To Swoon the Stars

Chapters

Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter One
Chapter Ten

Chapter Two

Celestia sighed to herself, shaking her head and trying desperately to forget the massive collection of paper that had formed on her desk. It was an unfortunate after-effect of the gala to overflow her work station with useless requests, pointless attacks from one noble to another that was as shallow as a pond on a sunny day, usually caused by some small thing that had brought them to anger.

It would have been nice to merely burn them all in the fires of the sun, but that wasn’t how she ruled. She ruled fairly. And occasionally, a fair point was brought up in the attacks, even if the demanded reprimand was severe. It was something Celestia would have gone without, but required to make the status remain quo. Like cabbage. Her eyes drifted to the towering stack of unsigned and unread papers that formed the army of her current enemy, and then towards the very few papers she had managed to force her mind over.

Celestia shook herself from her thoughts and grabbed the next paper in line. Her eyes drifted over the words, keeping a record of their meaning while the vast majority of the immortal’s mind went unengaged by the work. That was when the knock came to her door. She silently thanked the forces of the cosmos and stood from her desk. Pausing a moment, she waited until after her mind was back in full working order before proceeding. She made to speak, but took another moment to force a small smile onto her face—as was regular practice.

“The door is unlocked,” Celestia said in a noble and regal tone. She stood to her full height and faced the door, knowing very well who was on the other side. His presence with Luna had been far from subtle and it had come to her attention almost immediately after they had walked off together. She had, of course, heard from Luna about their reconciliation, about their plans to be with each other more often, but she had suspected Hendrick to do as she had told him. Instead, she had gotten damning evidence to the contrary.

The door swung open, allowing Hendrick to enter the room. After he had passed the threshold, he slowly closed the doors behind him, then turned to face Celestia. His eyes seemed full of a passive-aggressive anger, but the alicorn decided not to comment on it.

“Hello, Princess. You asked for me?” His words were stiff and stale, empty of emotion. But that wasn’t anything new; she heard that from nobles every day. Rather, it was the empty hatred behind them that caught her off guard.

“Yes, Hendrick. I did ask for your presence. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

“Nothing that you would care about,” he answered passively, the anger disappearing and his eyes returning to normal. “Enough of the filibustering, though. Let’s get to the point.”

“Agreed,” Celestia responded, taking a breath to let all the anger-filled comments leave her head. “As you may or may not recall, I once informed you not to meet with my sister ever again in a romantical matter.”

“I remember something closer to you suggesting that I don’t do it, because of some important reasons you never told me,” Hendrick responded, eyeing Celestia with contempt.

With a mighty exhale, she let her entire facade die away. She looked at Hendrick with half closed eyes and couldn’t help but let the feelings of exhaustion enter her voice. “What do you think this is? Do you think Luna is just some toy you can play with and throw away when you get tired of her? Do you think this is all just some joke?”

“The only thing here that’s a joke is you, Celestia.” Hendrick looked at her as he spoke these words. And, to a lesser degree, through her, as if he were speaking to someone directly behind her that only he could see. “And I mean that with all due respect,” he added quickly, his gaze ducking to inspect the floor at his hooves. Slowly, he managed to summon his courage and overcome himself, raising his gaze to meet Celestia’s eyes.

“With all due respect...?” Celestia repeated, softly insisting he continue with his thought as well as deciding it would be better to bite her tongue at this junction. Hendrick had a habit of using small sentences that would pique your interest. Something that it had taken a while to get used to. But once you did, he would explain himself, without question or hesitation. And he would go in depth. Very in depth.

“You’re a wonderful ruler and you care about your sister,” he said, looking into her eyes with something Celestia hadn’t seen in a very long time. He looked at her with pity. “You are trying, however, to be the wonderful ruler over your sister. Which, as you need to realize, won’t work. You can rule the nation wisely, you have proven this again and again, but you can’t decide what choices a pony should make in their personal life. That’s why it’s called personal. It’s for them to decide.” He paused here and seemed to collect himself together, power beginning to flow through his veins. “We are such miraculous creatures, able to fully experience the world around us, and as such are the sums of our actions, our decisions, and our emotions. And they are as entangled as a messy pile of string which can’t be separated. The minute you try and decide things for them, they fall apart.

“That’s why you’re a joke, with all due respect,” he continued, his voice calming down as a pleading look filled his eyes, begging her to understand what he was saying. “You’re a wonderful pony. But in the thousand of years you had to rule, you never seemed to understand that fact.” The air was filled to bursting with tension as the stallion’s tirade came to its end, leaving Celestia to stare at Hendrick, her mind thinking carefully about what had been said. He looked back with his eyes full of emotion.

“Perhaps some time to think about this is necessary,” Celestia finally said, frowning. She didn’t like what she had been told, but when a pony comes to the most powerful being in the known world and states with such ferocity his beliefs... it’s usually a good idea to at least think about what they so bravely defended. The boldness of the statement, without apology, stating that she needed to just back off, if very eloquent, seemed wrong as she let it take root in her mind. It made her feel awkward in her own castle. Not lonely, like she had been before. It was like... one corner of her chair wasn’t the same length as the rest and she had to constantly sit a certain way.

“And that’s why you’re the best leader I’ve ever seen, Celestia,” Hendrick said with a smile. “Because you’re willing to not only entertain ideas of others, but also to actually, legitimately, consider them. It makes you strong; it gives you power, power that you use very rarely. To face that without becoming corrupted, it shows... muchness,” He finished with a smile. He had been struggling over the last word, but had given up on it.

Then, with a bow of his head, Hendrick began to head towards the exit of the room, leaving Celestia with another compliment. Luna had stated he gave them rarely, so Celestia found it odd that he had given one to her. But she didn’t linger on the thought. After all, the odd stallion had given her other things to think about.

On his way out, Hendrick was slowed by an after-thought from the princess, forcing him to stop to make sure he heard everything she had to say. “Hendrick.” Abruptness and interruption were the defining characteristics of the call. “I’ll consider what you’ve told me, but I ask a favor from you first.” The odd stallion turned to face the princess, partially out of respect and partially to show he was engaged in what she was saying. “Please, Hendrick. Please think about what I told you before.”

Shining Armor’s hooves moved his body over the ground, as they were prone to do, and his mind began to wander slightly, the routine inspection of the castle perimeter dulling his mind with its beige-ness. He was removed from this state of idle thought when the approaching form of Hendrick caught his attention.

Having seen the stallion around the grounds, he had become a normal installment in the castle, but Shining hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to him in quite a while. Things had always gotten in the way, whether because Hendrick was in a hurry to get somewhere or Shining Armor was in the middle of guard duty.

And now, more than ever, Shining Armor was particularly looking forward to talking with him. A recent problem had arisen and the captain of the guard was completely befuddled by how he might solve it. He’d thought about getting some other opinions on it, but he wasn’t sure who to talk to about it. The princesses, certainly, would be able to solve the problem, but they had so much on their plates already that he didn’t want to burden them with anything else.

Perhaps, though, Hendrick would have some free time at this particular juncture to help solve the problem. With this hope in hoof, Shining Armor changed his course and set himself in the direction to meet the odd stallion, who might be able to shed some light on the situation. Hendrick saw him approaching and changed his path slightly to meet up with the captain sooner as well, a good sign for Shining that he did, indeed, have some time to spare.

As the distance between them lessened Shining Armor was able to clearly see hesitation lingering on the facial features of Hendrick. Yet, behind them, only partially hidden, was a clear sign of curiosity.

As captain of the guard, learning to read ponies had proven essential, and it had advanced to the point that he had trouble ignoring what he saw. Several situations were made out to be awkward for the stallion merely because of this fact. Reading his wife’s innermost feelings at a glance made him uneasy, like he was uncovering secrets she didn’t want him to know about. However, he had never voiced them to his significant other, partially because of his own hesitancy and partially because he had never really felt like it was necessary to do so.

This same feeling took Shining Armor as he looked at Hendrick, reading his emotions. He hadn’t really experienced it with Hendrick before. His emotions had been so closed before the day he broke out of jail. Now it was just the opposite; they seemed open and exposed, and it made the captain uncomfortable.

“Hello, Hendrick,”

“Hello, Captain. How goes the watch?”

“All’s calm and good.” It was an odd set-up of phrasing for the both of them; it reeked of old age and the pacing was different, but it didn’t feel particularly wrong on the captain’s tongue. It was merely something they had started to say, at Hendrick’s insistence, and it hadn’t bothered any of the guards to indulge the quirky suitor of the princess of the night.

“No it isn’t,” Hendrick answered abruptly, looking at Shining Armor. “You have something on your mind that’s bugging you.”

“What gave it away?” Shining Armor asked with a small smile.

“You came to talk to me.” Hendrick’s voice seemed broken as he said this, and Shining Armor decided that before he asked what was on his mind, he needed to follow this first. Priorities, after all.

“That shouldn’t automatically make you think that I need something from you.”

“It shouldn’t, but experience says otherwise, Captain.”

Shining Armor didn’t have any response. He was so surprised by Hendrick’s statement that they spent the next few moments in silence while the captain of the guard struggled to get his words together. “You know that I see you as a friend, right, Hendrick?” When there was no immediate response, he decided on another question. “Are you okay? I don’t want you to think no one is there for you. I’m willing to listen if you’re willing to talk.”

“No, it’s not.... It’s not like before,” Hendrick reassured, though he didn’t seem too certain of it himself. “Just... questions that I don’t have any answers to.”

“I see.... Do you need me to answer one of them for you?”

“Perhaps, but not right now. We should address your issue first, then we’ll talk about mine.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Alright.” Shining Armor paused in his speech for a moment as he changed topic. “Well, it’s just a small thing; I didn’t want to bother the princesses with it. I could probably take care of it myself, but I just want to make sure that I’m doing the correct thing.” Hendrick nodded to show he was following, so the captain of the guard decided to fully reveal his problem.

“The other day, in the training grounds, I was watching a group of new recruits. I was a bit out of the way and the trainers didn’t know I was there. I paused for a moment, wanting to see how the training was going and taking a moment to reminisce about my own time I spent as a rookie. Well, it turns out, things have changed a lot, especially since the changeling attack. They’re brutal now. They’re overworking the recruits and it’s a miracle any of them are even on their hooves half the time.”

“And you think that’s wrong.”

“Of course I do!” Shining Armor said, his anger at the situation making itself known as he talked. “We need to respect each other. That’s what we ponies do. It’s what makes us different from the monsters of the Everfree. That we love, or at least tolerate, one another. That we can respect our differences and work towards a common goal. But what I saw then, none of the recruits had an identity. Their talents weren’t important to the trainers like they should have been.”

Hendrick allowed the angry captain a moment to calm himself before speaking to him, wanting to make sure that his target audience was in its right mind. “It sounds to me like they’re scared.”

“With all rights, they’re being treated like cattle.”

“No, not the recruits. The trainers.” A confused look came to Shining Armor’s face and Hendrick continued. “They’re scared to death because of the changeling attack. They almost lost everything they knew. They’re scared that one day an evil will show up and they’ll completely lose, that because of the fact that they treat soldiers as individuals they have a disadvantage on the enemy who doesn’t.”

“But if they give up everything, it won’t matter anyway.”

“So tell them that, Captain. We, as living creatures, have a tendency to forget that sometimes. We’re willing to put everything on the line because we think it’s necessary. You need to show them that it isn’t, to show them that each individual is important and not merely marks on a roll call, to show them that the cost of losing the uniqueness of even one pony is too great a cost.”

“I...” Shining Armor couldn’t quite phrase what he was trying to say. “Wow, that was very insightful. Thank you, Hendrick. I don’t suppose you could tell them that for me.” The jovial tone of the words and the smile on the captain’s face was a welcome change from the preoccupied glare he had entertained before.

“No, it has to be you, Captain.”

The smile softened to a casual grin and Shining Armor reflected on the importance of pulling rank. “Yes, I suppose it does.” The warm moment hung in the air for a little while longer before Shining remembered that there was another part to this conversation. “So, Hendrick, what’s the problem you’re dealing with then?”

Hendrick didn’t answer immediately—he didn’t respond at all, in fact—and Shining Armor thought for a moment that perhaps he hadn’t heard him. “It’s stupid, but you're the only one I could think of to come to about it. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. Just ask the question and I’ll answer it as best as I can.”

“Well, I was just curious. What does it feel like to be in love?”

The unexpected suckerpunch caught Shining Armor right in the jaw, leaving him stunned. “Well, uh, I suppose it’s like...” was all he managed to get out before Hendrick glanced at him, and cut him off.

“Take your time and think about it, please. Several minutes of hasty rambling helps no one.”

So, with a nod, he did just that. He thought carefully on the subject, reflecting on his own relationship as well as those that he’d heard about from friends. His mind caught a snag and decided to quickly ask for clarity.

“Family or Romantic?”

“Romantic,” came the quick reply, and Shining Armor offered a brief nod before he went into his own thoughts once again. After a few minutes of this, which Hendrick had spent perfectly silent, the captain put together what he wanted to say.

“Well, it’s a lot like wanting something really bad. But, you respect the thing way too much to just take it. You need it to like you before you’d feel right about having it,” the captain said eventually.

“I see.” Hendrick’s voice sounded disappointed.

“Is everything alright?”

“Yea, yea, just... hoping for a different answer, I guess”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry about it though. I’m just glad you answered my question at all.”

“Okay. Well hey, you ever need help, you know where to find me, okay?”

“Okay,” Hendrick said with a smile. A smile that Shining Armor instantly realized as fake. “Oh, and don’t worry, Captain. I won’t tell your wife you compared her with a genderless object.”

“Much appreciated,” Shining replied, a genuine smile on his own face. “I just hope you get the answers you’re looking for.”

“I don’t. Heaven knows they’re probably the wrong answers to want.” Before Shining Armor could question the words, Hendrick was already walking away, barely giving him time to give a hasty goodbye before the stallion completely left the castle grounds.

With a sigh and a glance to the sun, the captain let his emotions leave him, giving his heart a rest. The sun was setting peacefully behind the mountains and, before too long, Luna’s moon would rise from behind the other horizon as it chased the sun through the sky.

By the looks of things, it would be a wonderful night.

Chapter Three

Night had come, and all the ponies were asleep in the great capital of Canterlot. Celestia had long since gone to bed, but Luna remained awake. Her court had ended long ago, as the nobles found their need for sleep to be top priority at this time. As such, Luna fell into the task she usually spent this time doing, preparing Equestria for her sister so as to ease her burdens during the day.

It was common practice now, the careful preparation of the dawn, that had seemed to come from nothing and gone mostly unnoticed by both alicorns. Luna had once held a foolish fear of dawn, a growing regret like something bad were about to happen she couldn’t do anything about, but now helped the sun rise on as peaceful a world as possible.

Both the sisters were equal, in both power and fame. Well, perhaps not exactly equal, but far closer than they had ever been before. And with this new equality, both had found themselves free from a feeling that would constrict their chest.

For Celestia, it had been guilt, guilt that she had done nothing to help her sister and seeing her treated like she had been at the time of her banishment. For Luna, on the other hand, it had been bitter envy, a toxic chain of thoughts that would wrap tightly around the younger sister’s throat and threaten to kill her at times. Neither enjoyed these feelings, and Luna found herself completely appalled by her own mind when these kinds of thoughts had come to bare.

This had all happened about a year ago, a few days after the arrival of Hendrick, the crazy pony who had shaken the world upside down. Luna smiled as she thought of the stallion and it brought her mind back to the matter at hand. She had received a note from him. Perhaps received is too big a word. She had found a note from him in the alley where he had made his home. Thinking back to where it was located, Luna remembered all the times she had offered him money to help pay for an actual house, but he always rejected the money regardless of how tricky Luna was in giving it to him.

One day, she magicked a stack of bits in front of him as he was heading to work. The following day, she received a copy of a receipt stating that the orphanage was buying new beds, a welcome gift after the fire that had wrecked their previous building. She wasn’t sure if he had known the source of the money or not, but it was clear he was intent on paying for his house out of his own hard earned money and sending all excess unexpected money either to his savings, to keep a reasonable amount on hand in case of emergency, or to charity.

Therefore, it had surprised Luna to find the note there, and it stated quite plainly that he wished her to visit him in his dreams this night. She had tried to send a return correspondence, to tell him of her busy night schedule, but failed to find the stallion anywhere in the city. She would have searched for him more rigorously, but a princess can only rightly use the resources of the city guard to a certain extent, and her conscience had been the first to dutifully inform her that taking all the manpower away from guarding the city and put it into searching it for one lone stallion.... Well, it wasn’t the best use of her influence.

So, she had done her duties as fast as possible, and now, close to one o’clock in the morning, she finally cleared her to do list and was ready for sleep to take her. All she needed now was to force sleep upon herself. This necessity came from long ago when she once performed a forceful sleep spell after an extremely annoying night. Unfortunately, her enchantment allowed her no way to be awoken, giving her no way to save the one thing she cared about, and ruined any chance of falling asleep naturally ever again.

With a shake of her head, she removed these dark thoughts from her mind and put it fully on the magic cradling her mind to sleep, being careful that it was only going to put her into a light sleep so she could be awoken by her guards if need be. She felt her consciousness fading, and her mind make desperate attempts to ensure her magic was working correctly even as her body became limp and her muscles completely unbound themselves.

It wasn’t long before she found herself in the Aether: a place where the venturing minds of ponies went when they slept. The railroad crossing of the imaginary and the real, the Aether was a wondrous place, and the view alone was probably one of the biggest reasons why Luna found herself returning here. Screens, as she had taken to calling them, floated by: little rectangles with views of the dreams of ponies. She smiled as she saw several dreams float by: happy children in an ice cream shoppe, an awards ceremony, a colt asking a filly friend out for a date.

She found her heart lifted merely by the sights of such happy dreams, but recalled occasions where the majority were not so joyous. There were times when a tragedy had occurred the day prior and tainted the sacred realm with nightmares, terrifying experiences impossible in the real world but acted out to their worst possible ends in the dreams of her subjects. She had done what she could, helping where possible, and things had eventually gone back to their happy mediums.

But she wasn’t here to look at these wonderful dreams, as uplifting as they might be, so she narrowed her search. Normally this task would take quite a while, as sorting through the dreams of every pony was not an easy feat, but she was looking for a dream that had quite a specific feel to it: a feeling of... incorrectness that bled through the entirety of it. Like cabbage-flavored ice cream.

She found it easily enough amongst the dreams—for even though it was the mind of a pony, and thus linked to the Aether, it was the soul of a human—and that was something that none of the other dreams had. She gazed into the dream for a moment, but could only see falling snow; Hendrick was nowhere to be seen. She stood still briefly, preparing herself to enter the dream and admiring the dreams around her for just a little while longer. With a comfortable smile on her face, she stepped through.

She came out on the other side, all in one piece, and looked around for Hendrick, locating him easily. He stood next to her in his human body and as Luna looked down she noticed she had taken the human form that had become commonplace in Hendrick’s dreams. He smiled at her as she looked at her hands, still not entirely used to suddenly switching body types without any kind of loss in motor control.

Then again, it was a dream.

“I’m glad you could make it,” Hendrick said with a light, airy tone in his voice. “I’m very sorry for giving you the runaround tod— Yesterday.” His smile widened a bit and he looped his arm around hers like a chauffeur, walking through the snow with her

Luna smiled in return, enjoying the moment for what it was. “Your note made it seem like you had something to tell me,” she stated, her meaning clear in her words. “I meant to tell you I wasn’t going to be able to come here as soon as you might have hoped, but I couldn’t seem to find you anywhere. I searched every street and didn’t even glimpse you.”

