Soft blue lamplight flickered on the white walls, illuminating a pair of grey-hued ponies, and a children’s book.
The tiny filly was laughing at her father’s funny voices, her little wings flittering excitedly. The tuxedoed stallion was chuckling, flipping the page with a small surge of magic.
Eventually, the filly tired out, and fell asleep in the stallion’s arms. He smiled nostalgically, tucking the child into bed gently.
“Goodnight papa…” she mumbled softly, her golden mane shining in the blue magic light.
“Goodnight.” he responded, extinguishing his horn.
The spy lurched up, drenched with sweat, terrified. Nightmares like this had come to plague him, more and more, recently.
He sat for a few minutes, head in hooves
His horn glowed, a deep blue colour with a smoky consistency. A similar light enveloped both a quill and a loose scrap of paper, scribbling down a note.
I’ve had enough. I’m leaving, and I am not coming back.
- Achilles Noir
The note was left to drift down to the bedside table, the author already dressed and out the bedroom door.
When someone has no one, is life really worth living? I’ve been asking that myself a lot, lately.
Achilles Noir gazed up. A grassy, plain-looking hill stared back, a dark silhouette against the pink-and-orange streaked sky.
Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.
I looked around as the great doors swung open, smiling broadly. And there she was, the mare of my life, striding towards me in a ceremony of our union.
Ambrosia Noir was simply breathtaking in her wedding dress, an extravagant gown of white and gold. The golden scales along her face and neck shimmered, her draconic horns sparkling, all polished to a pristine glow. The kirin’s emerald eyes were shining bright. A tiara of glowing white-and-blue orchids rested in front of her singular unicorn horn.
Both of us were in a state of pure bliss, the beauty and the beast. For once in my life, I didn’t care for that label. All that mattered was our happiness.
She reached my side, smiling slyly.
“I vin,” she whispered in her thick, Prench accent. “Ve got zhe marriage.”
I chuckled warmly. “Yes, you win.”
Many have asked that, over the course of history. But yet, we still don’t have an answer.
The grizzled assassin laboriously began his ascent of the hill, which was one of many to the east of the Whitetail Woods. It was the tallest one, with a breathtaking view of the beach, and the ocean beyond.
I burst into the hospital room from the moment they gave me the get-go, eyes shadowed with my insomnia and stress.
“Right this way, Mr Noir.” The doctor offered, pointing me towards the single bed.
Ambrosia was propped up against the pillows, holding a bundle of blankets close. She was bloodstained, and looked utterly drained. No, more than that. She looked sick.
“Amber.” I was at her side in a moment, all my weariness forgotten in a moment. There were more pressing matters in mind. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” she replied hoarsely, waving her free hoof assuredly. I frowned. “Come on, lighten up, you haven’t… even said hello to your daughter yet.” She gestured to the bundle she was holding to her chest, loosening her grip slightly.
I carefully lifted the bundle with my magic, into my awaiting forelegs.
She inherited her mother’s beauty. The baby had a silvery-blue coat, and a mane as lustrous gold as Ambrosia’s scales. She was fast asleep, leaving her eyes a mystery to me.
Ambrosia mumbled something. I leaned in closer.
“I was thinking… Arcadia. Arcadia… Noir.” she repeated softly.
“It’s-it’s perfect.” The light-blue kirin nodded slowly, closing her eyes.
“Good…” she managed to breathe out.
“No!” I almost yelled, paling. “Amber!”
The doctor rushed over, one of the nurses removing the newly born Arcadia from my arms, carrying the now crying child away, the other escorting me out of the hospital room. I was helpless to resist.
“You need to wait out here,” she instructed flatly, but not unkindly, as she went to return to the room. “We can’t afford to have any distractions. I’m sorry.”
“Ambrosia…” I whispered, as the door shut behind the nurse, leaving me to stand alone in the hallway.
Ponykind will never a real answer, I realise that. It doesn’t matter what the question is, but all answers are a matter of opinion.
