there being too many memories.”
Celestia sat next to Stone, and one of her wings gently moved to envelop the troubled young colt in a reassuring hug. There was no reaction from the Bringer of the Day when Stone used her feathers to wipe away the tears in his eyes, but she did give him a warm smile when he finally looked up to her.
“Mom died because of me, didn’t she?” he asked in a very small and trembling voice.
“No, Stone. What happened was not your fault, and I also find it very hard to believe that your father blames you for what happened. Though I cannot say for certain, I would be confident in presuming that your father just doesn’t know how to overcome the grief he is feeling.”
“But he doesn’t feel anything. He was a Royal Guard.”
“The members of the Guard are still ponies underneath the armor and the helm,” Celestia replied. “They may not show their emotions outwardly, but they are still there. They laugh and they cry, just like you or I. They can feel anger, resentment, love, and pain. I think your father is trying to hide his feelings so that you will not be hurt. If he were to tell the truth, I am confident he would say he does not want you to feel sad about what happened.”
Stone shook his head. “I don’t think so. He never even told me what happened to Mom, other than ‘she got sick.’”
“Have you asked him about it?” Celestia presented the question with a light touch.
“No,” Stone replied after thinking about her question for a few moments. “I never did.”
“I think you need to talk to him. Tell him how you feel, let him know what is on your mind. You’ll find he wants to talk, but is unsure of how to start the conversation. Tell him to be open with you, to share what he is thinking. If you have to, tell him that Princess Celestia orders him to share his feelings.”
Stone chuckled slightly with the Princess. “I can do that, I guess. I’m sorry I made you come here for all of this, though.”
“One of the greatest parts about being a Princess is when I can help my little ponies. I want everypony to be happy, and I want to bring them happiness if I can. You need not apologize for this, Stone.”
“Thanks. I guess I should head home now, huh?”
Celestia nodded, and her wing retreated. “You can do this, Stone. It may seem impossible, but have faith.”
“Stone!” Slate Grey’s familiar deep timbre boomed across the park. Stone glanced to the west and gasped a bit when he saw the sun had been tucked into its bed behind the horizon, and he glanced back to Celestia in alarm, but he found the Princess had disappeared.
“Stone?” Slate crossed the playground with a quick trot. “What’s wrong? I told you to be back by sunset.”
Stone stammered, then looked up to his Dad with a mournful, shuddering breath. “I’m sorry, Dad.”
“C’mon, let’s head home. We can discuss it there.”
Slate began to walk away, but Stone remained where he was. “No, Dad. I didn’t mean that. I kinda wanna talk about this now.”
“About what, bucko?”
Stone fought vainly against his tears. “You know, you haven’t been to a park with me since…”
There was a pause. “Since Mom died,” Slate offered in a small voice.
“I know you’re mad at me, and that you blame me for what happened. I should have … It was me who … who …”
“Hey, woah. What happened wasn’t your fault, okay?” Slate moved back to his son and put a hoof on his shoulder, but Stone’s emotions had finally breached the dam he’d tried to construct around his heart. Try as he might, there was no stopping the swells of agony that manifested in temblings gasps for air and in sobs that were thicker than blood.
“Yes, it was!” Stone wailed. “Mom would have lived if I hadn’t kept her out in the rain in the park that day. I’m the one who made her sick! It was all me.”
“Stone, I need you to listen to me,” Slate said while tilting his son’s head up with a hoof. “You had nothing to do with what happened to your Mom. She had been sick for a long time, and we never knew it.”
“I miss her, Dad.” Stone willingly entered the embrace of his father, and he buried his face in his father’s chest.
“I miss her too, son.” Slate held his son tightly, and for a long time, the only thing that was shared was their mutual suffering. A warm breeze drifted across the grass and whispered a silent reprieve for a pair of aching hearts, and for a brief moment, Stone felt the love of his mother wrap around him once more.
“Why did she have to go?” Stone whispered.
“I wish I knew, son,” Slate whispered back. “I’ve lost so much sleep at night asking that very question. But, I’ve missed her so much that I forget, sometimes, that you miss her too.”
“Do you hate me?”
Stone felt his father’s chest heave with his gasp of pain. “Absolutely not. I haven’t lost her if I still have you, son. No matter what happens, I will always love you.”
Stone said nothing for several long moments. “Dad?” He pulled back slightly, and his father’s tear-filled eyes met his own. “Can we miss her together? Maybe it won’t hurt so bad that way.”
“I think that is a wonderful idea,” Slate replied with another enveloping hug for Stone. “I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you.”
“S’kay. Mom wouldn’t want us to fight,” Stone said.
“Your Mom was a very special mare. How about this?” Slate wiped the back of his hoof across his eyes and took a breath. “Let’s head home and open up every photo album I packed away. We can talk about the fun times we did have together, and about how wonderful she was.”
Stone sniffled, and for the first time in years, he smiled. “I’d like that.”
“Me too. You’re still in trouble for staying out past sunset, though.”
Stone laughed with his father, but then he pointed to the western horizon. “No I’m not. The sun hasn’t set yet.”
Slate turned, and a grunt of surprise came when he saw that was only touching the horizon, and it showed no signs of moving any further. “Well, that’s odd. I was sure it had set already. Princess Celestia must be running behind schedule today, eh?”
Stone smiled a little bit more when he saw Princess Celestia peek around from behind a nearby group of trees, her horn alight and a mischievous grin on her face. “Maybe. But I bet it’s for a really good reason.”
Celestia nodded and winked, and with a brief flash of magic, she disappeared. Stone then groaned when his father ruffled his mane, and with a chuckle, they set off for home.
“Dad, did you ever have the chance to meet the Princess?”
Slate nodded. “I met her once, back when I first joined the Guard. Would you believe me if I said it was a total accident?”