“Ah, that’s because I spent most of the day furnishing my new house,” he said with a wide smile.

Luna smiled in return, keeping up the easy pace with Hendrick has they meandered through the dream. She quickly came to realize that it was a park, some kind of memory that Hendrick held from when he was human, as the detail was astounding, especially in the very modest dress Luna found herself in. In comparison, Hendrick’s outfit seemed dull and worn, as if very little thought had gone into it at all.

“I don’t suppose I could get the address for this home of yours?” Luna bobbed along, her high heels proving to be a bit of trouble despite the dream having made everything else easier for her. “I would very much like to see it at some point.”

“I’ll tell you as soon as it’s done being furnished. I want to invite everyone over for a housewarming party. My friends have brought so much joy into my life over this past year and I desperately want to share it. To make them smile.” His faced seemed to brighten the area around him as he smiled once more, this grin filled joy like none other had been.

Luna, however, found herself slightly slipping in her mind. She had hoped that, after all they had been through, they might be a bit more than friends. Of course, straight up love might be a bit of a stretch; they had a somewhat shaky relationship with each other, especially since Hendrick’s event, after which he had spent a large portion of his time on finding out who he really was. It hadn’t been some massive event, and Luna suspected he might not have even known he did it, but he had changed. It wasn’t a bad change; it just took some getting used to. She just feared that one day he might change too much, that he wouldn’t be the same person who had kissed her that one night, having wished that to be his last act before he died.

Hendrick caught on to the frown that hung heavy in Luna’s heart, easily spotting the descending sadness slowly taking her thoughts, and realized immediately what he had said to trigger this in the princess’s heart. “Luna...” he started, grabbing her attention with her name and turning her face to his through words alone. “There is another reason why I asked you here.”

Luna turned fully to look at Hendrick, her arm slipping out of his as she turned. Upon losing contact with each other, they instinctively grasped each other’s hands, neither of them noticing the act. “It’s also the reason why I asked you to come to my dreams, so I could be in my human form tonight. I wanted to be comfortable in my own skin when I said this, so that I wouldn’t mess up.”

Luna nodded and Hendrick coughed to clear his throat, the last thing he needed was to choke on his own words. “Love...” he started slowly, but then back tracked, realizing he hadn’t fully explained what he was about to say. “What I mean to say is, I’ve been asking ponies about what they think love is.” Luna remembered Shining Armor relaying his discussion with Hendrick to her. It had been the reason she had gone to see him the day she found the note. “And they’ve all told me very different things, different things you do when you are in love, and I’ve done none of those things for you.” Luna instantly feared where this conversation was going, but let Hendrick continue. He had a tendency to surprise.

“Vinyl suggested that you take people you love to dubstep concerts.” He smiled. “Octavia was listening in and cut her off, stating that you took them to orchestral concerts. I’m sure Shining Armor already told you what he told me, and I don’t feel like I need you to love me, because we are both happy right now. Front Page said that real love means you don’t edit what you want to say, but I do that all the time. So, I was desperate at this point, and I went to talk to Moon Light, having made sure she was done with her homework ahead of time. And do you know what she said?”

Luna felt a blush coming to her cheeks by this point. “What did she say?”

“ ‘Love... is like snow.’ ” He smiled as he quoted the filly, looking around at the shining white world around them. Luna smiled wide at the words and glanced at the falling specks of ivory that dotted the air and landscape. Hendrick coughed and tapped his chin for a moment to make sure he had fully memorized what he was about to say. “ ‘Both are created by an extensive series of events that can’t often be predicted. Such events include not only climate and location, in the case of snow, but also how various variables react with one another.’ ”

“Wow.” Luna blinked. “She said that?”

“Word for word.”

The snow fell around them in swirling gusts, a world of chaotic white dancing surrounding the pair as they stood amongst the weather. Luna understood now why her own outfit was so detailed while Hendrick’s was so plain. This entire world had been built from his own memory. He had been to this park; he had seen the dress. Every piece of their current world was composed of some part of the man’s memory. With this in mind, Luna looked to the sky and saw an amazing array of stars that stunned even her. The longer she looked at it, the more she came to realize that she had seen that sky before.

“It’s what it looked like, my first night here, that night when I ran away from you and your palace. I remember I was horribly scared. My surroundings were different; I was afraid I had gone mad, and if I hadn’t gone mad, I had just insulted some very high ranking ponies.” He stopped for a moment in his speech, recalling it to himself with his words. “And then I looked up, and it was so beautiful...”

“And the dress?” Luna asked, curiosity overtaking her better judgement once again. She saw a pained look on Hendrick’s face and quickly recalled the question, stating it didn’t matter, and unlike the last time this had happened, he gladly accepted the easy way out.

They stood there for a long moment, stargazing in silence, until she felt Hendrick move by her side. She turned to look at him and, after a moment, his mood seemed to change suddenly. He made to move towards her, but stopped in a fit of hesitation. He seemed frozen as he stood there and his eyes had a look to them like something was just out of his reach. Then, as the fight within him seemed to come to an end, he sighed. His body relaxed, he glanced down at the ground, and he didn’t say anything.

Luna had just decided to ask if everything was alright when he suddenly took a step forward and kissed her on the forehead. A blush painted Luna’s cheeks pink and she swooned slightly, ever so slightly, in her stance.

Hendrick didn’t speak for a moment as he stood there, his only action that of taking a half step back so he could look into Luna’s eyes, his hands still tightly holding hers. He smiled a half smile and then slowly let go, letting their fingers unknit and allowing their arms to fall to their sides. If he noticed the heat on her face, he didn’t mention it. He had always been like that: kind.

Luna took a moment to process what had just happened. It had been as unexpected as his first kiss had been and she felt the same now as she had then: shock mixed with a child-like giddiness.

“It won’t be easy,” Hendrick said eventually, breaking the silence.

Luna smiled at that and grasped Hendrick’s hand in hers once again. “I never said it would be easy. I just said we would do it together.”

Author's Note

Staple Catcus has volunteered to take all blame for this chapter if you think it's a bit off from the rest.

Very generous of him, given that none of it is actually his fault.

Chapter Four

Two changelings held each others gaze, one managing to do so with what little life remained in his body. His eyes traced through the foggy air to the queen, whom stood over him with an apathetic sheen to her eyes. He didn’t care, really, about what she had just done. He didn’t care about the green ichor that bled through his split exoskeleton and pooled around him. He didn’t care about the judgement that even now was being wound about the queen’s horn. He didn’t even care about how she had decided to dispose of his corpse after she was done.

No, none of that mattered in light of the look in her eyes, that all of this and more she had done without a care either way as to his own experience. Perhaps it would have been easier to bear if she had gloated or ranted about how weak he was, about how easily she had overpowered him. Instead, she looked at him as less than a weakling. She looked at him like he were so far below her he didn’t even matter at all.

Her spell was near finished now and she began to walk away. He watched her go with a cold gaze, wanting to say something that would haunt her after he had died, something that someone would remember when he no longer existed in this world. But, he didn’t know what to say, and that tore him apart inside. There were no vengeful words that would fill that queen’s empty heart, and there was no one else to whom he could direct his words, so he let her go in peace and wondered if she was, at least, appreciative of that.

Always the soldier, he took his punishment with honor, with servitude, with silence. The spell lured his memories away from his head, like fish chasing bait. He felt each individual thought disappear, giving him one last second to remember them before they faded into the abyss that began to take his mind by storm.

His acceptance into the queen’s court, his family’s congratulations... torn from him. His most precious mementos were taken away by force, removed from his life, leaving a large hole that felt all the more empty when he knew something should be there but couldn’t place what. This was her ultimate torture: to tear away a changeling’s identity. This was removal from the hivemind at its peak. After putting all your soul into something, you found that thing taken away from you.

But she had left him one thing, to strengthen the horror of what would occur next. She had left him with things that had been ingrained into his body. Maybe she hadn’t had a choice. He had no idea. Perhaps those were things that simply couldn’t be taken away, but it meant that what happened next was only going to be all the worse.

His breath was stolen from his lungs, his eyes were covered in white, and his entire being was transferred a great distance in nearly no time at all. He was going where he wasn’t supposed to go with teleportation; there were consequences to it. The world shook as his trip met its end, his head throbbing against his skull in vicious pulses as the magic sought to turn his bones to dust and torture his soul with unexplainable pain. Agonizing second after second, the torment decayed into a dull throb, marked by the slow appearance of pony silhouettes against the sharp white of his manic vision.

Grand, gripping fear tortured him as he lay there, unable to move from weakness. The ponies would be his executioners, and he had no doubt they would find some way to make up for all the trouble he had caused them. He saw them, looking at him, stunned by his arrival. A shout echoed through his head, one of war and attack, but the bells were louder and it sounded muted in comparison.

He saw a pony running towards him and his mind told him this might be his attacker, but he wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter anyway, in the long run. His instincts tried to move to a counterattack, but he was simply too worn down to move at all. Truth of the matter was, he was entirely at their mercy. They would need to act quick, though, if they meant to kill him; he could feel his body slowly disintegrating his bonds to reality, trying desperately to put him to sleep so his energy could be put into healing. Too little, too late.

The charging pony suddenly leaped over him, sailing past and behind. The changeling tried to turn his head to follow the silhouette, but failed. The only input he was given was the eerie silence that caught the air a moment later, an ominous foreboding dredging up through the ground in the absence of noise. However, at that particular moment, the changeling cared little for suspense, and instead took this moment to fade into his deep, deep slumber.

He awoke in a hospital, his mind as empty as the royal coffers after a cake sale. A new born baby in a trained and rigid body, he couldn’t quite make up who he was, where he was, only that things were most definitely in a bad place right now. His eyes flickered open as if they were unsure of whether they wanted to look or not, and the changeling slowly rose up to look at his surroundings.

Across from him, he spotted a pony with white fur and an electric blue mane that bobbed back and forth to a simple and yet complex hum that she provided for herself. By her feet he saw a smaller pony that traced a paper with worn-to-naught crayons. He was silent as he moved, not wanting to alert them. Then, he stopped completely, his mind leaving his body behind as he looked back on what he doing. He couldn’t quite process what his intentions had been moments ago, unsure of why he didn’t want them to know he was awake.

It was a horrible feeling and it almost made the changeling vomit then and there. His mind said one thing and his body said another. He wanted nothing more than to hide right now, but it didn’t make any sense. In the end, he decided to follow his gut right now and began to slide his hoof out from under the blanket, letting it slowly fall toward the floor.

Just before it touched the chilled boards, the voice of the pony came to him in a sudden burst. “Luna asked that you stay in your bed, if you don’t mind.” Her words haunted him for a moment, even more so when he realized the pony was facing away from him. Carefully, he pulled his leg back up and swung it beneath his sheets. The smaller pony looked over at him, smiled, and waved.

When he waved back, her smile widened a bit more, before she turned back to the paper and continued her work. The changeling was content as he lay there, blissfully not knowing what he didn’t know, that he’d lost his name, his being, his entire self. It was an entirely different person in that body now, his soul altered and shifted like a jenga tower and his memories pulled out one by one, each time his psyche becoming more and more unstable. Now, here, in this place, he was at peace. He was at peace for the first time in years, but he wasn’t quite there to enjoy it.

The door to the room opened and Luna walked in, her illustrious coat of blue shimmering like stars and awe radiating from her beauty. The changeling was, more or less, a child again: everything forgotten, everything new. But some things are so ingrained they can’t be lost, and even now, emotions of peace conflicted with emotions of panic, his insides squirming like civilians caught in no pony’s land.

She walked towards him with unflinching eyes, and he met her gaze with his own deep blue pools. He watched her, watched how her body exclaimed her confidence to the rafters for all to hear. She approached him slowly and thoughtfully as he lay in the bed. Then, suddenly, her eyes danced away from him and towards the nearby window. She changed her course, and moved past him without a word, taking herself to the paned glass that offered a sprawling view of Canterlot.

“How’s Hendrick doing?” The white mare spoke up, not making eye contact. And all the while, the changeling was merely a third wheel.

“He’s improving. He should be out of rehab by tomorrow, they said.”

“Heals fast, doesn’t he?”

“They said he wasn’t hurt enough to merit rehab in the first place, but he insisted and paid them, so they agreed to work with him. I imagine he’s happy to have a reason to—” She stopped herself, realizing she wasn’t alone in the room, as if she had been talking to herself the whole time. “—learn,” she finished vaguely.

The white pony laughed in response. “I know how much he loves to learn, but you’d think he’d have learned all about walking in the past dozen or so years.”

“Yes, I suppose you would.” The statement seemed subconscious, no meaning put into the words by their speaker. Luna paced idly, showing how unsettled she was by the situation.

Trying to take her mind off of it, or at least to get her to do something, the mare tried to keep the conversation going. “Any word from Celestia?”

“No, not yet.”

They both fell into uneasy silence for a few minutes, until Luna turned to the changeling. “Can you walk?”

The changeling didn’t know, but he thought it might be worth a try at least. He slowly inched out from under the covers, his movements jittery with a strange fear. He touched down, his legs supporting his body with ease, and looked to the shining mare for further instructions. She merely nodded towards the window.

He hesitated, but slowly made his way over. He stood at the window and followed the princess’s gaze to the ground below, where he saw a large mess of color, like a surging spill of paint. It took him a while to realize that each color was a pony, jostling in a massive crowd with signs over their heads.

“They want you dead,” Luna said in a cold tone, and the changeling’s eyes widened in response. Why did they want him dead? He couldn’t know why. It seemed a very knee jerk reaction to having someone in a hospital bed. “My sister has locked herself up in her room, and I can’t blame her.” Luna sighed heavily. “As soon as she comes out, she’ll be besieged with questions. She’ll be expected to know the best course of action as soon as she shows her face. Everypony will expect her to know what the best course of action is.”

“Everypony?” the D.J. asked, her voice itself implying something that the changeling couldn’t put his hoof on.

“I’m not proud of it,” Luna responded, her words subdued.

The reality of the situation killed the room, everyone dead aside from the little filly who had just finished her work. She stood hurriedly and ran over to the changeling, her art held in the tips of her lips to avoid getting it wet. He turned to look at it and felt an odd smile touch his face. Luna joined the viewing and smiled as well.

A black changeling with its big blue eyes was standing next to, as the filly had named them, 'Mommy Tavi', 'Mommy Scratch', 'Me', and 'Hendrick'. Aside from the ponies, the only other decoration on the picture were the red roses in the background. Or it might have been polka dot christmas wall paper; crayons aren’t the best for precision.

Chapter Five

The changeling took the opportunity to glance around the room, attempting to sneak a cursory peek at how surrounded he was without giving away his intention. He took a drink of the soup in front of him. It tasted bitter, just as most normal food did, but it made him look casual and thoughtful, so it was a good charade. His large blue eyes studied his surroundings in a wide lens, yet masked where he was looking like a large pair of sunglasses. Just from this position, he could count four pairs of guards, each one flanking an exit to the room and looking straight forward with a steely gaze and stiff unmoving bodies. Intimidating would be an understatement.

With a sudden panic, the changeling realized he’d held the spoon to his mouth for a bit too long, and when he returned his attention to the princess in front of him, he was met with a pair of cold eyes. Slowly, he lowered his foreleg to the table, the spoon tied to it coming along for the ride. The princess nodded once and took a large bite out of the sandwich in front of her, having not eaten for the past day out of fret and worry.

She managed to look noble even with the large snack stuffed so she could barely chew. Whether it was natural or practiced, the changeling didn’t know; perhaps pony princesses were just born with unmatched grace. Even in these past few days he’d had to observe her actions, he had to admit she was just as much a mystery to him as she had been when they first met.

He’d told her he lacked any memory of anything, but... well... that hadn’t helped his situation. He supposed that, if the dark whispers and sideway glances meant anything, he couldn’t really blame her. From what he had managed to gather, he was a changeling, and changelings had attacked the ponies, and the ponies had taken great emotional and mental damage as a side effect despite their victory in the end. So, really, a changeling showing up in your capital claiming ignorance would be hard-pressed to find people who would so much as delay a lynching in their name, let alone treating them as the ponies were now.

A clatter rose up from the other end of hospital cafeteria, and pony and changeling turned to see. A stallion had shot up from his seat, dislodging his plate as he did so, and was now staring heatedly towards the changeling, fire and rage burning and crackling just under his irises. But that fire quickly smouldered away, hiding itself inside the stallion’s heart once again. Turning, the changeling looked to the two other ponies who had taken up positions by his side, two large guards standing at either side of him and looking towards the stallion with a deadening glare that could crack glass at close range.

Slowly and still full of burning rage, he sat back down and looked towards his plate. The guards stood by the changeling for a moment before they went back to their post. Curious, he looked back to Luna, who was carefully chewing her sandwich, unamused by the minor disturbance. When at last she swallowed, he prepared to ask his question, but she answered it before it could even leave his lips.

“We are here to protect you, not imprison you. Not until my sister makes her judgement, at least.”

Some might say it only raised more questions, more than it answered, but those people would be exaggerating for the purpose of a story. Truth was, it only brought up one question, one as large as it was open ended, and he feared it. It towered over him ominously, casting a long dark shadow that felt like it would choke him to death.

An answer would smite the beast, admittedly, but what then? What would fill in the space? And what would stop it from falling on him? The changeling’s eyes moved quickly to the table and soup, almost eager to let the thought of bland, bitter food choke his curiosity. He sat there, eyeing his food, letting an unsaid threat bind his tongue with silence.

Luna nodded slightly, knowing the feeling well, and not just from her past. She could feel its familiar grip on her heart, and as much as she wanted to tell him he didn’t need to worry, she didn’t feel like lying at the particular moment. Because, as she had learned and learned again, he really did.

She took another bit of her sandwich and looked out the nearby window, the glass showing a pristine world high above the throng of ponies that ebbed and flowed with the normal work hours. She suspected they would give up in a few days, but their feelings would not, and that was her utmost concern.

“Who’s Hendrick.” The tone was slightly demanding: not as a question, but as a command, a statement, as something he wanted answered. It was the tone of a ruler, a leader, or a tyrant, and it was a tone she had thought she would never hear in Canterlot ever again. He didn’t seem to register how forceful his words had been, continuing his shy lunch as if he hadn’t spoken to her as a superior.

Luna looked deep into the blue eyes of the changeling, but they hid the truth far better than the eyes of ponies, as if his face was covered in a dark and tinted shadow, like a gambler’s face. She couldn’t get any read on his feelings, or his intentions. Luna looked at the nearest guard, who kept his steely eyes forward, and saw the fear hidden just under his lens, the emotions that this intruder of her realm lacked in his.

After a moment of silent examination, Luna turned her mind to the ‘question’ that had been posed to her and found it hard to answer for herself as well. Hendrick was different things to different ponies, just like everypony else, but he wasn’t easily described. Not to her anyway, not now. Hero… didn’t sound right. He was less than that, but only by his own admission. Hero’s were the stuff of legends, the north mark on a moral compass. But for all their acts of selflessness, they always felt fake, and fake was something that Hendrick wasn’t.

“He’s…” She felt the word slip out of her lips unbidden, but now found herself on the spot to finish what she was going to say. “...A friend.” She dipped her head shallowly in shame and picked her sandwich from the table to take another bite.