It was slow going. He wasn’t nearly as fit as he was a decade ago, when almost everything had just been watching and waiting. Bullets. Bombs. Knives. He had weathered them all. And yet, there was still more to come.
I sat alone with the silver-blue and gold filly, barely several weeks old, watching the sea sombrely. Beside me was a neat mound of freshly laid earth, with a white gravestone at its head.
Arcadia left the hospital a few days after she was born. Her mother went into the operating room. She never came out.
Ambrosia Noir was a kirin, a kind of pony that had draconian and deer-like characteristics, a race that dwelled almost solely within forests. They were to unicorns as the crystal ponies were to earth ponies, thestrals to pegasi, and how changelings were surprisingly closely related to alicorns.
Barring the immortals, the natural-born alicorns and changeling queens, kirins had the longest lifespans of any mortal pony. The record was six hundred and fifty eight.
Ambrosia should’ve had centuries. She had almost two and a half decades.
Arcadia was a perfectly happy, healthy child, a unicorn, with the shaggy hooves of a kirin and a tiny pair of insectoid wings, which were characteristic of the changeling kind. So my worst fears were confirmed in my hour of grief.
She would be just like me. So be it.
No, I thought, looking down at the child. My daughter. She isn’t. Her mother’s gone. But I'm not. I swear, Ambrosia. I swear she’ll have as normal a childhood as any.
‘A real answer’. Since when does anyone have a real answer? The world makes fools of us all.
The crown of the hill was visible above, and the single, large oak tree that dominated it, dappled with the orange light of the sunset shimmering through the leaves. Sunlight seemed to come off in sparkles from the ocean. The sun itself rested just above the horizon, and slowly descending.
I curled up in the patch of soft grass, relishing the soft glow of the sunshine. I watched the dappled light through the oak leaves, reflecting on the rolling blue waves of the sea, the golden locks of little Arcadia’s mane as she played with the small kaleidoscope of butterflies.
“Papa!” she cried out, voice ringing with joy as pure as the sun. The little pony’s wings buzzed as she bounded over to me. “Come on, papa! We’re having fun!”
I laughed, a soft chuckle, looking around to watch her again.
“Of course, Arc.” I replied, smiling broadly. Arcadia cheered, almost keeping airborne by the power of her own, tiny wings.
“We did good, Ambrosia.” I said quietly, shifting closer to the white rock, before getting to my dark grey hooves. “We did good. If only you had lived to see it. You’d be proud. I know I am.”
From here, Canterlot was visible as a hazy shape on the horizon, as distant as the alicorn who ruled there. Alicorns, with an s, now. Cadance arrived mysteriously since Achilles had left. Princess Luna came out of the legends and into the world about two years ago. Celestia must be so happy, to have her little sister returned to her.
I feel a pang of guilt, every time I’m called into Canterlot.
I told Arcadia that I was leaving again, and I that I didn’t know how long for. I could see her little expression, just then full of hope and excitement, now crestfallen, almost heartbroken.
“But papa! You promised zhat you’d see me in zhe talent show tonight!”
“I know, I know.” I replied with a weary sigh. “But zhis is important.
“More important zhan me?” Arcadia asked timidly. “Zhan mum?”
I didn’t answer her. I couldn’t.
Achilles cut his thoughts out with distaste. There was no use getting bitter over Celestia’s happy reunion with her sister. If he were to guess, the princess had known of this since the very beginning.
So, back to climbing he went.
Just this final slope, now. The wind whistled around the oak branches, carrying a haunting tune. The spy was terrified, but he pressed on. At the top of the world, at the border between the sea, the land and the sky, there was nothing that could hold him down. Nothing except the shining sun, still watching from the end of the world, and the moon, yet to awaken.
Princess Celestia’s hunch about the Elements of Harmony turned out to be correct. Turns out that the Goddess of Light was the power behind them, and the conscience that dwelled within a select pony of a generation as the Element of Magic.