The changeling was confused by how vague the princess had suddenly become. It was splayed all over his face, even in his far away eyes. “A friend?” The words felt heavy as they fell out, and they felt even emptier. He didn’t understand what that was supposed to mean. Just a friend? From everything the changeling had heard of him, that was all Luna would tell him? Why? Did she not trust him enough to tell him everything?

“To everyone.” Both looked to the guard nearby, who had spoken while keeping his gaze and face unaffected by any kind of emotion. “A friend to everyone, especially those in need of one… and more than that to some.”

The changeling pondered the question, but before too long, he restarted his staring contest with the table. “Even me?”

“Well,” Luna stated simply, “he did save your life.”

“That only proves he’s a good stallion, one who would risk their life for a stranger. It doesn’t mean he’s a friend to me.” Luna and the guard shared a glance, both of them unable to find a rebuttal to that statement.

“Well hey, we’ll be your friends.” The voice was Octavia’s, the other mare who would come to guard the room during the nights, even though she always brought a female unicorn guard with her to help. Octavia would spend most of the night writing frantically on a sheet of music, only occasionally remembering to look up at the bed. The female guard would just stand in front of the door, looking everywhere except at the changeling. Regardless of how busy she was, though, Octavia would always find time during her visits to chat. And often times, she would try, and fail, to include the silent guard in their conversations.

Today, she approached with Vinyl by her side and her ever bouncy child who led the way pridefully. Their trays were being held aloft by Vinyl’s magic, but it was only for a short period of time before they landed on either side of the Changeling’s own. He snuffed and rolled his eyes at the act, but the trio sat around regardless, a small act that made him happy despite his outward appearance to the contrary.

“Why would you want to be friends with the changeling? Aren’t you worried you’ll be shunned for being weird?”

Vinyl snorted a laugh in response. “What? Really?” She coughed suddenly, knowing full well that Octavia was about to smack her, despite her blindness. “I don’t think you need to worry about us being weirdos for being your friends, Changey. We’re already ‘those lesbian mothers who adopted an at needs child despite their tragically different personalities.’” Her voice grew snotty as she said this, adding a silly tone to the words and making Moon Light laugh. A fair distance away, a mare huffed angrily and left the room.

Vinyl felt a hoof smack across her skull, rattling her thoughts and leaving her stunned by the unexpected attack. “You can’t make fun of ponies in public, Vinyl. It’s in bad taste.” Octavia took a sip of her tea, adopting a frown onto her face from the bad taste of it. “No matter how true it might be.”

Vinyl’s smile regained its full strength, but remained silent. Moon Light stifled a laugh. ‘Changey’ let the corners of his lips turn upwards as well. “Thanks, but I thought I asked you to stop calling me ‘Changey’.”

“Oh yea, you did,” Vinyl said, passing it off as it were nothing. “But you still haven’t decided on a name, so I need to call you something.”

“Everypony else just calls me ‘it’.”

“Well everypony else is an idiot.” Vinyl had but a moment to process what she had just said when another hit struck her. “Including me,” she added after the blow landed.

The changeling snickered in response. Octavia looked at him with a raised eyebrow and drank another sip of her tea, the combined effect giving her an air of power and strength that killed the snickers immediately. “Well, I don’t know what I should go by. I mean, you guys are the only ones who’ll use it anyway. Why don’t you just pick one.”

“I still vote for ‘Changey’, then,” Vinyl added immediately, ducking another swing from Octavia, who was beginning to laugh despite herself.

“I wanna call you ‘Blue’,” Moonlight added nonchalantly, “after your eyes.”

“I change my vote,” Vinyl announced, “I wanna call him ‘Blue’ as well.”

“It’s a respectable enough name, I think. And if he agrees, then I would have no quarrel with using it.”

Everyone looked to ‘Blue’, awaiting his response. It was almost immediate. “I like it. Let’s go with ‘Blue’ then, for now. If I decide I don’t like it, I can always change it later.” A smile crossed Blue’s face as he turned to look across the table. “What do you think, Princess…” His voice died away as he saw the empty seat.

“How long has she been gone?” He asked, turning to the guard.

“She left a few minutes after Octavia, Vinyl, and Moon Light arrived. She’s been waiting for a free moment to talk to Hendrick, who’s been seemingly avoiding her for the past few days.” The changeling was about to ask why he had gotten all the other information when the guard realized he had said a bit too much. “But you didn’t hear that from me.”

Blue and Octavia shared a glance. “Riiiiiiiiiight.”

Author's Note

I had this whole tangent about how ponies' sandwiches actually taste like salads and they use salad dressing instead of mayo and their bread tastes like soft croutons, but that didn't make it into the final cut.

Edited By The Glorious StapleCactus. High Man on High who doth read my stories and deems them worth polishing, I salute thee Staples, may the likes on your favorited story grow favorably.

Chapter Six

When Luna entered Hendrick’s house, the lighting was moody and dark, as if ignored by the owner of the building. Her mind filled with worry about what could have happened to cause it. Hendrick was, after all, widely known to be a supporter of the changeling, the leader and only reason he was still alive. Luna knew that that had been thrust upon him, that he hadn’t wanted to choose that path, but all those angry ponies didn’t.

She looked back at the door to the building, loose and swinging, unlocked and ajar when she had arrived. Her heart filled with desperation, but she knew that rushing into a bad situation would only make things worse. The house was quiet, so either the struggle was over, hadn’t existed, or had yet to occur. In all three of these possibilities, running through the house like a maniac would only end badly.

She lit her horn, the deep blue glow of her magic disguising itself against the walls, imitating the shadows of moonlight. Her hooves began to emit a dark purple smoke and she let her magic fade. Taking a careful step forward, her hoof came down unheard even to her own ears. She might’ve smiled at her skill, were not the situation so possibly dire.

She lurked in the building, unheard and unseen. With slinking steps that took her through every room, her mind recalled the layout from the house warming Hendrick had held not long ago. Each room, kitchen, parlor, living room, dining room. One after the other, they all proved to be empty and quiet, and for a moment, a dim hope began to start that perhaps she had overreacted. After all, they were only mad at the changeling at this point, and Hendrick had been so helpful to everyone in the town. There was no reason for them to attack him.

Yet, still, she had a disturbing feeling that fluttered in her heart, keeping her from ever truly feeling at peace. Not until she knew Hendrick was safe, not until he was alive and smiling and reassuring her that everything was okay, would she stop being on edge. Until then, she would keep her silent steps and her cautious demeanor.

Room after room proved clear, until only one room remained, and Luna had saved it for last in hopes that she wouldn’t need to check it. Hendrick’s bedroom was located on the opposite side of the house from all the other rooms, and she had purposefully worked her way around it. She didn’t want to wake him abruptly from much needed sleep, should her worries prove baseless. The princess had intended to visit him earlier in the day, of course, but a letter arrived from Shining Armor about several issues that needed to be addressed back at the castle and they had ended up taking more of her time than she would have liked.

There was a faint hope that this was one of the nights when Hendrick would be awake into the night, as he did on occasion need to finish up some last minute work for Front Page. The very last thing she wanted was to wake him up. She had looked through dreams before coming and hadn’t seen his in the tangle of threads anywhere in that realm, so she suspected it might work out after all.

Instead, she found herself sneaking through a quiet and still house with possibly nothing wrong at all. It hadn’t quite been the night that she had planned, to say the least. Still, perhaps Hendrick would be in his room, awake, and they could have some iced tea from the fridge. They could talk about how his therapy had went, and he could show off what he’d learned, and she could laugh, and they could enjoy the night until Hendrick had to go to bed and Luna had to go to the castle, both of them waiting for their next meeting. Simply wanting to be with each other.

Those thoughts were dashed when she saw the bedroom door ajar and heard pained, heavy panting from inside.

Immediately, Luna cast a detection spell. It was vague—it needed to be to keep low visibility—but it told her that there were two bodies in the room: one prone, the other leaning against the bed. Determined and fearing the worst, she swung the door open with a burst of magic and jumped through the threshold, casting a shield around herself, a shield that she immediately dropped when she saw what was waiting for her.

Shining Armor lay out cold on the floor, and Hendrick had himself pushed against the bed, his body tense in reaction to her sudden arrival. “Howgoesthewatch!” he shouted and sputtered immediately when he saw who it was, his entire body still tense but clearly devoid of any energy to do much else.

“Wha—Hendrick?!”

“Answer the question. How goes the watch?!”

She looked at the body of the unconscious captain near her hooves and it slowly began to dawn on her. “All’s calm and good, Hendrick,” she said, realizing that it was. For both of them. Hendrick’s shoulder slumped and relief filled his eyes as his muscles loosened their hold. “All’s calm and good,” she repeated before sitting next to him, wrapping a wing around his shaking form.

She turned her attention to the body on the ground as Hendrick’s shivers died away. She lit a very basic, very simple spell and dropped it on the form. A suffusion of blue emanated from the body and the white fur and familiar traits of Shining Armor slowly died away until all that remained was the black and green husk of a changeling. Both ponies stared at it, silence drowning out all the other noises of the night, with thoughts on why it was here and what it had been hoping to accomplish.

Luna broke the silence as she broke her stare away from the unconscious changeling. “Are you alright?” she said at last, more than slightly angry at herself for not asking sooner.

Hendrick offered a half smile to ease her guilt before he spoke up. “I’m fine. Neither of us had weapons, so it was mostly hitting each other with hooves. Which, of course, still hurt, but I’ll heal from a bruise a lot better than I will from a cut.”

“So then…” Luna glanced at the phony, “what happened?”

“Well, imagine my surprise when Shining Armor shows up at my door, telling me that Celestia had made her judgement on the changeling’s life when, not even a few hours earlier, I had seen her for a brief moment at the castle and how heavily wracked with torment she was.” He heaved himself to his feet with the help of Luna, then interrupted his story. “Do you have any binding magic for him? Don’t hurt him, just make sure he can’t run away.” Hendrick winced at a tone that had started to leak into his words, then looked into Luna’s eyes. “Please. Sorry.” She gave him a half smile to reassure him that all was forgiven, then she bound the changeling with some proper blue chains.

Slowly, they made their way towards the kitchen as Hendrick continued his story. “Anyway, so that set up some flags for me. Because as she certainly hadn’t made a decision when I saw her before, and even if she had made a decision after I left, I suspect she would’ve been tortured by it for a few days before admitting it was the correct one. That’s just who she is.” Luna found she had to agree with this deduction. He stumbled slightly, and she quickly steadied him.

“After all that trouble of learning how to walk, and now I have a bruised rib,” he said idly. “Guess I’ll have to ask Front Page for tomorrow off. Oh, wait, before I forget, can you send a message to Cadence? Tell her to check Shining Armor’s closet. I think that might be where he’s at.” Luna nodded, deciding she could question him about that deduction later. Her horn lit up and a brief burst of magic shot into the air, passing harmlessly through the roof on the way out. “Thank you. I hate to make you do this for me, like I’m an old helpless man.”

“It’s fine, Hendrick.” Luna was quick to try and relieve his fears.

“It really isn’t, though.” he responded immediately, a determined tone haunting his words. Luna decided to let the conversation die.

“Right, so, anyway...” He seemed to be growing annoyed with his own story, more out of being tired than out of anything else. “Blah blah blah, I asked him the question, he said ‘Oh, okay. Nothing bad happened, anyway.’ We got in a fight and now I’m acting like a wounded gazelle on the Serengeti. I think that means you’re all caught up.” He shook his head and a yawn escaped his lips. “I guess that means the adrenaline is wearing off.” He looked around the room quickly, then detoured away from the kitchen and towards the living room where a plush couch awaited him. “Can you do me one more favor, Luna? Can you make sure nothing tries to kill me while I’m asleep?”

“That depends. Did you get hit in the head hard by that changeling?” She said, sudden worry of a concussion entering her mind.

“No, it was mostly hits on the center of mass for both of us.”

“Then yes, Hendrick, I’ll make sure you aren’t disturbed.”

“Thank you so much, Luna,” he mumbled, his mind bumbling around as brains are wont to do before they give up and let the owner rest. “I love you,” he said in his delirium before he fell asleep. Unfortunately, this meant that he missed the burning red blush that immediately met Luna’s cheeks.

Shaking off the burning in her face, Luna turned her attention to Hendrick. His body was covered in blue as she examined the wounds he suffered. He’d been right about the bruised rib, but his entire barrel was covered in blunt wounds as well. Smaller and less important, certainly, but no doubt painful.

She put into work some of the basic medical knowledge she had learned from the nurses. It was more of a delay for actual treatment, but it ensured his wounds and pain wouldn’t escalate while he slept.

Next, she set up an unfiltered security spell on the building and a second, more focused one, on the changeling. If anything entered the house, anything at all, she would know. The same basic idea went for the changeling; movement was recorded as magical impulse and sent straight to her.

She secured the home, locking all entrances, and double-checked each of them before she sent a message to her night guard that she wouldn’t be able to hold court tonight. The reason was left unsaid, but she suspected that they knew why all the same. Throughout the majority of the night, she rested, ever awake next to Hendrick. She checked in on Blue multiple times that night with magical reconnaissance and relayed messages, but each time, she was told that nothing had happened, which was a relief.

Luna and Hendrick had come to an unsaid agreement, in the brief time they’d been awake together, that the reason the changeling had taken the place of Shining Armor had to have something to do with Blue. Nothing else made sense. What the reason was, though, neither could guess.

As dawn began to approach and Luna felt her own need for sleep rising, she began to wander around the house, always checking in with the sleeping Hendrick. She double-checked on the changeling and found him still unconscious in Hendrick’s room. Surprised he hadn’t woken up at some point during the night, she wondered just how strongly Hendrick had hit him to keep him out cold for an entire night.

Unfortunately, both beings who could answer that question weren’t able to at that moment, so it was simply another mystery for now. She closed the door behind her on the way out, renewing her spell on the chains as well as the security before she left.

Minutes before dawn, Luna closed her eyes. She felt the pull of Celestia, asking and suggesting at the same time, and she felt the closeness of the moon on her soul. In simultaneous agreement, the sisters shifted the ruling body of the sky and let the moon keep track of the opposite side of the world.

She sighed as she returned to her body and made to take a step. She forgot, however, just how disorienting it was when she wasn’t in a familiar room after she moved the moon. So, instead of moving forward with a careful stride, she instead ran into an armoire that had been standing nearby. Nothing broke, luckily, but a small blue box did tip off the top of it, landing at her feet and springing open as if by some mysterious force.

Inside, she saw a dazzling ring, sapphires lining a silver hoop in resplendent clarity. She almost choked on something that wasn’t there, having been completely taken by surprise. Hurriedly, she clicked it closed and put it back in its hiding spot, pretending that she hadn’t seen it at all. When she entered the living room again, she saw Hendrick slipping off the couch and onto the floor.

“Have a good sleep, Hendrick?” she asked politely.

“Perfect.” He smiled. “I hope the night passed without any trouble?”

She nodded and excused herself, stating that there were a lot of things she needed to catch up on and wishing Hendrick the best of luck at the hospital. He replied happily and wished her the best of luck with her errands before she was out of the door. The whole thing felt rushed, but polite, and Luna suspected that Hendrick wasn’t at all put on edge by her demeanor. The last thing she wanted was to make him feel like now he had to propose.

Back in his house, however, Hendrick went about his morning routine. The first stop of which was to look at a small blue box on top of an armoire. Immediately, his face fell and his eyes went half lidded. He looked at the box, slightly depressed. It was off center and had been turned around the wrong way. “Dangit,” was all he said before he went about the rest of his practice as normal, slightly distracted by the nagging need to decide what he was going to do now.

Chapter Seven

To say that shared meals were tense between the princesses would be an understatement. Even when the wind was fair and all was right in Equestria, there was always an uneasy tension that crawled the room, lurking in the shadows cast by the words. Even more so now, given how sharp the situation was proving to be. They enjoyed each other’s company regardless, but that enjoyment was crippled by the mutual cold emotions that haunted both immortals.

Luna glanced sidelong at Celestia, pretending to simply look at the food on the table. She grabbed something near where her gaze landed and levitated it over, placing it carefully on her plate, then replacing it on the table, hoping the simple act would dissuade her sister from thinking anything was wrong. Luna wanted to ask her about several things; well, several things all tied to one thing. She was afraid, though, that it would anger her sister if she were to learn of Hendrick’s upcoming proposal.

She wouldn’t be angry outright, of course. Luna knew this in the same way she knew that if she reached for those potatoes one more time, she’d give herself away. In fact, any anger it caused would probably die away in merely a month or two. But with the changeling situation going on, Luna didn’t want to distract her from the important decision she had to make. Only recently had she agreed to meet with the rest of the castle staff, but she still did everything in her power to further herself from the general populace, an act that Luna couldn’t scorn. She knew how it felt.

Rather than putting the both of them through that turmoil, Luna was content to imagine answers to the questions she had and fully devote her magic to making a perfect spiraled hole in the mashed potatoes for a gravy volcano. She spun the fork around and around in a tight circle, pushing aside all foolish mushy vegetable that dare stand in her way. Then, without even a thought, she ate those few brave chunks of potato that clung tightly to the prongs of her drill. She poured the gravy and, instead of eating the food, grew distracted and began to knock around some peas that had wound up on her plate, as if suddenly feeling a growing guilt for the victims of her merciless reign on the food.

“Luna,” Celestia said idly, buttering a piece of toast with her magic as she read through a long scroll, the words grasping to the lobes of her brain for but a brief moment before being taken away by the waters of her morning stupor. “I may be almost entirely out of pace, overly devoted to a solution, completely distracted from everything around me, and somewhere far beyond groggy from an early awakening...” Here, she glanced at her sister and her eyes took on a benevolent shine. “But if you think you’re hiding anything from me with your sideway glances, then you’re very mistaken.”

Luna tore her gaze away and took a quick snap of her potato volcano, wanting nothing more than for her sister to drop the question that hadn’t even met the air yet. Celestia looked at her and offered a tired smile. “What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t mean to disturb you, sister,” Luna offered immediately, but with no tone of fealty, only one of respect. “I’m merely not hungry and I just sought to see what else the table might offer that I could convince myself to eat.”

“And each time, you decided, ‘Aw, to heck with it; I’ll just have more potatoes?’” Celestia offered with a jovial grin before taking a bite from her toast with a satisfying crunch. She smiled again when she finished chewing and dabbed some butter from the corner of her mouth. “You’re free to ask me whatever you need to, Luna. Perhaps, all I really need is to step back from the situation at this point, before coming at it with renewed vigor in an hour.”

“I…” Luna started, deciding to cast caution to the wind. “I don’t know what’s wrong. I’m scared and nervous, and my mind is all muddled, but in a strange way that doesn’t seem to handicap my actions. Just... always at the back of my mind, ever present, like a pebble caught on your horseshoe. Not heavily frightening, just always uncomfortable.” Luna sighed, letting the confusing thought of trying to explain her emotions float away. “I…” She stopped herself and looked at Celestia, who nodded on encouragingly. “When I went to see Hendrick last night, I found an engagement ring. That means he intends to propose to me or someone else, and either option is incredibly frightening.”

“Oh. He hasn’t proposed to you, yet?” Celestia said through a mouth half-full of toast. “Something about it must be incredibly threatening to him, then, if he’s still hesitant on it.” She paused and finished chewing her food. Her voice took on an air of drama as she spoke again. “Then again, it would be proposing to the Mover of the Moon, the Guider of Dreams, the... oh, what was it those nomads called you once?”