I don’t know what Celestia will do with this information. Apparently, she was the Element of Magic once. Forced to take action with one of the Elements against them, allegedly Generosity, it resulted in the banishments of her sister and their friends, and expelled and imprisoned the Light Goddess within her own weapons.
I had a feeling about the four stars that were prophesized to set Nightmare Moon free. Turns out that they are the missing members of the original Element Bearers.
From what Celestia was saying, Nightmare Moon would be among us again within the century, and that she had big plans for the next Magic incarnate. Apparently, she would be a unicorn, and ‘the union between day and night’.
I don’t care for what the princess has in mind, with the Elements, this Light Goddess, and this mysterious filly that isn’t even born yet. I have my own filly to get home to, without getting caught up in Celestia’s crazy schemes. I swear she’s been getting more and more desperate in the last couple of years.
I will remain observant in the meantime. Maybe undergo my own private investigation into our enigmatic monarch. We don’t need another Nightmare. Not under my watch.
The hill flattened, cresting out. Plants grew on the trunk and in forks of the oak tree, with long stems showering white orchids marked with unusual, light blue patterns. They glowed faintly in the dying light, bobbing in the light air current, streamer-like petals flowing daintily.
It was a cold, dark night when I came home after a weeklong mission into the Badlands. I resented Celestia for this. I had a daughter to care for. Arcadia never got to see her father.
But something seemed… off… now. The lights weren’t on. Of course, that was to be expected. It was the middle of the night. But the door was wide open.
Something was wrong. The monster in me could taste it. It hung on the air, like some putrid smell. Pure malevolence. Something that was cold-blooded, murderous and afraid.
Feelings only a cowardly enemy spy, seeking to inflict psychological torment upon their superior adversaries, could feel.
Oh no.
I burst inside just as a filly screamed, and my blood ran cold with dread. Changeling senses don’t lie.
“Arcadia!”
There was no response.
I drew my gun, begging that everything was all right, that Arcadia was just having a nightmare, and that the nanny had just forgotten to close the door.
Arcadia wasn’t. The nanny didn’t.
“I’m here.” Achilles said, his sombre eyes staring ahead. “Ambrosia. Arcadia. It’s been twelve long, miserable years, but I’m finally here. I’m- I’m sorry I left.”
Barring the half-changeling, the old oak, and the orchids, the only notable features were a pair of large, white rocks.
“P-Papa…” the filly sobbed, writhing in pain. I could feel the blood running down my hooves, staining my coat and suit, pooling on the floor. I hugged Arcadia closer. I couldn’t care less about the mess. Beside me, a bloodstained knife lay abandoned beside the corpse of the adversary. “It- it hu-uurts…”
I killed the unnamed stallion without hesitation, with a single shot to the head. I didn’t know who he was, at this time. I had other priorities.
“Shhh, shhh…” I hushed her gently. It took all of my remaining strength to keep the fear out of voice. Did she know already? I had made sure to tell her about the inevitabilities young, to help her understand why her mother wasn’t around. “It’ll be alright, I promise.”
Was it kinder to carry out a mercy killing? I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not to my daughter, who looked so much like my Amber.
“I wi-ish…” Arcadia eventually choked out, the half-kirin unicorn’s voice hoarse and almost non-existent. “Papa… I wish you’d… you’d been there more. I’m- I- I never, ever got to see you… I never had a mama… and it didn’t feel-feel like I had a papa either…”
I froze. It was the very thing I had dreaded throughout her life. Her was mother dead, and her father as unseen by her as he was to everyone.
How do you tell a child that she isn’t going to make it?
“Bu-but… I love you… papa…”
“I- Arc- I’m so sorry- No- I just- I just-!“ But it was too late for apologies. The filly wasn’t breathing.
She was gone.
I sat, there, frozen, feeling nothing. I just felt a terrible, complete numbness.
I had failed.
I abandoned my wife, my child, my country of birth and the country I made my home in.
The white stones stood side by side, barely weathered by the wind and the rain. Their inscriptions were still clear, still showing the names of the mare and filly that lay beneath them, unknowing that the final member of the family still drew breath above them.