“The Beauty of the Stars.” Luna offered, regret immediately filling the words.

“Yea, that’s the one.” Celestia smiled again. However, the smile was swift to fall as she noticed that Luna didn’t share in the humor. “Luna, give him time. I assure you, he loves you. He is simply too nervous to go through with it.”

“How do you know?” Luna’s tone was broken as the words dripped from her mouth. “How do I know? Maybe I’m being deluded again, so desperate for love I’m just imagining it.”

“Luna. Stop.” Celestia had finished her toast in the same way that, even after only a phrase, she was finished with the path that her sister seemed intent to go down. “Hendrick loves you; I can vouch for that. I wasn’t sure myself. Not even a month ago, I still doubted his intentions. You’d always talk about this other side of him that I’d never seen before, that he didn’t show others very often. But, ah, I hope he doesn’t mind if I break the promise I made him.

“Luna, about three weeks ago now, before this entire changeling debacle, Hendrick came to me to ask me a question.” Celestia’s face was dour as she spoke, as if to enforce on Luna how serious she was being at this moment. “He brought with him some fifty pages of small type, but he didn’t reveal what it was until we’d gone past the opening greetings.”

Celestia paused to make sure Luna was paying full attention to her words. “Each and every single one of them held paragraph upon paragraph of heavily edited reasons as to why he should be allowed to propose to you. Every, single, one. I kid you not, Luna. The words used fit perfectly and flowed as a whole, while maintaining a solid base and removing any kind of tangent you would expect such a set of papers to go on. Like, for instance, many of the nobles who come to us seeking aid in petty affairs. Hendrick shamed every single one of them that day.”

“And when it was all over, even after this massive flood of verbs and nouns, he still asked me, pony to pony, no threat or anger in his voice, if he had my permission to propose.”

“He asked you for permission?!” Luna said, her tone incredulous. But she suddenly paused, her face falling into thought, before it flashed back to its former pose. There was a far more surprising part of that sentence that had been merely glossed over by the speaker, something that was more implied than said. “No wait, ignore that question.” Luna was shaking her head to add emphasize how little her prior query mattered now. “You said yes to him?! Why?!” Luna had entirely given up the food on her plate, it hardly mattered in comparison with this new information. Now, all her attention was fixed firmly on Celestia.

Celestia nodded her head lightly with a smile and took another bite of the toast, taking a sip of tea before the food was entirely gone from her mouth. “I thought about it for several hours, letting Hendrick leave with the promise I would respond soon. As much as he and I don’t see eye to eye, I recognize that he tries his best to be the most moral stallion he can be. A rare feature, even across the several generations I’ve been alive.”

She swallowed the toast easily, taking the rest of the tea with it, and wiped the ever persistent slight smears of butter from her lips. Her face turned serious, and she looked at Luna. “Luna, if Hendrick truly makes you happy, if you truly love him as he so obviously loves you—and I think it’s clear that you do—then I would have to be an inconsiderate witch to stand in between you two any longer. And in all honesty, I regret being as stubborn as I have all this time.

“What I saw when Hendrick showed how much he was willing to do just to ask me if I gave him my permission… I really should have seen it sooner.”

“Tia…” Luna’s muscles began to loosen a tension she didn’t know she’d had. The very last thing she’d expected was for Celestia to bless the relationship, especially after all she had done before. Then, feeling in the moment and deciding proper behavior to be overrated anyway, she wrapped her sister in a tight hug. “Thank you.”

Celestia’s face started out surprised, taken aback by the sudden hug and kind words, then slid into being uncomfortable by the contact, some part of her brain rebelling to the situation. That part was quickly voted off the island by the majority and replaced by a happiness of sorts that slid into each of her facial features, turning her serious face into one calm and kind. It was a look that hadn’t been seen on the solar princess’s face for, at the very least, one thousand years.

They stayed like that for a while, and no one could truly fault them for not moving away. For though Luna had come back to Equestria a few years ago, only now were the sister’s truly being reunited, and neither had the heart or the desire to destroy this one of a kind moment.

“You aren’t a changeling spy, right, sister?” Luna said suddenly, keeping her head cuddled into Celestia. The words were sudden, but they didn’t break the loving tone in Luna’s words.

Celestia couldn’t help but smile at that. “You’re free to check, Luna, if it’ll make you feel better.”

There was a soft glow from Luna’s horn, and it quickly died away. “That’s good. It seemed too good to be true, and I just...”

“It’s fine, Luna. I can’t blame you for it.”

Author's Note

Right, let's see if I can make this clear.

Celestia isn't a villain.

Celestia never was a villain.

Celestia is merely protective of her sister.

That's all, have a good day.

Chapter Eight

Blue felt like he was going to go insane if he had to be cooped up in the hospital one more day. He had been walking circles around his room for the past two hours and it didn’t look like he was going to be stopping anytime soon. One of the reasons was, of course, the striking lack of anything to actually DO in there, but while that was annoying, it wasn’t really important compared to the other reason for the madness that seemed to be clawing at his mind.

He angrily turned without warning and slammed his head into the bed with as much force as he could muster, the mattress cushioning the blow tremendously. He sighed and let his body slide off the mattress, gravity depositing him onto his chest. He laid there for a long time, zoned out, his wings twitching as if to make up for the stillness of his legs. Then, after a few minutes, he realized he was staring directly at the pony who sat in his room, and apparently making her slightly uncomfortable.

He sighed, stood, and proceeded to walk around his room. Again. He didn’t particularly want to talk about what was bothering him, especially to this pony: Front Page, if he remembered right. This was the first day she’d been in the room, but she seemed to be taking it fairly well, given that she was locked in a room with a monster.

Blue strained his neck and looked like he wanted to shout out the anger that was building in his chest, but he didn’t. That would cause all sorts of problems with the guards, and there was no reason to do that. He made his way slowly back to the mattress and sat down on the ground next to it, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths.

“Are you going to tell me what’s caught in your horseshoe or are you going to continue to stew in your own anger?” The words held a tone of hesitance, and Blue knew she did actually care to some degree for some reason. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but she wouldn’t know, a trick that was getting a lot of use by the changeling recently.

Instead of answering her, like Blue might’ve on a better day, he decided to bite back with another question. “Why do you care?”

“Half of it is curiosity, half of it is sympathy.”

Blue appreciated the honesty, at least. He fought with himself about whether to tell her his troubles or keep it inside. On the one hand, if he told her, he would get some degree of closure from it, and closure was something he had precious little of so far. But if he told her, she could very well get the wrong idea. He didn’t know where she stood on the issue of his presence, or if she would gossip about what he might say, and he didn’t particularly want his issues all of over town.

Then, in the end, he decided to tell her. Worst case scenario, Blue figured, would be that everyone found out his deepest fears, and the idea of that was paltry when compared to the fear itself. Blue lifted himself off the ground and sat himself on the end of the bed, facing Front Page. She shared eye contact with him, and he appreciated that she at least cared about what he was going to say.

“What if I’m still a monster?” Blue asked sincerely, looking at Front Page closely to see how she would react. She raised an eyebrow in unspoken question, so Blue decided to elaborate on it. “I mean, I have amnesia, right? I know just as much about changelings as you ponies do. There’s no guarantee I won’t just turn into a monster as soon as I’m out of here.” He flinched at the words, realizing how poorly he phrased that. Front Page seemed to look past it, however, and he felt a happy that he apparently hadn’t fudged up horribly.

“I mean, if I was terrible before—I don’t know if I was, but it seems likely at this point—then what if I still am terrible deep down? A bout of amnesia can’t assuage a destroyed soul, can it? Even with amnesia involved… no one changes that fast, not that drastically, in one day.” He let his back fall against the bed, his wings tight against his carapace to prevent damage. For better or worse, the truth was out. Now he only needed to see what was going to happen because of it.

“I did,” came the soft reply from the pony. The only one who had come into this room looking incapable of a soft reply had just given him one, and he was slightly confused. When he leaned himself up to look at her, he saw her smiling lightly at him in a kind way.

“I was a terrible pony, once: rude and angry with everyone I met. And then…” Her words drifted off, but he recognized the look in her eyes and sighed. He was beginning to think that Hendrick had dealt with the personal life of every single pony in the entirety of Canterlot at this point.

“Hendrick,” he said as Front Page looked at him, concerned and hurt that he had sighed after she’d spilled a part of her personality towards him. After the answer, however, a humorous smile spread on her face.

“Hendrick,” She confirmed, then continued her story. “Don’t tell him, but my first ‘breakdown’ was an act. I was gonna come back with a snarky remark after he comforted me, but then he said he could get me in to see Luna.” Her eyes seemed to flash at the words. “Can you imagine how many copies of the newspaper would sell if I could dig up some dirt from inside the castle itself?”

“Newspaper?” Blue asked, a sudden fear building in his gut.

“Oh yea, I’m the head of the newspaper here. It’s been a while since someone’s not known who I am. Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” She then continued with her story, but Blue was only half paying attention, his mind now entirely caught by the fact that he had just told his darkest fear to somepony far far worse than the town gossip.

“Anyway, so he got me in and I got to see Luna. And I searched and pried and lifted to look under every single stone in the entire place, but no matter how much I dug, I couldn’t seem to find any dirt at all. But being in the castle like this was a once in a lifetime experience; I had to make my best use of it.

“But I never found anything, and I started to get angry. Where were they hiding all these horrible secrets? I had to find out; it was all that mattered. Then, as I was carefully interrogating one of the castle workers, I felt a presence behind me, and I turned to see Luna there. She looked at me, and I could tell in her eyes she knew what I was up to. And then she offered me dinner.

“I’m still completely astounded by that. Like, I would have kicked myself out so fast in her place, and she decided to offer me dinner. I mean, I had to refuse; I’d just had a really awkward dinner with Hendrick while we’d waited for the night court to open. But after she left, I sat there and I came to a conclusion. Maybe, just maybe, there wasn’t any dirt to be found here. Of course, the princesses have secrets, I have no doubt, but all the political rumors I’d heard…. I couldn’t find anything that would even suggest them.

“And I realized that, really, the princesses just wanted their ponies to be as happy as they could make them. Sometimes, the result was questionable—and fueled some nasty rumors—but in the end, that’s all they wanted to do. I thought about it for a day or two non-stop, and eventually I had to conclude… maybe I’d been in the wrong.

“So my entire reporting process changed, and I reworked it around getting the best possible truth I could without hurting anyone who didn’t deserve it. And, surprisingly, purchases slowly went up. My financial assistant says it’s because I opened up my target audience. Before, I was targeting the town gossips. Now I was targeting the city itself, for better or worse.”

She smiled in nostalgia as she finished her story, but Blue found his stomach tying itself in knots in his chest. He was only partially aware she’d finished her story, but he didn’t say anything. His mind was too preoccupied with how much trouble he’d just caused for everyone who supported him. Front Page looked at him in confusion as he fretted over his own affairs, but was stopped from asking another question when a knock came from the door.

“Mrs. Page,” came the gruff voice from behind the wood. “Your shift is over.”

“Alright,” she called to the other side of the door and stood politely from her seat to make her way towards the door to open it. Her steps were stopped by a panicked call from Blue, his mind clearly in a state of worry.

“Can I ask that you not put what I said in your paper?” She smiled as she realized that he had been too worried about that to listen to her story properly, something she couldn’t really blame him for, in the end.

“I never intended to.”

“You’d get a lot of sales…” Blue spilled out of his mouth and instantly regretting it, cursing himself for not being able to stay quiet.

“Oh, I know. But sometimes, it’s not about sales.” Blue smiled at her and she smiled back good-naturedly. “Besides, Hendrick would have my hide if I did that.”

Before Front Page was allowed to leave, a unicorn guard entered the room and tilted her horn towards Front Page, casting a simple spell on her. In response to the magic, a soft glow covered her in a blue aura. The unicorn nodded and looked towards the bed to see Blue there. The guard stepped back out of the room, and Front page was allowed to leave.

Blue would be alone with his thoughts for the next hour or two before another pony would be in the room with him, and he certainly had a fair bit to think about.

Author's Note

So this is the chapter that finally got Swoon onto the featured box.

Big thanks to StapleCactus as always for putting up with me. Regular glutton for punishment he is.

Chapter Nine

Luna felt like she was on top of the world, and that was at least partially due to the fact that she was. She looked down and saw the houses passing by beneath her as she rode on the movements of the wind. Celestia had always enjoyed a ride in her sky carriage to clear her mind or to relax, but Luna had yet to find a replacement for a flight through the afternoon sky. In that moment, when the sun’s light turned to orange and the sky began to grow dark in preparation for night; the chill of the approaching night present in the wind, but only enough to refresh the mind when you breathed it in. When everything was perfect like this, well, it was the closest thing to ambrosia that Luna had ever really known.

But even still, beyond this perfect prelude to her night, there was another reason for her soaring emotions, and that was due to a short and simple message she’d been given the night before. She could hardly keep herself together with excitement.

She began to drop altitude and speed, giving up the joy she knew until some later time. She gave it up in pieces, little by little, until at last she could land easily on the cobblestone road. Luna landed with grace, transitioning effortlessly from a gentle glide into a steady gait in one smooth motion. With each step, she could feel a smile fighting to come full force onto her muzzle, but she kept it contained to a happy grin.

She felt a strange sensation in her gut as she closed the few remaining steps to Hendrick’s door. She remembered, not long after her return to the Equestria, hearing one of the castle workers say. “I have butterflies in my stomach,” and the phrase had stuck with Luna due to the absurd image that it conjured. She’d not put any effort into finding out what the phrase meant at the time, trying her hardest not to seem ignorant after her long absence from Equestria, but right now, she thought she had a good idea of what it meant. It was like limitless happiness bubbling in a bottomless pit of anxiety.

Hendrick had asked to see her, swinging by for a moment during the night court the previous afternoon. He stated it was important, but that it could wait until she had some free time. So that morning, she woke up, ate breakfast, and put off all the boring manners of state to go visit Hendrick. Not that Luna would tell him that, of course. She’d simply found some free time in her schedule, as far as he would know. Not to keep it a secret, but to keep him from worrying. He’d already seemed mysteriously off-kilter the past few days. The last thing she wanted to do was add to whatever had struck him so.

Well, mysterious to other ponies at least. Luna had a good idea as to what was troubling him.

It was only a few steps more before she found herself on his doorstep, and a moment or two before she mustered the courage to knock, softly, on the door. She stood there motionless afterwards, waiting for an answer to her arrival before she went in. If this was the moment that she suspected it was, then she didn’t want to ruin it. Not after how much of his sanity he had dedicated to it over the past few days.

There was silence for a moment, not even the slightest sound coming from inside the home. The silence grew into an uncomfortable moment of worry. Luna felt a frightening moment of deja vu, remembering all too well what had happened the last time she hadn’t gotten an answer, and began worrying that he may have had another unexpected visitor. Her nerves grew more and more frayed as minute after unanswered minute passed, the pressure refusing to abate, no matter how much she told herself that he could take care of himself.

She waited through the growing panic for some kind of response until, at last, her fears were assuaged by the words she’d been expecting. “At midnight in October…” the voice started before dying off. It had been the next layer of precaution for Hendrick, and he’d put it into place almost immediately after the last incident. Now that he knew that changeling’s could very well be a threat to him, he’d come up with a passphrase. Each of the ponies who visited him had a different answer to the phrase, and no one knew anyone else's. A bit of an overreaction, perhaps, but undeniably effective.

Luna, despite the relief at hearing the words she had hoped to hear, had picked up on something in his voice, some tone in the words, and her worry grew once again. He sounded so… helpless and lost. Putting away her worry for the briefest of moments, she leaned into the wood until she could almost feel the grain of it on her cheek, her fur prickling as the tips brushed against it. “The moon shines brilliantly,” she answered softly, wondering briefly if everyone else’s phrase related to them as well.

“Come on in, Luna,” Hendrick said from behind the wooden barrier that kept them apart, but not for much longer. Luna’s worry mounted again, and she had to force herself to open the door at a normal speed, holding back her urge to swing it open quickly and see what was on the inside. As it opened into the room, the light of the afternoon behind her cut through the darkness of the house, out of place darkness given the light outside.

She flipped a small fixture on the wall, causing a surge of light to fill the room, shrouding it in an off-yellow color. She leaned in, over the threshold, and saw what the door had been hiding. Hendrick was sitting motionless in the living room, staring at a small open box on the table with his back to the door, a diamond reflecting beautifully under the new light from its fixed position within a beautiful gold ring. All the curtains around the room were pulled shut tight in front of their respective windows, the dying light of the evening hopelessly trying to pierce through the heavy cloth to no avail.

Luna had expected that she would be happy when she saw the ring again, but right now, what happiness she might’ve had was greatly outweighed by her worry for Hendrick. He continued to stare at the gem with his back to the door, as if he hadn’t heard her come in. As Luna stepped past Hendrick to take her seat on the other side of the table, she got a closer look at his eyes and the soft tear stains that had trickled down his face some time ago.

His irises were glazed over as he looked at it, and it took him a moment to even realize Luna had taken a seat across the table from him. He blinked once and his eyes came back into focus. “I- I couldn’t think of anything,” he said, sounding hurt. “I just— I only wanted it to be memorable, but time after time, I came up empty. I set a deadline to force myself to have an answer, but even with a whole day, I couldn’t... I couldn’t….”

“Hendrick,” Luna said softly, trying to calm him as his emotions seemed to ramp up. “Hendrick, it’s okay.”

“No it isn’t!” He lashed back, tears in his eyes now. “Everyone forgets, Luna. And you live forever! Eventually, you’ll forget about me. I’ve accepted that, but I wanted to give you something to look back on that you could smile about after I left. I wanted you to remember the time I proposed to you. But I failed! All I’ve got is this stupid rock on a stupid table in a stupid house!”

“Hendrick, I won’t forget you,” Luna said, sounding certain of herself.

“How would you know?! I mean, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m far past being comforted by empty lines and comforting falsehoods, Luna. Age and time are fickle monsters; that’s something I know. One day, you’ll forget me, and I wanted to delay that as long as possible. But I failed so horribly. I can’t even give you a stupid rock.”

“Hendrick,” Luna said, a bit more stern. “I won’t forget you.”

“I think you overestimate the mind. Starswirl seemed certain that the only difference between alicorns and regular ponies was a more robust mind, not a better memory, just the ability to not go insane with eternity. All in all, I’m just another face in your head, and you’ll forget me too eventually, like a pair of misplaced coins, lost in the cushions on the cosmic couch of infinity.”

“Hendrick. I won’t forget you.”

“But it’s so easy to, Luna. I’m not even that memorable, really. Not as memorable as other ponies like Star Swirl or the Elements. The only reason you even got to know me is from your curiosity. But between our chats in my dreams and those few other trips you’ve spent in my psyche, I’m not even that to you. You already know me; there’s no reason for me to linger around in your memory after I shuffle off my mortal coil.”

“Hendrick. I -”

“YOU WON’T FORGET ME, I GOT IT!” Hendrick shouted, the tears lining his eyes. Luna could only look at him, her own heart sympathetic to what his was going through. Hendrick exhaled and inhaled before he continued. “So why then, Luna? Why is it that you’ll remember me? Why will I stand out in the weaved together memories of your never ending life? Why won’t I be just another dead pony when I’m gone?”

Luna leaned forward slightly and kissed him on the lips without warning. A rampant blush practically exploded over his face in surprise and a small one tinged Luna’s cheeks as well. “They say that you never forget you first kiss, Hendrick. And it wasn’t a normal kiss, either. You kissed me in front of a raging bonfire for bravery before you dived headfirst into an inferno. I won’t forget that, even after the whole of reality collapses on itself.” Luna smiled kindly to him. “I won’t forget you, Hendrick. I promise.”

The tears still lingering on his face, he looked back at her with a weak smile. They stayed like that even as the sun dropped lower in the sky and closer to the horizon as the day came to its end. And they stayed like that until Hendrick tapped the box towards Luna with his hoof. She smiled in response and his smile became more steady, though the tears still remained, rimming his eyes.

“Then, Luna… would you do me the immense pleasure of accepting this ring in marriage?” he said lightly, his voice full of hope. Hope not for the answer; he knew what that was going to be in the same way Luna did. This was hope for the future, and Luna recognized it as such. It was something she’d been getting reacquainted with lately as well.

“Of course, Hendrick,” she said as she lifted the ring in her magic and let it slide down her horn, guided by her magic all the while. “It would be my honor.”

Hendrick leaped across the table and Luna barely managed to stop the both of them from falling flat on the carpet. He wrapped her in a tight hug, and she returned it readily. They buried their heads into the other’s shoulder and Hendrick started laughing with joy. Luna too. Despite how much effort she’d put into learning to keep a straight face, she couldn’t help but join in with the laughs. And for once, right then, things seemed like they would all work out.

There were still changelings on the doorsteps and anger on the streets. There were still problems and terrors haunting their worlds, nightmares further down the line that seemed far too large to be put to rest by any force in existence. There were still the innumerable shadows in the cracks of the world, a fact that both of the ponies could confirm from their hearts. There were meetings that needed attendance, and jobs that needed doing. Things that had to be completed and problems that needed to be solved.

But right then, neither of them cared. Right then, their pasts didn’t matter. What they’d done was moot. They had each other, and someway, somehow, things would work out. Not because of hope, not because of belief. Things would work out because if they didn’t, then they would make them work out. And they would do it together.

Chapter Eleven

Luna felt the breeze across her shoulder, a waft of warm air making the hairs of her coat stand on end as it passed over them. She shivered at the sensation and exhaled her own breath of warmth in return. Hendrick nuzzled closer, resting his head next to her neck as she did the same. “The only thing that could make this better,” Hendrick said with a smile, “is if I were a little taller, so you didn’t have to stoop to hug me.”

Luna couldn’t stop the soft snicker from making its way out of her muzzle, and she didn’t see why she should. “Hendrick, don’t you dare change.” She whispered, her head resting next to his. It was wonderful like a candle of warmth in the depths of darkness. But just like that candle, Luna knew all too well it would need to end, if only to prevent the wick's suffocation in the wax. And so it was with a regretful sigh that she pulled her wings back from around her love. As she stood, Hendrick’s arms clung loosely to her escaping form until his gaze fell away from her. She knew he would have loved nothing more than to shirk the passing hours and stay together, same as her, but the unease of undone deeds would not leave her be.

The simple knowledge that something must be done, after all, doesn’t always provide the strongest argument to do it. And even as they stood there, coping as it were, the still and empty air of the room seemed to mock their separation with only a memory shared between them as a reminder that it had happened at all. The warmth of touch had all but gone now. With a breathy sigh, they shared a glance, the final farewell to the moment.

Luna moved toward the doorway with no words coming to her mind in the somber mood. Hendrick’s steps echoed softly behind her, the strange moment striking him mute as well. It wasn’t until they entered into the grandiose hallway just beyond the threshold of the room that Luna turned to look at him, Hendrick mimicking the act after plodding a few short steps to match her pace. “The guards tell me Blue is opening up a bit and is ready for visitors, if you’re prepared to talk with him,” she began, gazing ahead with a hard expression. “He asked that both my sister and I restrict ourselves from visiting quite yet. I’ve a few other duties to attend to, and I’d rather not flood Blue with a judging presence quite yet anyway, so I suppose it works out for the best.” Luna levitated her jewelry, necklace and all, from the abandoned room behind her, adorning it as she talked. “As good as my intentions are, I can only imagine that my presence alone would put him to the grindstone.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Hendrick said with a nod, a pair of guards passing by on their way to the mess hall. Neither Luna nor Hendrick watched them as they passed, but the guards cast sideways glances at the pair of them, thinking they went unnoticed as they did so. It wasn’t until they were around the corner that both Luna and Hendrick heard gossip leaked in its usual way, in hushed and rushed whispers. Hendrick smiled as he turned his gaze from the corner and back to his fiance, a set of simple words on his lips. “New record.”

“Yes, it would seem they’re getting used to the idea that their ‘Hermit Queen’ is, indeed, in love. And why, it only took them almost a full year, as well. Fantastic.” Though the words were sarcastic, the smile and wink from Luna that followed them was more than enough assurance for Hendrick that it was only meant in good fun.

However, the conversation died there, the topic having grown old quickly when neither of them could expand on it. As the joviality faded into blissful beige, then wore away into stale emotion, the pair realized the time of parting was at last here. Hendrick smiled and leaned forward, planting a kiss on her the cheek that Luna had lowered for just such a gift, before walking away. Luna shook her head. “How long until you kiss me on the lips again, Hendrick? I don’t mind stooping a bit, I promise.”

Hendrick’s lips seemed to tighten into a pair of tight bars and Luna thought for a moment that she saw a teary glimmer come over his eyes, but when an unconscious blink flickered her eyes, she wasn’t sure it had ever been there at all. Eventually, the lips broke free of their strange prison and Hendrick forced the smile to return. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but when no words came out, he closed it and stared at her for a moment instead.

“Are you okay, Hendrick?” Tears alone weren’t common additions to Hendrick’s face, let alone for them to show up with so little prelude. “Do you need to rest a moment?”

“No, I’ll be fine. Just a little… hard to explain is all. Kind of hard to think myself worthy of kissing you. I took it from you last time; I don’t want to do it again.”

Luna smiled and leaned in to kiss him, but Hendrick pulled away. She looked at him with half lidded eyes. “You’ve got to do something about your self esteem issues, Hendrick. The voice in your head is lying to you. You’ve done plenty for me, and you’ll do plenty more, just by being here. With me.”

A stymied laugh broke through Hendrick’s lips and he looked at her again. “I’ll do my best, Princess of the Night and Guider of the Moon. You can count on your part-time newspaper editor.”

“Hendrick…”

“I’ve got to get going…. Blue’s probably in some bad straight right now. Hope my company will do.”

“Hendrick, you’re…. All the ponies in Canterlot know your name, know the good things you’ve done. To them you’re a—”

“Don’t call me a hero.” Hendrick turned away. “Don’t call me ‘sir.’” His voice rose as he spoke, stomping the ground to emphasize his words. In contrast, the next words were barely a whisper. “And don’t say I’m a good man.” Hendrick stood there for a moment, his eyes lingering on the ground. “I still remember what I did to earn me those titles before.” There was a sickly oppressive lack of sound for a moment, and when neither of them seemed willing to break it, Hendrick made to leave. “I’ll still see you for dinner, right?”

“Yes, Hendrick, I promise.”

“That’s good.” He seemed to drink in those words and a sort of relief passed over his tense body. “I am sorry, Luna, for what it’s worth.”

“Sorry for what, Hendrick?”

“Sorry that I tricked you into accepting my proposal. Now you’re stuck with me.”

Luna shook her head at the words. Her eyes bore into the dejected stallion, his own gaze on the ground as he took steps on his road to leave. She thought for a moment to let him be, threw it out immediately. With determination, she crouched, muscles tense in her legs, and lept forward, gliding over Hendrick and twisting to land with a thump in front of him. It was a long moment before he dared to raise his head, and she saw the gloom in his expression and tears clinging to his face. “Hendrick.” She looked into his eyes. He looked back, waiting. “There’s no one else I’d rather be stuck with.”

She smiled and brought him into another hug. He was hesitant at first, but pulled the hug tighter after a moment, burying his face into her fur. She felt the tears on her shoulder, but she didn’t mind it, pressing her head against his lightly. “The voices are gone, but the echos are still there.”

“I know, Hendrick.” Luna hugged him tighter, as much to comfort him as to comfort herself, fighting to subdue the memories rising unbidden to her mind. “I know. But you have to learn to ignore them, just like you learned to ignore all the voices who meant to hurt and shame you. It’ll tear you apart if you don’t.”

Silence stretched on, but Luna didn’t mind. She was content enough to share this moment with him while she waited. “I’ll try.”

Luna gave Hendrick one last squeeze before pulling back ever so slowly, not wanting to make Hendrick feel like she was abandoning him. “That’s all I ask, Hendrick. That’s all I’ve ever asked.”

He stared at her for a minute, the tears subsiding. “I—” He struggled with the words, wanting to say something, but no matter how he shaped his mouth, it wouldn’t come out. He settled for a different phrase instead. “I love you, Luna.”

“I love you, too, Hendrick.” She smiled at him. “Now, are you okay, or do you need another hug?”

“I’m okay, Luna.” He smiled as he walked past her, his eyes not wanting to abandon hers quite yet, lingering for as long as he could until he turned the corner. “Thank you.”

“Thank you, Hendrick,” Luna said with a smile, beginning her trip in the opposite direction. She was outside his range of hearing now, but for some reason, her mouth felt the need to continue. “Thank you for all you’ve done that you’ll never acknowledge. You're too humble and ignorant to know it: all the demons you’ve helped keep at bay without a clue. You’ll never know how much it means, but maybe one day, you’ll figure it out. I hope I can be there when you do.”

Luna hadn’t realized her gaze had fallen until she finished talking. She became aware of a slack in her walk as well. Silently, she reprimanded herself. Such a relaxed pose was fine with Hendrick of course, but now that she was headed into the castle proper, she needed to look her part. Almost immediately, she straightened out, gaze forward, steady graceful steps, just like she had practiced for all those years. Lots of things had changed over the years: music, social cues, the news. But some things never change. Love, Honor, Heroism. Ponies were still ponies, no matter the time frame. And Hendrick was Hendrick, even on his off days. And for that, Luna was grateful.

One thing that Blue wasn’t grateful for was that he was still himself. And now he knew what that meant. He wasn’t sure why his memories had come back to him. There was supposed to be a seal in place. He remembered the Queen’s magic; he wondered why she’d broken it. Unless something else had. But there was not a soul in Canterlot who knew about, let alone anyone who could dispel it.

Maybe the Queen truly thought him dead, saw no reason to hold his memories anymore? Blue didn’t know, couldn’t know. The only one who could answer that was half a world away, and he wasn’t looking forward to seeing her anytime soon. Coming to no helpful conclusions, he looked to the pony who had spurred his thoughts to begin with: Celestia.

“I don’t know why I remember,” was all he said. She seemed to understand. She nodded and took a sip of her tea, proper and respectful through and through. Blue couldn’t help but wonder if she hid anything behind that demeanor, or if she’d worn the mask so long that she’d become it without realizing. It was a question he wasn’t sure would ever get an answer.

“I believe you, Blue,” she said easily, her words calm and breezy. Yet, despite the soothing tone, all it managed to do was make Blue that much more on edge. Blue didn’t know how to respond, so he waited for Celestia to make some move and continue the conversation, even though all he really wanted was for her to be gone.

She glanced at him, and Blue knew she saw the tension in his shoulders and panic in his eyes. He was angry at himself that he was as open as a book to her, but it was very hard not to be a little nervous as he looked into the eyes of a being who has all capability and motive to kill you where you stand.

“Do you want some tea?” she asked, levitating a second cup into the air halfway between them. Blue stared at the cup and back to her. He didn’t particularly care for tea, but he couldn’t decide if it would be worse to turn down the cup or to accept it and not drink any of it. He could feel Celestia watching him, knew she was seeing the dilemma he was in, but it took her a couple of minutes before she placed the cup back on the table, no answer from Blue either way.

“I don’t mean to frighten you, Blue. I only need to ask you a few questions.” Blue felt a small surge of anger at those words. He’d asked that the princesses not come for very good reasons, but now here she was, having fully ignored his request. And now she said she hadn’t meant to ‘frighten him’? As if there was any other way for him to feel? Defenseless and cornered and on the bad side of one of the strongest beings in Equestria? But Blue said none of this out loud.

“What do you want to ask?” he said instead. He was walking a thin line as it was. The last thing he needed was to make accusatory statements.

Celestia stirred her tea and watched the spoon, head bowed, as it traced the circumference of her cup. Blue thought that she might be trying to organize her thoughts, but he couldn’t know for sure. Maybe she just wanted to put him on edge. She took a sip, raising her head slightly to allow the liquid easy passage down her throat. As the cup rested softly on the table, Celestia dabbed a napkin at her lips, her eyes glazing over slightly. Eventually, as the napkin was folded and placed delicately on the table, Celestia made to speak.

“Does the Queen want war?” she asked carefully, raising her gaze to look at Blue. Her eyes seemed… not scared. Determined, rather. Blue thought it was a fair question, but it still seemed completely absurd to him. Anyone who knew the Queen would tell you the exact same thing in response to that question, no matter how faithful or traitorous that being was.

“The Queen always wants war,” Blue idly replied. “But you don’t actually mean that question. You wanted to know if she’s planning a war with Canterlot, or you again, didn’t you?” He tried to sound helpful, but knew he still sounded like a smart ass. It was the best he could on the spot, though. A single nod from Celestia allowed him to continue his thought. “Then no, not right now. She has to rebuild her army from her last defeat, and even then, she’ll go for some easier target, especially while you’re still on edge. You beat us with the element of surprise against you; she’s not too keen to try her luck without it.

Celestia sipped her tea again. “Thank you for your honesty, Blue.” Blue decided not to comment on the fact that he was far too scared too lie. Despite having attempted suicide not a couple of days earlier, Blue knew that beings as old as Celestia knew of fates worse than death. He had never seen her angry, and he didn’t particularly want to test her patience.

“Would the Queen dispatch spies so long before an official war? Should we be on the lookout for more changelings in our ranks?” She looked over the top of her tea cup as she took another sip, waiting for an answer.

“Well…” Blue knew he sounded unsure. As much as he didn’t want to sound weak, he wasn’t able to get past it. The queen’s post-loss tactics were a bit strange in that it usually involved a lot of anger and blame throwing. “She might, I suppose, but if she did, the spy would probably have some mundane disguise, as a normal pony about town. She wouldn’t want the spy to get caught in case her opponents decided an all out war would be a good thing. She much prefers to fight on other’s turf.”

“I see.” Blue couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the statement. There was something about it, just behind the words, that Blue couldn’t make out. Celestia flicked her gaze up and Blue decided not to question it. Not now. “One more question, if you’d answer it for me.”

“I’ll do my best, Celestia.”

“Why is it that the Queen punished you so severely? What did you do that made you a pariah to the changelings?” Blue froze at the question. It was the first one he knew the answer too, completely, and it was also the first one he didn’t really want to answer. There were implications from answering it truthfully that he wasn’t particularly fond of. But he knew that Celestia could easily have the intel to figure it out for herself.

“After the battle… did you receive any reports of strange changeling actions?”

“Are you, perhaps, talking about the event at the elementary school?” Celestia looked at him. He looked back. And in those locked glares there was an understanding, one that Blue hadn’t expected to see in Celestia’s eyes. Blue nodded. “I thought that might’ve been you.” A smile slowly touched Celestia’s lips and she stood from her seat with a nod to Blue.

She magicked away the tea set and moved towards the door. “Thank you for your help, Blue. Both then and now.”

“Happy to help, Celestia.” She nodded to him and left the room. Leaving Blue to wait for Hendrick in silence.

Author's Note

There was an april fools chapter here.

It's gone now.

Chapter Twelve

Luna stood still, her muscles relaxed. This was very impressive to the two stallions flanking her. As the whipping winds lashed against the ponies, Luna alone was unaffected. Her guards braced against the gusts, muscles fighting every force against them, but they managed to stand firm all the same. Between them all, only Luna’s mane dared to move, but it did so with impossible ease, seeming not to know the wind at all.

This was, of course, the biggest liability of the Canterlot castle, its height putting it often in the path of extremely turbulent gales. Down in Canterlot proper, the buildings acted as wind breakers, but here at the landing for the pegasus chariots, they had no such luxury. They worked with it as best they could, finding special fliers who could handle the elements.

It was common knowledge that the fastest pegasi would be welcomed to the Wonderbolts, but the slow and steady would find themselves pointed to the sister campaign: the Royal Escorts. These pegasi spent a large portion of their job transporting the princesses, all the princesses, and brought in enough pay doing so to support themselves and their families. It was their normal fare. On occasion though, they were called to bring others to the castle at the princesses’ request. Today, they had the opportunity to provide both of these duties.

Against the howling wind, Luna heard the sound she had been waiting for and snapped herself from her thoughts. A chariot whipped and snapped madly through the air before landing with a crash of noise, braking to a sudden halt on the stone. As the passengers recovered from their whiplash, Luna moved towards the flier of the craft. She knew him well; they had met on more than one occasion since her return, and he had proved invaluable time and again.

“Thank you, Steel Pinion,” Luna offered simply.

“At the rate you’re paying me,” Pinion began with a smile, “I should have brought twice as many ponies just to even it out.” Before the princess could respond at all, the driver had gone with the carriage, his passengers having stepped off of their ride, if only just. Luna shook her head for a moment before turning back to the arrivals. They bowed, as was common etiquette, and then they ran towards her to wrap her in a group hug, which was not common etiquette, but was greatly appreciated all the same.

“Thank you for coming, all seven of you.”

“When Princess Celestia said she needed us here to present a united front, we weren’t going to pass it up!” Twilight Sparkle shouted over the winds, the ponies all pulling away from Luna, Pinkie doing so only after another tight squeeze. “I mean, it’s not everyday that—” Luna’s hoof raised in a bid for silence as Twilight’s voice was forced louder and louder by the background noise.

“Perhaps we’d best go inside to continue this discussion,” Luna shouted, actively trying to avoid slipping into the Royal Canterlot Voice. The mares and dragon all nodded in agreement, though the whipping manes made almost any movement completely indistinguishable.

The group began their walk towards the entrance to the castle, the guards joining them as they approached. Luna spotted a form of pink slowly edging into her view until she glanced over, curious. There, she saw Pinkie Pie fighting against the wind to close the distance between them. With each step, she seemed to gain more ground and was alongside Luna before too long. Luna raised an eyebrow at this, but remained silent. Pinkie Pie seemed to be holding in the desire to shout and so Luna waited for her to speak first. When Pinkie did at last speak up it came as an excited whisper, barely contained.

“If you need a wedding planner,” Pinkie rasped, somehow audible against the wind. “I’m totally up for thaaaaat.” Luna locked eyes with Pinkie for a moment before nodding curtly. Pinkie began to hop happily, the wind catching her and slowing her down until she was even with the rest of her friends, at which point she fell back into a trot. Out of view of the other ponies, the princess allowed herself a simple smile.

Upon their entry into the castle, the winds abated and the guards all but sighed with relief. A peaceful quiet replaced the howling they had been steeped in only moments before, and as if in relief and respect, none of the group made any noise to break it. Luna stood still for a moment, just inside the threshold, as Twilight closed the doors behind them. They stood there for a moment, long after the awe had faded from the seven guests. With a deep calming breath as a prelude, Luna descended down the stone staircase laid out before her and into the castle proper with guards once again flanking on either side, though they left and moved out of sight into the rest of the castle once they met the floor.