Ambrosia Noir
Kirin Mare
Born on October 27th, 958 PSS
Died at age 24 on May 8th, 982 PSS
Arcadia Noir
Unicorn Filly
Born on May 7th, 982 PSS
Died at age 8 on January 13th, 990 PSS
There was nothing to say. Nothing that could change how it was. ‘Sorry’ could only do so much. ‘Goodbye’ wasn’t enough.
So the assassin sat alone, eyes fixed shut, trying to stop the floodgates from breaching, to stop the feelings from breaking free.
He couldn’t.
“I’m resigning.”
“Excuse me?” Celestia looked up from her paperwork, surprised at this announcement, her usually neutral expression showing confusion. She took a moment to get a proper look at her agent. He was distinctly dishevelled and messy looking, and it looked as if he’d been crying both heavily and recently. There was a faint whiff of alcohol about him. “Mr Noir, may I ask why?
“Personal business. I need to get out of here for a w- while.” Achilles forced it out wearily, turning away. His small wings were shaking. The whole stallion was shaking.
Celestia knew about the links between pegasus emotions and movements in their wings. Noir’s insect-like appendages displayed similar, if not enhanced, effects. He was confused and hurt.
“Mr Noir, please. Tell me what troubles you.” Celestia soothed, setting the stack of paper and quill aside. “It’s better to let it out. Believe me, I know.”
“I-I-“ he stuttered, struggling for words. “I’m sorry, Princess. It isn’t somezhing I can talk about.” He looked back around at the alicorn, sadness and regret clear in his canary-yellow eyes. “Zhis is farewell, your highness. You won’t be seeing me again.”
And he turned and ran, horn glowing a bright blue.
“Wait!” Celestia cried out, leaping to her hooves. “Achilles!”
But he was already gone.
Slowly, the princess sat back down upon her golden throne, still staring after where the stallion was. She couldn’t send the royal guard to look after him. His special talent, espionage, secrecy, remaining hidden, was one of the prime reasons she chose him for her special sect in the military. Spies. Princess Celestia felt an odd chill come over her. She was… afraid.
If Achilles Noir didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t, that much was obvious. But where would he go?
Why?
“Princess Celestia, there is a stallion outside who requests an audience.”
“Hm?” the Princess looked up from her morning paperwork, shifting the thick stack aside. “I didn’t have one booked for this morning.”
“He- He seemed pretty desperate.” Raven replied, with a slight stutter. “He said his name was- was Mr Noir.”
Celestia started, her wings flaring, horn flickering for a moment. Noir? Come back? It has been over ten years since he had fled, leaving behind nothing but the scent of alcohol and his claiming of needing to get out for a ‘while’.
She had been concerned for his wellbeing. It was said that he cared little for his wife’s passing, putting it behind him mere weeks after it happened.
The Princess had only met Ambrosia Noir once. She was a lovely mare, and one of the few kirins that lived outside of the forests. Her services to Equestria were valuable, sending away malicious spirits.
“Princess?” Raven asked, tearing Celestia out of her thoughts. “Do we-?”
“Might as well,” she sighed, tucking her great wings against her back. “Please show him in, Raven, if you don’t mind.”
“O-Of course, Princess.” Celestia’s aide bowed shakily, retreating from the throne room, closing the doors behind her. Princess Celestia herself lay back in her throne, bringing a cup and saucer of tea to her lips.
A few minutes went by, before a blue glow enveloped the edges of the doors, swinging open a little to admit entry to the spy. Celestia watched him carefully as he made his way up the carpet. She noted a slight limp in his step, his greying mane, and the orchid tucked in his suit lapel.
Achilles Noir stopped before the stairs leading up to the dais, remaining silent. The two regarded each other quietly, as if daring the other to make the first move.
Finally, Princess Celestia spoke.
“Usually, my subjects bow to me when they are in my presence.” she stated shortly, before softening. “But you were always an exception, Mr Noir. Welcome back.”