The seven followed her, still silent, as she led them through the castle to their rooms. Twilight had teleported the baggage ahead to ease the trip, but she was not quite in the state of mind to try a mass teleport of seven individuals across such a long distance, nor did she ever expect to be in such a state of mind for a long time.

After all but chewing through her lower lip in nervous anxiety, Twilight spoke up in a soft voice. “I just wanted to thank you for inviting us to Canterlot. It’s not everyday we get the opportunity to visit you both.”

Luna glanced back, her face impassive. “I am sorry it could not be under better circumstances, Twilight. As it stands, I do not know how much enjoyment you will find here.” Luna turned her gaze forward, but her voice kept a grave tone. “In addition to the duties already asked of you, my sister has insisted that you remain in the castle until tomorrow’s announcement. She hopes that you and your friends will provide a symbol of unity to all the ponies watching and prevent, or at least hamper, any acts of undue anger. By keeping your arrival under wraps, she hopes to add some element of shock to it.”

“So, what decision did she come to?” Rainbow asked, a biting tone to her words. “Is she gonna just let the changeling go free?” She crossed her hooves in front of her and let her eyes fall half way in disapproval. Rainbow’s gaze began to wander among her compatriots before stopping at Fluttershy, who looked at her with poorly hidden spite. Rainbow made to apologize as Fluttershy flicked her gaze away, but she was interrupted.

“She would not tell me. Truthfully, I know as much about the decision she will make as anyone else does.” Luna’s tone was unreadable as she spoke, but the words were more than enough to stir worry in the seven who followed her.

Twilight glanced at her friends, all of whom looked uneasily at Luna in return. Each of them wondered about what had just been said, about how Celestia hadn’t even told her sister her plan. It seemed… strange. But none of the seven had the courage to speak what was on their mind for fear of incurring Luna’s wrath.

Luckily, none of them were forced to speak. Luna seemed to have guessed their reaction by the absence of a response. “Everyone seems to be keeping secrets lately. I can only trust that there is a good reason for it, because there has to be.” Luna looked at Twilight, who tried her best to hide the look of uneasiness on her features. “You have known my sister more than I. Surely, you understand that she would not make the wrong decision.”

“I do trust in Celestia, but with all respect, Princess Luna, wouldn’t you have known her longer? Before your… uh… leave of absence, I mean.” Twilight glanced to and fro briefly before looking back at Luna, one eye twitching in worry.

“She was a different pony then, Twilight. It is clear that she has changed since that time. Her ego and philosophy appears to have been rebuilt over the past millennia. It was torn away by my actions, and the reaction she was forced to make in response. Built again by her students, of which you are no small part.” Luna smiled to Twilight. “And I thank you for that.”

Twilight stared back in silence and shock for a moment before Luna continued. “We have arrived at your rooms.” They all turned to look at the hallway before them, three doors on one side and four on the other with a set of luggage resting in front of them indicating who was to be sleeping where. “You are free to move around as you will. And if one of you does not desire a separate room—” She glanced at Spike. “—he… or she, is more than welcome to work something out with the others.” Spike looked back bashfully in response.

“Now I must be going, but if something does not suit you or you need a change, do no hesitate to have a guard contact me. I will sort it out as best I can.” She smiled at each of her friends again before continuing. “I will see you later, and until then, I ask you try and have a good visit.”

“Princess Luna, wait,” Rarity called, her friends pausing only briefly in curiosity before they went to settle into their rooms. Luna looked at her with a curious gaze, waiting for her to continue. She seemed to be struggling with her words for a moment before she moved her gaze away from the inquiring eyes of the princess. “I was just wondering. I mean. I know not to believe everything I read in the magazines of course, but… well, while I’ve only met Hendrick in passing, he certainly left an impression at the Grand Galloping Gala. I was just wondering…. How’s he doing? I’ve heard… some things.”

“Rarity,” Luna began, her voice soft and her face stoic. “the unfortunate fact is this—” Rarity moved her gaze back to Luna, who waited for a moment before continuing. “—Hendrick suffers from the same problems that have plagued me in the past, and it is far too deeply rooted in far too serious a memory for him to be rid of it easily. But he is willing to work through it, and I have faith he will. In time.”

Rarity looked blankly onward for a moment, her mind busy cataloguing the information she’d just been given. It was only a moment before she nodded in understanding. “Ah. Alright. I was… I was worried about some rumors I’d heard is all.”

“You know, Rarity, there’s a local newspaper that tries to avoid rumor milling. I’ll see if I can get you a subscription form. If you want one, that is.”

“I’m already subscribed to Front Page’s paper, Princess Luna,” Rarity said with a half smile, “but I think with Hendrick editing it, it is prone to an unconscious bias. I wanted to get the report from an outside group.”

“A fair desire,” Luna said, a shadow of a smile on her face for a moment. “All in all, I can assure you, Hendrick is working through it. You have a lot more on your plate right now to worry about, after all.” Rarity seemed to agree with that, but didn’t seem to eager to speak up. When no response was forthcoming, Luna brought a teleportation spell to mind, casting a soft blue glow onto her surroundings. “I wish you the best, Rarity.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna,” Rarity said, bowing her head in response.

“And thank you for caring,” Luna said with a bow of her own.

There was only a flash of light to indicate the cast of a spell, and where Luna had been, there was suddenly nothing. Rarity stayed motionless for a moment in the silence before moving towards her friends to settle in for the stay, unable to shake the shard of doubt lodged in her heart. She trusted Luna, of course, but Rarity found her worries were very hard to quell.

Author's Note

Edited by Staple Cactus. Produced by LucidTech. Made possible by viewers like you. Thank you.

Chapter Thirteen

Twilight stood stiffly at the door marking her destination, or so she’d been told when she asked for directions. But so far, she had refrained from knocking. Not for lack of trying of course, but each attempt ended the same, frozen by uncertainty. A fire of determination would spark within her, fill her, and then die before she could bring herself to act upon it. Once again now, she made her approach, her hoof edging closer and closer as if there were a cliff instead of a door.

Her hoof hesitated in front of the simple wooden obstacle, hovering inches away, but she retreated again as she had all times before. A sigh bit into the air, dancing off into the empty hallways like a breeze half whispered, half remembered. She wasn’t sure what she would say if her knock was answered, she just knew that she had to say something. She’d put it off for almost a year now, and she feared if she didn’t give her thanks on this visit, she never would.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle?” came a simple voice, foreign to her. She glanced sidelong to see who had called her name. “Are you okay?” he asked. “What are you doing out this way?”

She studied the pony, but didn’t recognize him. She wasn’t surprised; she didn’t even know most of the ponies in Ponyville, let alone those of the Canterlot Castle. “I came looking for Hendrick. Do you know if he’s around?” she said honestly, hoping perhaps they wouldn’t remind her that she stood in front of his door.

A smile flashed across the face of the pony for a breath of time, but vanished all too quickly to discern any meaning from it. He stood still with a bag of groceries next to his hooves on the floor, no doubt having dropped them to speak to her. “He has been quite popular recently, hasn’t he? Must’ve done something even more excessive if he’s got all four princesses seeking audience with him now.”

“All four?” Twilight asked, turning to fully face the pony. “Cadance and Celestia, too?”

The pony nodded slightly in return. “They’ve been having their own meetings with him from what I hear. Usually, they ask for him to come to them though, rarely the other way around.” The pony looked to Twilight expectantly, as if a question had been asked.

Twilight stood idly in confusion for a moment. It took her a while to realize that the second part of the statement was directed to her. She broke eye contact with the pony, out of mild embarrassment and also to check that the door she stood beside remained closed. Surely, Hendrick must’ve heard the chatting by now. Though, Twilight supposed, if what she’d learned was true, he could just as easily be speaking with one of the other princess right then. If she’d known he had such a busy schedule, she would’ve tried to set aside some time later to chat instead of coming straight to his door with the intent to launch into discussion.

She looked back to the stallion and remembered the loaded statement that had been directed to her. Her eyes fell a bit as she answered. “I guess I’m still new to this princess business. Didn’t even think to ask him to come to me.”

“I’m sure he would appreciate that, Princess. A lot more informal and friendly,” the stallion responded with a strange warmth. “Putting yourself on a pillar of regality and perfection is nice and all, but I think three princesses doing that is enough, don’t you?”

Twilight frowned. “That’s not why they do it.” The stallion looked to Twilight expectantly, waiting for her to continue. “They have to display power and professionalism, especially now. Ponies have to respect their ability and importance if the princesses ever want to get anything done.”

“Sounds like strong-arming to me, but what do I know. Now if you’ll excuse me,” he said, as if concluding the moment. Instead of leaving, however, he lingered where he stood, looking to Twilight with a tinge of apathy that seemed all too common place in his eyes.

“If you need to go, you’re free to go. You don’t need my permission to take your leave.”

“I know, but you’re standing in front of my door, so...” The words lingered and Twilight glanced between the door and the stallion who claimed ownership.

“Hendrick?” She asked, feeling as if a whole other conversation had been going on without her realization. She received a nod in response, the stallion’s mouth now full with the handles of his grocery bag. Hurriedly, she backed away from the door so he could approach. He lowered the bag to the ground and slacked his jaw to let the handles fall from his teeth’s grasp. Deftly, a key was produced from his unkempt mane, dangling dangerously but securely from a length of hair. With a practiced maneuver, the key was set it into the keyhole and turned.

The sudden sound of a moving lock that issued forth from within confirmed the stallion’s identity, and Twilight could do little but look on with a mix of confusion and surprise as he moved the key back to its hiding place. He took up his groceries again and nudged the door open with his shoulder. The same desire that brought her to his door led her silently inside behind him, closing the door behind herself when she was fully past the threshold. She followed him to the small dining room where he rested his bag on the table, waiting until his mouth was unobstructed before she spoke.

“Why did you hide your identity?” Twilight asked, only now realizing she had never seen or spoken to Hendrick before. At least, not while fully conscious. It was something she had taken for granted when she had set out to find him.

He glanced to her absentmindedly as he pulled the edges of the bag down so he could reach the groceries inside. “Why did you come into my room?” he asked in response before taking a gallon of milk from the table and moving it to a fittingly small refrigerator.

“Why do you have a room here anyway? I thought you had a home in Canterlot proper.” Twilight said, mostly saying the first things that came to mind, all of which were questions.

Hendrick placed the milk into the refrigerator and moved to the table to grab the next item. “Mostly because of crippling paranoia,” he said dryly, grabbing a bag that held a head of lettuce next.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight stood patiently as Hendrick moved the lettuce into a drawer at the bottom of the fridge. “Do you want some help with that?” she asked, realizing Hendrick’s single trips across the dining room.

“No, I have it. Thank you though,” Hendrick responded as he let go of the bag of lettuce and let it settle into the drawer. “And it means that I’ve got a large number of people who disagree with my rather aggressive stance on things, and I’ve done that song and dance before. Luna says that I’d be fine to stay in my home but…” Hendrick paused as he looked across the groceries, looking for anything else that needed to be refrigerated. Spotting a carton of eggs, he moved to the other side of the table to pick them up. “I’d rather not risk it, I guess. So I’m paranoid, like I said.”

“I don’t know about paranoid. I mean… I agree with Luna that you’d be fine to stay home. Violence is few and far between. Add to that your relationship with Princess Luna, and the already miniscule chance of harm coming to you is basically nothing for all statistical purposes, but that doesn’t mean that avoiding potential confrontation is being paranoid.”

Hendrick’s response was silence, even after he had settled the carton into the fridge and closed it. As he moved back to the table and grabbed a bag of apples Twilight decided to steer the conversation back towards the initial reason for her visit. “But that’s… aside from the point. Sorry to come into your home like this. I just wanted to… thank you.”

Hendrick spared her a confused glance, accentuated by his raised eyebrow, but waited until he had settled his bushel of apples into a simple bowl before he spoke. “Thank me? For what?”

“For saving my life!” Twilight blurted out, wanting to get the words out of her chest before she choked on her resolve to speak them at all. Hendrick stopped and looked to her, his eyes dancing with questions, but waited for her to continue all the same. “About a year ago, when you saved me from that disease I picked up in the Everfree.”

Recollection flashed across his eyes and a sad laugh filled the room in a short burst. “Oh yea, anytime you need me to walk into a room, let me know, Princess. That, at least, is something I can do.”

Twilight frowned as Hendrick grabbed a loaf of bread from the table and moved to a raised cupboard by the far wall. “Regardless of whether you intended it or not, I wanted to thank you for it all the same.”

Hendrick settled the loaf of bread on the counter and immediately flashed a grin at Twilight, a grin that remained on his lips as he moved back to the table to pick up the now empty grocery bag. “I just can’t believe you waited a whole year to say thanks to me for my walking into a room.”

“There are many more things I could thank you for.” Twilight responded, her eyes looking to the simple flooring as Hendrick moved the bag from the table and placed it against the wall for use on his next shopping trip. “That I should thank you for,” she corrected. “I just wanted to start with that one.”

“And I’m sure that the rest of them are equally important, like that time I stood around in a burning building until I had to be hospitalized when I could’ve easily just left, but I’m not in the mood to hear them, unfortunately,” Hendrick responded as he left the kitchen, Twilight following close behind.

“You don’t give yourself much credit, do you?” She hadn’t been much for the gossip magazines, but it was hard to avoid hearing about Hendrick’s acts and actions over the past year. It was strange to hear the stallion credited with such things talk them down so much.

“Well, I just sparked some tinder that's burning like a fire I’m all too familiar with, so you’ll have to excuse me for a little self-deprecation.”

“You stood up for someone who had no voice in the world! That shouldn’t be condemned by anyone! Let alone yourself!”

“But here we are,” Hendrick said idly, seeming to speak as much about the situation as well as their actual location. Twilight picked up on both meanings.

“I’m sorry that I walked into your room without your permission, Hendrick, but I simply wanted to—”

“It's fine. Celestia straight up teleports in here sometimes when she’s got something she needs me to know. Which is fine, I guess. She’s busy. Still, I’d prefer a knock or...” Hendrick pushed open the door to his bedroom.

The floor was covered in stacks upon stacks of books. Twilight looked in, wide-eyed. “When did you—” The door closed in her face. She stared at the wooden obstruction for a moment in surprise, not sure what to do about it.

She hovered there, paused precariously on a precipice of speech, but when no words issued from Hendrick on his own accord, she took the hint. Making her way back to the door, she made her egress, setting the lock behind her. Then, as she turned fully around, she caught the eye of a familiar pony, an elderly pony who was approaching. She knew them from somewhere, but it had been so long she couldn’t recall.

“Twilight Sparkle? Didn’t expect to see you here,” the mare said, heavy facial features and grey hair at odds with the vigor in her voice. “Oh, Princess Twilight Sparkle, I suppose it is now.”

“Missus Footnote?” Twilight said, recollection tickling her memories. The nostalgic tone made way for geniality. “How’s the library been these past couple of years?”

“It’s been fine, if a bit boring since you moved out of town. Although…” Footnote glanced to the door Twilight locked. “Mr. Hendrick seems all too content to make up for the past couple years you’ve missed. He’s got at least half the judicial section overdue right now. I was hoping to catch him and ask when he intends to turn them back in… but I can’t seem to pin him down.”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Half…?” Her voice trailed off in disbelief. The judicial section was staggering in size, but even more than that, it was extremely boring. Even Twilight couldn’t stomach more than one or two of the dusty tomes a week.

“Yes, I wanted to make sure he wasn’t using them for kindling.” Footnote laughed. “I’ve never seen someone so interested in our judicial system. You were the only other pony to even give those books a chance, but you learned your lesson pretty quick.” Footnote gave a conspiratorial wink before continuing. “Ah well, it's nice to see them get some use. Just wish he would go through the effort of renewing them every couple of weeks.”

Twilight nodded with a faint facsimile of a smile on her face. “Yea…” was all she managed, her mind running through the new facts she’d been given.

“Well, I’ve got to get going. I was only swinging in to check those books, but it looks like he’s got himself locked in that room again.” Footnote turned around, but looked over her shoulder briefly. “Have a good day, Princess Twilight. Feel free to swing by the library if you feel like reading from our collection again.”

Twilight offered a half-formed farewell, barely paying attention. As Footnote moved out of view, Twilight glanced to the door beside her, curiosity fueling a new desire to knock. Eventually, however, she managed to pull herself away. Her wings flared outward and she took to the air, the high hallway allowing her swift and unobstructed movement as she returned to the wing where her and the other elements had been placed.

Author's Note

I say 'yearly' you say 'updates'!

Yearly!

....

right.

Thanks again to Staplecactus, the best editor money can buy. Well if by 'money' you mean 'friendship' and by 'buy' you mean 'make more likely to hear my begging'.

Chapter Fourteen

A wild wind whistled a small tuneless melody as it drifted through the airship harbor of Canterlot. Small, private versions of such vessels were scattered around the surprisingly empty bay, save for four ponies who had been in the thick of a debate for the past dozen minutes or so. It was a bad day for flying, not to mention that it was a busy day at the castle, and most anyone worth anything would be there. It took arguments such as this before the aggressor of the debate finally convinced his listeners. With a smile, Fair Weather nodded to the two stallions in gratitude.

“Thanks for letting me and my friend borrow your ship for the afternoon.”

“It’s no problem, just…” The pegasus owner leaned to the side to spot Fair Weather’s so-called “friend”. It was a pony, or pony-shaped, at least. It was hard to tell beyond that because of the heavy obscuring black cloak they wore. “Just make sure that nothing bad happens, alright? I’m trusting you with this, Fair Weather, ‘cause you’ve helped me out more than I’d like to admit, but I don’t like the look of your friend there. I don’t wanna read about my airship in the news.”

“I can guarantee you won’t, Mr. Rightaway.”

“Alright then, and you’re not going anywhere near the princess’s little get together this evening, are you?” Mr. Rightaway said with a sidelong glance to the cowled pony.

“Well, sir… that was sorta why we were getting an airship, actually. My friend wanted a view from the air.”

More gazes were passed towards the figure who stood perfectly still on the deck of the airship. The two stallions murmured amongst themselves before Mr. Rightaway sighed. “Alright then, Fair Weather. I trust you. Just… keep a close eye on your friend for me, won’t you? I don’t want nothing bad coming down on my head for this. Keep an eye on your altitude, keep the ship under control. If you start losing control in any way? Land it. If you can’t land it, signal for a pegasus squad to come help you out. I’m putting a lot of faith in you here.”

“I appreciate it, Mr. Rightaway,” Fair Weather said with a sense of ultimate pride that he had received such trust. “And I won’t let you down, sir.”

Rightaway handed over the gem-key to the airship’s ignition with reluctance, and Fair Weather made to fully board the ship, when the second stallion spoke up for Fair Weather to hear. “Pinkie Pie Promise on it, Fair Weather,” was the gravely command.

“Mr. Gust?” Fair Weather said, sweat beginning to spring to his face.

“And your friend; both of you,” Mr. Gust elaborated. “Pinkie Pie Promise that the vessel will return unharmed, and neither of you will do anything disingenuous or bring harm to any party in any way.”

“Well, I will, of course, Mr. Gust.” Fair Weather looked nervously to his companion, who had turned their head slightly to get a better look of the conversation. “My friend though, they aren’t very fond of talkin’ much. Would it be alright if they just did the actions instead of the uh, mantra bit?”

“That would be fine, Fair Weather,” Mr. Gust said without a pause.

It took a couple moments as Fair Weather explained to his friend what the promise was, the magnitude of it, and the appropriate actions. The cowled pony merely nodded in understanding. Then, after a few false starts, they both performed it. Carefully, as if worried merely looking at Mr. Gust might have unfortunate consequences, Fair Weather turned back to face the two owners of the ship.

“That’ll do, Fair Weather. Have a safe trip,” Mr. Gust said simply, an easy smile on his muzzle. Both parties took it for the parting it was and moved on their way to their respective destinations. “I’ll be informing Pinkie Pie of this promise promptly,” he continued, his smile never fading, “though something tells me she might already know it.”

“Oh!” Pinkie exclaimed as she felt a strange feeling somewhere between a hiccup and a burp, but radiating from her front left knee joint instead of in her throat or stomach.

The conversation that Twilight and Rarity had been having about gemstones ended as they looked to their friend. “What is it, Pinkie?” They asked promptly. It was always good to find out what Pinkie Sense was going off given the chance to.

“Oh, someone made a Pinkie Promise for the first time! I always get to know when someone new makes a Pinkie Promise,” she answered excitedly.

“Oh…” Rarity and Twilight shared a glance, then Twilight continued. “Anything important?”

“Something about flying,” Pinkie replied with a shrug.

Fair Weather waved goodbye to the stallions as the last of the anchoring ropes were loosed from their moors. He moved back to his friend rooted in the middle of the deck. “Doing alright, Hendrick?” he asked, listening to the slow calculated breaths coming from beneath the hood.

“I’m fine,” came a reply in time with an exhale.

“You sure? It’s not too late. I could drop you off, and you could tell me what I need to say for this announcement.”

“Are you sure you want to be here? You could teach me how to fly this and then take off.”

Fair Weather realized what he had just said was being used against him, but pushed on anyway. “Nah, reckon I should see this through so I can make sure Mr. Rightaway doesn’t regret putting his trust in me. ‘Sides, I told you I’d be happy to help you out anytime back when I got you your tux back.”

“No.” Fair Weather looked at Hendrick in surprise as Hendrick looked to the sky in thought. “You said, to quote, ‘anything else you need though, give me a holler. I’ll come runnin’. You never actually promised to do anything after that. Not literally anyway.”

Fair Weather frowned at the nitpicking. “Well we both know I meant I’d help if you came to me for it. Don’t matter none what I said word for word.”

Hendrick gave up on his breathing pattern and gave Fair Weather a thankful smile, who gave one of his own. “Anyway,” Hendrick began, changing the subject, “don’t know how Luna does this flying thing. I’ve got a whole ship under me and I’m scared to death. But she flies just about everywhere and doesn’t seem to mind.”

“Well she’s had practice flying for most of her life, I imagine,” Fair Weather said before grabbing a rope in his mouth and pulling to make sure it was taut. “Besides, I don’t think I’ve ever met an earth pony who liked to be aboard an airship.”

Hendrick didn’t seem to want to respond, opting instead to stare out into the vast cloud field that laid before them. The ship had already begun to drift towards the castle. Without the engines running, it was a slow affair while Fair Weather ran his checks on the other parts of the ship. After a moment of uncomfortable silence as Fair Weather checked the balloon for any potential problems, he decided that now would be his best opportunity.

“You know much about Blue, Mr. Hendrick, si— Ah…” Fair Weather caught himself in time to stop the ‘sir’ wanting to leap off his tongue. “Uh, Mr. Hendrick?” Fair Weather busied himself with some other last minute preparations before he began to move towards the helm of the ship. It was a small ship, all in all, but it floated.

“I know a little. What did you want to know about?” The words were hesitant, and had been carefully considered. Fair Weather caught that he was walking into a conversational minefield and gave his own words similar attention.

“Well, I was just wonderin’ if uh...” Fair Weather coughed into his hoof, “if Changelings had like… romantic relationships? I heard some rumors sayin’ that they were heartless devils an’ what not but, well, Blue don’t seem much like that himself. Not from what I saw anyway, when you uh… stopped him… from… you know....”

There was a heavy, unwieldy pause as both Hendrick and Fair Weather considered if they wanted to talk about the incident. Leaving it behind for a moment, Hendrick moved back to the original subject at hand, his words holding a touch of confusion as if he’d lost track of the thread of the conversation. He told the truth, but Fair Weather could tell Hendrick thought he was being led into a trap.

“From my understanding…” Hendrick began, eyeing Fair Weather as if to gauge the reason for the question. “The changelings don’t have traditional romantic relationships like you-— us… ponies. A changeling hive typically only has one female. In the case of Blue’s hive, this was Chrysalis. This queen, as she’s called, births all new changelings. The drones and workers, like Blue, may have children with her, but they aren’t… mmm… connected emotionally with each other. Then, towards the end of her lifespan, she’ll give birth to a daughter who will grow until she can take over the responsibilities as queen of the hive.”

“Ah,” Fair Weather said, rather dramatically for a simple utterance, and turned his attention to his charts.

Hendrick pressed on, entirely missing Fair Weather’s strange behavior. “Though as I said, that’s just how I understand it. We don’t know a lot about changelings as is, and it’s entirely possible that that information might be entirely wrong. I’ve been trying to get to know more about them from Blue, but overall, our topics of discussion have been mostly hierarchy and hivemind, not to mention that my recent readings into deep forgotten judicial law has been soaking up a lot of my time the past few weeks. If you’re really curious, I would suggest you take time to go visit him yourself. I could send word ahead and let Blue and the guards know you were coming in advance. We could do with another pony on rotation to free up some time for all of us,” Hendrick rattled off, his mind whirring with thought.

“I’ll....” Fair Weather hesitated. “I’ll think on it. We oughta get through this next part before we go making more plans.”

“That’s fair,” Hendrick said, slipping slowly back into a breathing exercise. Carefully, he tapped a small magical amulet that hung around his neck. On the sides and back of the ship, where all the name plates were affixed, an obscuring force manifested and blocked them from being read. After a moment, another similar force manifested around Hendrick’s neck.

When he spoke next, he spoke with a light airy voice that Fair Weather could scarce believe was coming from the stallion. “Now we just wait for the right moment.”

Luna stood motionless, attempting to hide her anxiety as she took her place beside her sister. Both gazed into the distance near the great stone door where Shining Armor was running through final checks to make sure their public appearance would hold no danger.

Celestia turned to look at her sister, a worried, thin smile on her face. “Have you heard from Hendrick recently? I’d expected him to meet you before we started.”

“As did I,” Luna said simply, keeping her eyes facing forward. Her face was emotionless and unreadable. It made Celestia worried. She’d seen it before. She’d seen it for several years straight and then hadn’t seen Luna at all for several more after that.

“I’m sure he just got tied up with something,” Celestia said, trying to bring some hope to her sister. “Front Page will be here, won’t she? Perhaps he’s going to be assisting her with her article on the announcement.”

Luna nodded, but remained silent. Ahead, Shining Armor gave them the signal that final checks had been completed and the doors would be opening soon.

“Here we go,” Celestia said and, as if on some unseen queue, the sister’s began to march in synchronicity towards the door, the gap between the stone slabs already starting to widen.

Front Page waited in the crowds of her fellow press ponies and their guests. She’d been hoping to be joined by Hendrick. After all, she thought, it would be a lot easier and provide more context to his editing if he were present for the event. He had declined multiple times, but she held out hope he would arrive all the same, though she suspected he had decided to meet with Princess Luna instead. When the final moment had come and he had still not arrived, she invited over some other ponies to ‘assist’ her.

Vinyl faced straight forward, marking her apart from all the other ponies who had their vision raised slightly so as to face the actual door. Beside her, Octavia waited while playing “I spy” with Moon Light to pass the time. Moon Light had an unfair advantage in this game as, from Octavia’s back, she had much better vision over the crowd.

“Here they come,” Vinyl said, nudging Front Page to attention. Front Page turned her gaze to the doors. Just as the doors were beginning to swing wide and everypony turned to look, however, Vinyl seemed to pick up on something else. “What are they doing here?” she murmured, too quietly for Octavia or Moonlight to hear, but just barely loud enough for Front Page to pick up on.

Front Page hesitated, hearing the clicks of cameras from all around her, and was about to ask Vinyl what she was sensing when she saw the Elements of Harmony file out behind the princesses. The mass of regal ponies, the elements being next to royalty after all, drew a shocked silence from the press even as the other citizens of Canterlot cheered louder. Cameras forgotten for the moment, Front Page’s peers simply looked on in surprise. With a smile, Front Page aimed her camera, carefully giving herself a moment to get the perfect shot, and clicked her camera.

The click seemed to act as a catalyst, just as Front Page knew it would, and all the other cameras began to click up a storm once again. As Front Page focused on the princesses and their unexpected guests, what she failed to notice was that the elements were not the cause of Vinyl’s earlier remark. Vinyl, instead, was looking into the surrounding sky, puzzled by the two magical signatures that drifted ever closer on an airship.

Eventually, as the click of the cameras died away, Celestia’s speech began.

“Ponies of Canterlot. It is with great humility in my heart that I come to you today. I know why you have come here; I understand that you all seek to know my stance on the topic of the changelings, on whether they deserve a second chance—” Celestia was forced to pause as a combination of jeers and cheers swarmed into an indecipherable mess. She waited for it to die away before she continued. “Or whether they don’t.

“My ponies, I know that this is the reason you have come today, but I still can not give you answer to that—” A roiling torrent of displeasure flooded out, even reaching to Front Page in the usually quiet press section. “Until,” she continued, the jeers dying away. “Until you understand why I have made the decision I have made.

“Equestria can not live on in seclusion and hatred, my little ponies. It is not our way. We must push past this attack, and love our neighbors. It is inevitable. We must love. It is how we have survived as long as we have, and it is how we will survive much longer.” The split in the crowd was obvious as Celestia continued to talk. It was obvious even on the stage. The faces of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy perfectly reflecting the faces of the ponies who shared their emotions in the crowd. Front Page drew some humor from the realization that if they’d intended to present a unified front, they’d failed.

“However,” Celestia continued, the crowd’s faces suddenly shifting at the single word. “I must also consider that we were all too recently attacked by the changelings themselves. The scholars or elders among you may remember that after the dragons attacked us so long ago, they were barred from Canterlot for two decades in the aftermath. Similarly, it would be heartless of me to not consider all the recent wounds that those among us may have suffered at the malice of the changeling attack.”

Front Page looked to the side to get a better look at the citizens who had fallen silent and begun to shuffle at the words. However, her eyes focused on Vinyl and Octavia, who were each comforting the other in the moment. Moon Light, not fully understanding what was going on, had hunkered down so that she lay across the backs of both mares. Front Page smiled at the image and was tempted to take a picture, but shook the thought from her head knowing it would be too invasive of such a personal moment.

Then, suddenly, Moon Light’s mouth formed into an ‘o’ and she pointed a hoof towards the sky. With both her parents occupied and the rest of the press looking to Celestia, who had given the ponies a moment of silence, Front Page was the first to see it. Slowly, she turned to see the giant airship that was now beginning to enter into castle airspace. She snapped a photo of it, but turned back to Celestia as she began to speak anew.

“With both these thoughts in mind, I will give my decree,” Celestia began, her voice slipping into ‘the Royal Canterlot Voice’ as was tradition whenever an official decree was made. Front Page thought for a moment she saw her eyes flicker to the airship. “On the matter of Blue, the Changeling, the princesses of Canterlot decree that—”

A static screech of improperly tuned magical amplification equipment managed to drown out even the Royal Canterlot Voice as it turned on, broadcasting from the airship that now flew close overhead. Before anything further could be done, royal guard pegasi were already moving to intercept the ship. More guards moved to bring the princesses inside, but Celestia waved them away, projecting a barrier around all the gathered ponies.

“HELLO, PRINCESS CELESTIA!” came a screeching, yet somehow airy voice. The pegasi met the airship and began to fly around it, looking for the pony aboard while also looking at the identifying markings, only to find them magically obscured. Then, the voice again, this time no longer screeching, but almost pleasant. “Sorry about that. I was worried I wouldn’t make it in time.”

Celestia gave a long-suffering smile and looked up at the airship. “In time for what?” her voice boomed.

“In time to exercise the rights that I am given under the Celestial Contract of the Fifth Century!” came the voice. Celestia and Luna shared a glance. They’d both been there for the Fifth Century, even if it hadn’t lasted too long for Luna. “The rite to anonymous request of Trial by Peers!” A light seemed to flash deep in Celestia’s eyes, but she didn’t say anything. “You may recall,” the voice began, almost brash with its confidence, “that it was first established by yourself when a mob came to your door in regards to your royal decree regarding the dragon who would go on to supply your school with eggs for the magical completion test.”

On the platform, Twilight glanced back to the castle where a small purple dragon stood just inside the door.

“It was a long time ago, but you’ve had ample time to write this rule out of circulation and have failed to do so. Thus, by virtue of the Lunar Decree of the Sixth Full Moon of the Fourth Century, it is still valid to be used in present circumstances.” There was a crackle from the amplification magic, but the voice went on. “Thus, I should like to enforce this rule in regards to Blue, the Changeling.” Celestia made to say something, but was cut off. “As well as one Hendrick, an earth pony, who was unjustly acquitted of his charges by virtue of decree from Princess Luna.”

After a moment of shocked silence from both herself and the crowd, Celestia responded, her voice heavy with caution. “You know that you must give us something of sentimental value for this act, do you not? This was not a right given to the populace in and of itself; it stems from a time before the common pony carried money. You trade me some object of sentimental value and I trade you the right to call a Trial by Peers.” Celestia paused, looking up to the silent airship. “Unless you believe I have misremembered the law? It has been a long while since its enforcement.” It sounded to Front Page like Celestia almost did want to be wrong about it, for this not to be the price on the ancient law. Long gone were the days of her gossip paper, however, and Front Page had no evidence to support her theory.

The airship seemed itself to hesitate in the air, then the voice returned. “You acknowledge that such a gift can also be given anonymously?” the mysterious voice from the airship asked. The pegasi who had been trying to pry open the doors aboard had given up, finding them magically locked.

“I do.” Celestia answered, her gaze steady on the airship.

“Then you shall receive it, as promised. I expect to hear about the date of these trials in tomorrow’s papers. You shall receive my payment of sentiment today, if you haven’t already.” Then, just as suddenly as it had arrived, the airship departed, the guard pegasi disembarking as it wheeled away from the castle.

Celestia looked over her ponies for a moment, then dismissed her protecting shield from their heads. They looked towards her expectantly. “Then as such a time as I receive this payment, I shall work towards an appropriate timeline.” She glanced at the departing airship and nodded to Shining Armor who began to escort the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony back into the castle. “I am sorry to have wasted your time, but it seems even I am not old enough to have planned for everything. I will inform the public as to the date of the trials as soon as I am able.”

Celestia then turned and followed the elements back into the castle, her sister striding by her side. Even as the doors closed, Front Page could hear the confusion in the general populace. The announcement was over, but now what were they going to do? Front Page didn’t know either, so like the other press ponies, she hurriedly began to take notes as Octavia and Vinyl shared unsure glances.

Inside the castle, Celestia let out a breath and saw Luna staring back at her with a solemn gaze. She wanted to ask if something was the matter, it was almost a habit to ask that when Luna gave her that look, but she knew the answer was yes, and she knew what the problem was.

“When that pony gives you this payment of sentimentality, let me know. I seek to ask them some questions of my own.” Luna gaze was like steel as it focused on Celestia, and Celestia found she couldn’t wait a moment. She hated seeing those eyes turned on her.

Celestia stopped moving and signalled for Luna to do the same. When a guard made to come back and fetch them, Celestia waved him on. He paused, unsure, but at Celestia’s incessant signal, he faltered and left the sister’s alone in the hallway.

Celestia waited a moment, until no footsteps echoed in the hallway. Even then, when she spoke, it was barely above silence in volume. “That,” Celestia said, jerking her head back to the door that had just closed behind them, “was Hendrick.” Luna’s eyes went wide, but Celestia continued. “His payment... was offering himself up to be judged.”

“That’s not sentimental,” Luna protested, her voice twisted with anger and rising in volume. “How dare he—”

“No,” Celestia acknowledged, attempting to quiet the rage, “but he knows what it means with his relationship to you, especially now that I’ve told you.” Luna was about to deny it when she realized her mane had already started to waver angrily in a non-existing wind. “The sentiment is that he’s more interested in Blue receiving a fair trial than his own happiness. Which, unfortunately, is payment enough by the old standards from when the law was first established. Stars, when he said he had a payment in mind, this isn’t what I’d expected.”

“You knew!?” Luna hissed. Suddenly wrapping the pair of them in magic and teleporting them to her private chambers where she could rage without worrying who would overhear. “YOU KNEW? AND YOU STILL LET HIM DO IT?! HOW DARE YOU! HAVE YOU NOT DONE ENOUGH? NOW YOU NEED TO STEAL HENDRICK AWAY FOR YEARS OF PRISON TIME? YOU HIDE SUCH A PLAN AND LIE TO ME TO KEEP IT HIDDEN?! WHY? SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO MAKE A DIFFICULT DECISION?”

“YOU WEREN’T THERE WHEN THE DRAGONS ATTACKED.” Celestia retorted, her own voice towering in volume over Luna’s. Luna’s eyes turned to slits, but before she could speak what was on her mind, Celestia did instead. “And that was my fault,” she said immediately, her voice dying away and leaving only the empty rumbling echo of the Royal Canterlot Voice to bounce around the room. Luna waited as her rage burned itself out without any fuel to consume.

“I didn’t want to repeat that horrible standoff. No one was happy with any result, but I knew that I had to make a decision. I always have to make the decisions. Even now that you’re back, I’m still expected to make the important calls. I knew that no matter what I chose, ponies would be angry with me and worse, if I made the wrong decision that could lead to violence.

“But Hendrick came to me almost a week ago and told me he had a plan that would shift any blame off of me while ensuring a healthy community in the aftermath and it sounded so… nice,” Celestia admitted. “To not be blamed, to not have to make a decision, for everything to work out without my input. It sounded like a dream. He told me his plan and, stars above, Luna, it sounded like it would work. It sounded like the best plan I’d heard in a millenia. If I’d known he’d put himself on the chopping block for it, I never would’ve agreed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Luna. I needed as many legitimate reactions up there as I could get; it was partially why I asked the elements here.” Celestia paused, realizing now how horrible an excuse it was. “I regret it now,” she said, as much to herself as to Luna.

Celestia looked to Luna whose face seemed velvet with rage. Then, slowly, she breathed. Her tone returned to normal as she paced the movement of air through her lungs. She faced a nearby wall, leaning her head against it. “Of course he didn’t tell you,” Luna said, not angry, just… disappointed. “He knew you wouldn’t have agreed to let him put his own freedom at risk just as he knew that when I found out it would qualify as a ‘sentimental payment’. He knew that by potentially sacrificing his wedding date and bringing down a trial on his own head, he was also satiating both parties of the changeling issue. He planned it all out, and then he lied to me about it”

Celestia frowned then, having completely forgotten about how a potential guilty verdict in Hendrick’s own case would effectively delay a wedding for several years, if not more. She glanced to Luna who stood with her horn resting against the wall and her gaze locked to the floor. The elder sister moved towards her younger sister and, carefully, hugged her.