“It’s good to be back, Princess.” Achilles replied, wings buzzing. He smiled ruefully, adjusting the flower. “I was wrong since zhe beginning. It only took me twelve years to figure zhat out. I have no idea where start.”
“The beginning is as good a place to start as any.” Celestia offered kindly. “Take your time.”
The assassin nodded, and began. The solar monarch listened attentively, face showing little emotion.
Achilles left out a few choice things he deemed irrelevant to mention, particularly the identities of his allies and employers. They didn’t extend their feuds to beyond the Badlands, so why bother?
Princess Celestia didn’t speak, except once or twice to nudge her subject back on track when he rambled off about something. Maybe he wouldn’t ever admit it, or even consider it to begin with, but she suspected that he’d lost his edge in recent times.
“And… Zhat’s it, I suppose.” he finished heavily.
“I’m sorry for everything you had to go through.” Celestia said. “If I had known about Arcadia, I would’ve-“
“No.” Achilles cut her off, shaking his head. “It wasn’t your fault. I was being paranoid. I zhought zhat if anyone knew about her, zhey would’ve attacked her to get to me. I couldn’t risk making any exceptions, even for you, Princess.”
Then, he smiled. “Wow. Zhis lifts quite a load off of my back.”
“It’s better to let it out.” Celestia responded, repeating the same advice she had given over a decade ago. “Believe me, I know.”
Achilles chuckled, turning to leave, wings shivering as they warmed up. “Yes. It is better, isn’t it?”
“You are coming back, aren’t you?” the Princess asked. “Equestria needs you, Mr Noir. With you missing, it was as if the espionage sect of our military had been half blinded. There isn’t anyone quite like you.”
“Hm. I’d like zhat. I’d like zhat a lot.” The spy’s horn gleamed deep blue, the half-changeling beginning to melt out of sight from his hooves first. “Very well.”
“Oh, and one last thing. The orchid. I recognise it, but how-“
The spy was completely out of sight, but the answer echoed out from everywhere, yet nowhere, at once.
“Zhe only ones left in Equestria grow above my Ambrosia and Arcadia. Amber’s family were zhe last known cultivators.
“For what is a better send-off than a plant created by light and peace Herself? Raavan Orchids are beautiful flowers, highly magical, zhat react wonderfully to peaceful, happy places.
“It’s time to make it a happy place once again, for my Amber. For my little Arcadia.”
I’m ready.
“And zhe filly, reunited with her parents, lived happily ever after. Zhe end.” Achilles shut the book, smiling fondly. He chuckled softly. “It was always your favourite, Arc. I’m glad we could finally read it togezher, as a family.”
The sun was shining brightly, filtering through the oak leaves. Crickets were chirping in the summer heat, a multitude of birds singing, of which no two songs were exactly the same.
He could taste the emotions in the air. There was a new sweetness here. Sure, tragic emotions still marred the surface of the place, but they were growing more and more unnoticeable by the day. The Raavan Orchids were bobbing in the breeze, radiating a wondrous golden light. They, too, could feel it.
Achilles Noir stood up; the storybook tucked under his insect-like wings, and began to canter back down the hill.
“I’ll be back, same time tomorrow, alright?” he called around behind him, looking back at the sleeping place. “I’ve got a real special story for zhen. ”
Achilles waved with a dark grey hoof. He could almost swear he could see another waving back.
Ambrosia Noir smiled, her work accomplished. One did not live her life setting ghosts free without picking up a few spectral tricks. Beside her, a little, silvery unicorn with changeling wings was jumping up and down, yelling out to her heart’s content.
The voice mingled with the wind, becoming audible as it circled the tallest hill on the stunningly beautiful coastline. Her father’s ears pricked up, looking back to the crown of the hill.
“See you soon, papa!”
Author's Note
PSS - Post Summer Sun (Nightmare Moon's banishment marks the beginning of the dating, at 0 PSS. Before that is BSS.)