Author's Note

Thanks as always to Staplecactus, my eternal debt for his editing grows deeper with each chapter released.

Today's chapter is almost entirely because an excellent fic, The Enchanted Library, spurred me to writing. I recommend it with utmost praise.

It's a RariTwi slow burn romance, it is a complete story with a regularly updating sequel in The Enchanted Kingdom. Of course, compared to my stories everything is 'regularly updating', but Monochromatic does seem to be sticking to two chapters a month which is, well, beyond my comprehension if I'm being honest. How do they do it?

The chapters are lengthy and amazing. The writing is infinitely better than my own. The alternate universe that it uses as its setting is well established and the characters are solid and believable and very good.

So if you're getting sick of me updating every 13 months or so I highly recommend you give it a read.

Chapter One

Rarity stood in a solitary corner of the room in an outfit that made some of the surrounding nobles look like paupers in comparison. Wonderful white lace decorated the outfit, adding an indescribable beauty to the accompanying colors. Not to mention, of course, the wonderful hat that rested atop her perfectly arranged hair. She was, if nothing else, fantastic at the creation and use of her craft. Her stunning beauty drew glances of envy from the other party goers and, indeed, Rarity would have easily been able to keep the company of almost every bachelor if she were out in the open, but that was not what her intentions were this Grand Galloping Gala. No, she had other things to attend to.

Which is precisely what she had told her friends when they insisted she come with them to the various activities planned for the more enthusiastic party goers. A phrase which here means “something to keep them from causing a large commotion again and causing throes of mayhem as they had the last time they were present.”

Rarity turned her gaze around the room, looking for the stallion who she had intended to meet at her first gala and had once again been the deciding factor in her presence to this one, even if she would never admit it. The reasons were shockingly different of course, but they both regrettably involved him and she would only need to stomach his presence for a moment or two this time around. She spotted him a fair distance off, mingling amongst a group of nobles who were vying for his attention. After she had taken a moment to reassert her plan in her mind, Rarity boldly approached him with a noble gait.

Blueblood, the stuck-up snob who believed he knew everything, who took the terminology of ego and would make others believe it belonged solely to him. He was her target. She had entertained dreams of revenge, of making him scream once again like a little girl in front of the collection of her peers. But, after a series of events with her friends, she came to the realization that that wouldn’t be fitting. They always did manage to do that, have experiences that showed a good trait and how much better it was on the whole than its negative reflection.

She had come to realize that she had an image to stick up to, to set an example for her younger sister most importantly. But, she also needed to represent herself favorably to potential buyers. Luckily enough, this time they aligned. So today, she was not there for an over planned plot which would lead to the demise of the ‘prince’. Rather, she was there to be the bigger pony and apologize.

She stepped nearer, waiting until she was close enough to talk to him so as to insure an uninterrupted apology; she might not be able to muster her courage should she be cut off. It was from this nearby, but unnoticed, position that she was given the perfect point of view as he took a slight step back and inadvertently caused a pony to trip over him. Which, as far as things Blueblood could do, wasn’t all that bad. Rather, it was how he handled himself in response to the act that made Rarity angry. Blueblood whirled on the offender, looking down at him with an air of superiority. The pony, in turn, managed to mumble out an apology that went largely unnoticed by the prince.

“I really am sorry,” he said with a light hearted tone, smiling at the prince despite the frown he was receiving in response. “I suppose I’m still not as sure of my step as I think I am,” the stallion continued as he managed to get back up to his feet. “My name’s—” His introduction was cut short by Blueblood coughing loudly then looking pointedly towards the stallion who took a confused look to heart and expression.

“I do not wish to hear your name. I make sure only to hear the names of important ponies, so that I will always remember them and not have their names diluted by the names of commoners,” he stated, the sounds of agreement coming from the nobles that surrounded him encouraging him onwards through his words. “You apologized, though really, I suspect you didn’t mean it nor care as much as you could have.” The prince brushed a hoof against his coat, making sure it was clean. “Now leave me be.”

Rarity hadn’t heard more than a few minutes of the fool’s blather and already she was angry with him. To interrupt an introduction was incredibly rude, and yet here was Blueblood not even giving a second thought. The high and mighty prince looked down on the stallion, feigning superiority. His eyes seemed to evaluate his victim, judging him silently, then, without another word, he turned his head away, no longer interested in the one whom he had tripped, even if it had been by accident.

“Hey!” Rarity shouted, primarily to catch his attention before he lost himself in more ego massaging with the nearby nobles. “That was incredibly rude.” She approached the scene of the confrontation, immediately drawing the attention of the nearby ponies who looked on, expecting a coming war of words.

“Ugh, look, I’d rather not have to talk to you. Can’t you just go away?” Blueblood said, looking at Rarity with a degree of disgust.

“Excuse me? You expect me to just—” She was cut off as a hoof brushed against hers, causing her to look. The stallion who had tripped looked back at her with an understanding face, and for a moment, Rarity was completely caught off guard as her eyes met the gaze of two tranquil pools staring back at her. He looked into hers for a while longer before a kowtowing smile covered his face and he turned his eyes quickly back to Blueblood.

“I’m very sorry for interrupting your night,” he said simply, earning him a muffled reply from Blueblood. The words that exited the prince’s mouth could be described as quite a lot of things, but an apology wasn’t one of them. Using a small degree of force, the stallion managed to drag Rarity away without another word. She looked angrily towards the stallion as they walked, upset at the one pulling her lightly, having been interrupted from giving Blueblood a piece of her mind. She was about to vocalize her thoughts, but the stallion cut her off before she could so much as exhale a syllable.

“He’s not worth it, you know,” he said with a calming voice, glancing at her from beneath his eyebrows. Rarity looked back, taken aback but finding that she agreed with the words he spoke. “He doesn’t deserve attention, but people give it to him, so he thrives on it. If you really want to get back at him, I would highly recommend ignoring him,” the stallion continued, moving his gaze around the room, but avoiding, in particular, the lingering eyes of those who had been expecting a show and were upset to find there wouldn’t be one. His words held an odd feeling to them: quiet to avoid drawing attention, but powerful.

“You sound like you’ve met him before,” Rarity said in response, her emotions of rage and anger melting away quickly under the fire of curiosity kindled in her mind. “But I can’t say I’ve ever seen you at any of the big how-to-do’s I’ve been to here in Canterlot.” As she spoke, her eyes searched his features, looking for a familiarity that she may have overlooked, but nothing stuck out to her memory.

“This was our first meeting face to face, but the rumors I’ve heard about him seem to describe him perfectly, given how he acted just then. I’m fairly certain of his character, and it’s one I’ve seen in an unfortunately high amount before I arrived in Canterlot,” he said, confirming Rarity’s thought that he wasn’t a local. It was obvious in the way he held himself as he walked; it lacked the steady, forceful steps that seemed to rub off on those who were raised there. “Though, I suppose he’s not nearly as bad as they were, given it’s mostly just a problem with who he is, not what he’s done.”

Rarity kept silent as she began to think about recent occurrences. “I had meant to apologize to him, given that I acted less than ladylike when we first met. I suppose, however, that is now out of the question.” As she spoke, she turned her head to look in the direction they were heading. She was quite surprised to find that their destination was the pair of thrones marking the front of the room. Celestia sat upon hers with an air of elegance, having finished inviting the party-goers and enjoying a moment of alone time. Next to her, in stark comparison, was Luna bearing a sliver of anxiousness that echoed over her expression and general poise.

“I doubt it would make much of a difference; he would still be just as rude as he was before. Any apology would be too good for him, in my opinion.”

“Perhaps, but my intention was to show I was the bigger pony. To show that I was willing to humble myself.”

“Then you don’t need to apologize.” Rarity looked at the stallion in confusion, who smiled in return. “Instead of apologizing, as you intended, you stood up for a complete stranger who you suspected had been done wrong, even though the villain was of a higher standing than you.” He paused and let her soak in the words for a moment before he continued. “Though, clearly, that was in his political standing alone. Morally, the roles are clearly reversed.”

Rarity intended to thank him for the compliment, but was interrupted as her eye caught movement from the thrones. She watched with a small degree of surprise as Luna got down from her throne and made her way towards them. Rarity began to look around to see who the princess was coming to greet. Seeing no one of note around, she began to panic as she realized that Luna was approaching them, most likely herself. She looked to her companion who was somehow maintaining a stable head and took a few breaths to calm herself.

“Hello, Your Highness,” Rarity announced, stooping into a bow.

“Hello, Lady Rarity. I trust you are in good spirits this afternoon?” Luna asked, smiling at the Bearer of Generosity as she rose from her bow.

“Yes, and this first class night you have provided us has made it all the better,” Rarity said with a genuine grin.

“Thank you very much,” Luna responded, smiling wider at the compliment, then turned her head to face the stallion. “And how are you doing tonight, Hendrick?” A shock ran through her body as Rarity turned her head to look at the stallion once again. Rumors of Luna’s male companion had shifted through the entirety of Equestria faster than parasprites at a picnic, but somehow pictures of him were rare things to find. Twilight herself had tried to describe him to her, but having been under the influence of multiple spells, drugs, and the lingering effects of poison had skewed her memory of the events in the castle hospital.

“I’m doing quite well, Luna. Lady Rarity was kind enough to help me out earlier and we ended up walking together for a ways afterwards.” He looked to Rarity with a grin, causing her to crookedly grin in return, still taken by surprise by the situation and unsure of how to handle it. “It was certainly nice meeting another of the bearers of the elements and find she was just as wonderful as Fancy Pants says she is.” He smiled at her and Rarity could instantly understand why Luna had taken to the stallion. “But, I suppose I’ve taken enough of her time, so if you need to go elsewhere, Miss Rarity, that would be fine with me.”

Rarity left in a star struck trot, losing herself in the crowds before she squealed a little under her breath and managed to regain control of herself. Meanwhile, just out of her earshot, Luna and Hendrick continued their conversation.

“You complimented her,” Luna observed. “You don’t compliment very many ponies.”

“Very few ponies deserve compliments,” he responded immediately. “Now, I believe you had a particular cake baking contest in mind tonight?”

“You said you didn’t cook.”

“I never said we would win.” He winked at her and Luna couldn’t help but smile in response. “I just said we would do it together.”

Author's Note

Now you may be stuttering about how I said I would be gone for two years. In case you missed the mass blog post, there was a change of plans.

Chapter Ten

Blue was running. His hooves beat against the earth, sounding for all the world like a rolling storm. Ponies and buildings passed by on either side as he ran, he could hear the chase behind him, urging him forward. His wings fluttered helpless in the air that rushed around him, helpless now just as they had been since he’d woken up in the hospital. He could feel the world slipping away around him. There was no need for the chase, he didn’t need any other reason for what he was about to do.

The edge of town came into view. He saw the edge, where the world dropped away into nothingness. He knew it would be here. he just had to run in one direction and he would find the edge. He remembered the layout of the town, he’d been here before. Shouts broke out behind him, the urgency playing its chorus among a frantic verse of worry. He hadn’t explained it to them, he didn’t have time. He needed to end it as soon as he could. He knew he had to end it before someone could talk him out of it.

As he ran, images of Octavia, Vinyl, Moon Light, Front Page… everyone who’d visited him the hospital. Every single one of the faces that had shown even an ounce of compassion for his plight when the watched him. They came to mind, almost vividly, and he felt tears building once again, seeking their fellows that Blue had left back on the hospital bed sheets. He shook them away, he was almost gone, they wouldn’t need to worry about it anymore, wouldn’t need to worry about him any longer. Blue had no idea who he was, but he knew the kindness in their hearts. And now... the edge was so close now…

Even with the tunnel vision that took his eyesight he still spotted the silhouette that had moved alongside him. Closing the distance from behind. The form let loose a burst of speed and jumped forward suddenly, spinning a tight one hundred and eighty degrees before planting its hooves against the small wall that kept ponies from falling off accidentally. Blue had no time to stop his run, and instead collided with them. The shoulders of the pony and the changeling seemed to lock together from the force, and both stood perfectly still. Blue was shaken from his stillness by the encroaching force behind him, and he sought to push forward still, trying in vain to move the barricade that had ended his run. He heard the gap close behind him, they would be on him in moments, and they would never let him leave again. They cared too much.

Then, suddenly, the hoofsteps behind him stopped. So close to catching him and they stopped. Blue looked out over the edge, barely catching a glimpse of a tuxedo as it flew over the edge and drifted down and down until it disappeared. Blue let his legs stop pushing, coming instead to a stalemate with the mysterious pony that had stopped him, necks side by side and heads out of each other’s view.

“What’s the matter Blue?” Came the voice, and it rang familiar in Blue’s ears.

“Hendrick?”

“Did something happen? Did someone attack you or threaten you?”

“No Hendrick its…” Blue choked back tears as he stood there and looked at the setting sun on the horizon. He hadn’t thought he would speak to anyone. He couldn’t phrase his thoughts right, his lips grasping for the first words to come to his mind. “I remembered.”

“... I see.” Came the simple reply, full of understanding despite the vague words that had been said. “What did you remember?”

“I… I don’t deserve this Hendrick. I’m only going to cause you trouble while I’m still alive. There’s things that the Queen left in my head, things she would have had to remove from my head by force. Information locked away from me that she doesn’t want you to see. She thought I would die. But I… Just by being alive I…” Blue shook his head and watched the sun slowly dip below the horizon, the edges of the ball waving slightly by illusion. “I don’t want to put you in trouble. And I don’t deserve the kindness either. It would be so much simpler if I just-”

“No. Actually. It wouldn’t.” Hendrick responded, his stance still firm and taut, holding his ground. Keeping the changeling from the edge.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not the best kind of person to explain.”

“But you just…”

“I’m just repeating what I was told when I was in your place. I’m not gonna pretend that I know anything too deep about it Blue, but I know its true. I trust that what Luna told me is true beyond a shadow of a doubt. Death is not an answer. Death is not even an option. Not for you. Not for me. I’ve already seen some truth in those words. You just have to put in the effort.”

“But it would end it all, right here. If you move to the side…”

“I’ve caused enough death through inaction, Blue. Never again.”

“So then… what? What’s your master plan huh? Everyone talks you up so much… you have a plan to get out of it right?”

“Of course not. But you are not going off this cliff. Not while I still draw breath.”

Blue stood still for a moment, before anger took his expression. He pushed against the stalwart form of Hendrick. “MOVE!” He shouted, before throwing his weight into Hendrick, hoping he would move aside before they got to the edge. If not, one of the pegasi would save him, or a unicorn. Hendrick was a civil hero, after all, they wouldn't let him die. But Blue... Blue was a monster.

There was a crack as Blue threw his weight into action, but he ignored it and pushed harder. Only to find he was gaining no ground. And, after a moment, he was surprised to find he was losing it. Despite his best efforts he found his hooves sliding backwards, he dared a glance at Hendrick and saw a fire raging in his eyes. The stallion pushed the changeling back from the edge, slowly but steadily.

“Not-” Hendrick forced a cough. “Not today Blue.” Stride after stride Blue felt himself move farther and farther away from the small wall and the sweet release on the other side. “There’s always another choice. A better choice. And you have plenty of ponies who want to help you find it. If I don’t get to end my life than you most certainly don’t get to either.” Blue stopped pushing against the force, and felt Hendrick lighten his aggressive tactic. “Not. While. I. Still. Draw. Breath.” Came the panting attacks from the stallion.

Blue stood perfectly still, stunned silent. Hendrick continued, talking to the ponies behind Blue now. “Captain. Take Blue to the castle. Who you tell about what just happened I leave to your discretion, but make sure to tell the princesses that Blue is getting his memory back.”

“Yes sir.”

“Don’t call me sir. I hate being called sir.” Hendrick stepped back from Blue, and began to move away when one of his legs buckled.

“Hendrick are you-” Shining Armor began, only to be cut off by the victim of his worry as he forced himself onto his feet again.

“I just. Dislocated my shoulder. I’ll go talk to the rehab doc, see who he recommends. Then I’ll have to look into getting a new tux, but don’t worry about me. Above all, make sure that nothing bad happens to Blue.” Hendrick glanced around at the crowd that had gathered, some of them having tailed the guard all the way from the hospital. “Please. As a favor to me.”

“Of course Hendrick.”

“Thank you.” Hendrick nodded once to Shining Armor before he began to hobble away, a noticeable limp in his steps as he moved away towards what Blue could only assume was the rehabilitation center. Ponies moved out of the way as he passed, looking between him and Blue with curious judging eyes, but they remained silent. Shining Armor and a mare in armor flanked him on either side, corralling him towards the castle. Blue followed without a thought.

After they’d left the crowd behind, Blue opted to speak. “Captain.” He said simply. “Do you know anything about Hendrick’s history?”

Shining Armor shared a glance with the female guard, who looked back in confusion. “Not really. Why do you ask?”

“Because that fire in his eyes…I saw it in the mirror this morning.”

The pegasus floated above the buildings, glancing into the valley where the road ran its course. He held the cloth tightly in his grasp as he flew, looking for a face or shape in the crowds. He spotted it easily, it was hard to miss the limp. He swooped down to the road and landed easily, a few paces behind Hendrick, passing the tuxedo its spot in his hooves to tucking it under his wing as he switched from flying to walking.

“Mr. Hendrick!” He shouted, causing the stallion to pause and turn, giving the pegasus time to catch up. “Hey Mr. Hendrick!” He called again, jogging lightly to catch up, a smile always on his face. “I noticed you dropped this!” He managed to say through his smile, never breaking his joviality. He passed the tuxedo to Hendrick, who smiled as he received it.

“Thank you very much Mr...”

“Oh it’s Fair Weather, Sir.” Hendrick seemed to twitch a bit at the last word, but Fair Weather ignored it.

“Thank you very much Mr. Fair Weather. I was worried I’d have to buy a new one.”

“Its my pleasure. I was happy to do my part. Especially if it meant helping you out. Sir.” Hendrick twitched again, but Fair Weather assumed it was just the shoulder acting up.

“How do you mean?”

“What?” Fair Weather started before he continued. “Oh, you mean the helping you out part?” Hendrick nodded, so the pegasus went on. “Well you’ve done so much for all of us, figured it was an honor to help you out. I mean...I help everybody out, but not everyday I get to help out a hero like you sir.” Hendrick flinched again and Fair Weather got nervous that he was keeping him from an urgent trip to get his shoulder fixed. It didn’t look that bad, but Fair Weather knew he’d been wrong before.

“I’m not quite a hero yet I don’t think.”

“Hahaha!” Fair Weather immediately broke into a laugh, only to realize he was alone in it. He stopped abruptly and looked at Hendrick with an apologetic face. “Oh, I mean… Well you’ve just done so much… If you don’t think you’re a hero… I don’t know quite what to say to that. Other than… I guess… you’re keeping yourself to some pretty strict expectations.”

“Yea, I suppose that’s a possibility.” An uncomfortable silence settled on the pair until Fair Weather felt the need to excuse himself.

“Well sorry sir, didn’t mean to keep ya, just thought I’d drop that off for ya so you didn’t have to worry. Hey, anything else you need though, give me a hollar. I’ll come runnin’.”

“Will do, thank you Fair Weather.” The pegasus nodded back and was about to take to the skies when Hendrick spoke again, his voice rushed to catch him before he flew off. “Actually, could you do me a favor Fair Weather?”

“Sure, what do you need?” Wing muscles relaxed and Fair Weather looked to Hendrick expectantly.

“Don’t call me sir.”