Ki stared at the plate of food, still somewhat dazed by the whole situation. Celestia bit into a piece of garlic bread and took a sip of her pomegranate juice. She looked over to him. "Eat something, Ki, you'll get hungry later and complain if you don't." she said softly.
He looked up at her. "I... Okay." He picked up the fork and stabbed it into the green beans, getting at least ten on the prongs, and shoved all of them into his mouth. He barely chewed before swallowing them whole. He smiled slightly. "Garlic. I love garlic." he said, taking a sip of water. He looked back at Celestia, who was sitting across from him. He looked to his left and right. None of the other chairs were filled on this long table. He felt... Somewhat alone. "Hey."
"Y-hh?" Celestia asked, her mouth full of eggs Benedict. She covered her mouth and swallowed. "I mean, yes?"
"Sit over here. I want to be next to you." he said, in a soft, bizarrely innocent way.
She raised an eyebrow. "An hour ago you wanted me to be as far away from you as-" He looked up at her with pleading eyes. She looked deep into them. "Oh. Okay." She put her utensils and cup on the plate and picked it up carefully before walking around the table and sitting to Ki's right.
"Thanks." He ate another bite of green beans. As soon as he swallowed he looked over to her. "I'm sorry."
She looked at him. "I beg your pardon?"
"I'm sorry for how I treated you when you first saved me." He looked at her face and saw all the kindness and warmth he had heard about. "I just... Didn't know I was that important."
Celestia smiled. "That's okay. You didn't know and were not acting like yourself. Perfectly normal behavior." She ate another bite of garlic bread.
He turned himself around to her. "Why did you save me?" he asked sincerely.
"I heard your crying and decided to help. Simple." She looked at his clothing. Neat black shirt, pressed blue pants, and a pair of gloves hanging out of his front pants pocket. Who was this stallion?
He sighed and ate his eggs Benedict quickly. When he finished, he muttered. "I'm happy someone decided to stop me, at least. But there has to be more to this. You probably hear crying any time you go outside. I could've just been someone getting over a bad break-up. So tell me," he leaned forward and put his hands on her shoulders. "How did you know what I was doing?"
She put her hands on his arms. "I didn't. I just knew someone needed my help." She gave him a slight pat on the shoulder. He withdrew his arms and they returned to eating.

"Sister?" a voice from the hallway leading to the dining room said.
"Yes, Luna?"
"Did you enjoy your walk?" the princess of the night asked, stepping into the room. She was still wearing her pajamas and her hair was a mess. She looked at the stallion sitting next to Celestia and smiled. "Apparently, you did."
Celestia groaned. "Luna, just because I have a stallion eating dinner with me does not mean I've found love. This is neither the time nor the place to speak of such things."
Ki looked at Luna. "I like your pajamas. Very cool designs." The pajamas in question had stars and swirling constellations on them.
"Oh, why thank you, kind sir! And what, pray tell, is your name?" Luna walked over and sat in the chair to his left.
"Ki. Your sister, uh... Saved me from a bad situation. She'll probably explain later. I'd rather not talk about it." He continued eating the green beans as Luna looked over to Celestia with a look of slight confusion. She shrugged and continued eating.
"So, Ki, you seem a bit... Well, unperturbed by the fact that you've met two princesses." Luna says.
He shrugged and looked up at her. "I think the shock value decreased after Celestia hugged me after the whole saving me from a bad situation. One hug from a princess and a free dinner and I think I won't be shocked by anything again." He finished off his drink and sighed. "Is there a place for me to sleep? I think I've had a full day and need some rest."
Celestia nodded. "Down the hall and to the left is an empty room. We usually reserve that for our students, but as neither of us have any at the moment, it's yours."
Ki smiled at Celestia. "Thank you very much, your highness." He got up, bowed, and walked to the room, entering it and closing the door.
Luna looked back to make sure he was out of earshot. "He's nice. What happened to him and what did you do?"
Celestia sighed and began to explain.

Ki looked around the room. Light blue painted walls, a plush blanket covering the King sized bed, drawers, dressers, all the things a student of the princesses would need, and a large window looking out over the city. Ki walked over to the bed and laid on it. He looked around the room again, noticing a small purple bottle of perfume on one of the dressers and a lavender skirt hanging out of one of the drawers. "Looks like someone left some stuff here..." he muttered. He stared up at the ceiling for a bit before hopping out of bed and opening the drawer with the skirt hanging out, putting it back in. The drawer was filled with similarly colored skirts, pants, dresses, and a bizarrely out of place blue sports bra. He closed the drawer and looked at the bottle of perfume. 'Property of T.S.'was inscribed on the side. "Hm... Maybe this is Twilight Sparkle's. Well, if that's the case, she'll probably be back soon to get these. Maybe I shouldn't sleep in here..." He walked over to one of the other drawers and opened it. The first thing on top was a pair of somewhat lacy panties with 'Pipsqueak' embroidered across the front. Ki raised an eyebrow and closed the drawer. "I won't even question that." he says to himself before walking to the large window and looking out. The city was bustling with life as the late-night ponies started to flood the streets, going to the clubs and bars to relax and unwind after hard days. From the castle, the city was a sparkling gem inset into the landscape. It glowed with a magnificent quality that Ki found... Calming. He smiled for the first time that day and walked over to the bed, laying down in it again and pulling the blanket over him. He thought about Celestia saving him and felt... Well, glad. Glad that he had a second chance. He rolled onto his side and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Luna sipped her water. "So you stopped a random stranger from committing suicide and now he's to be staying with us?" she asked.
Celestia nodded. "He's... I think he's going to be okay, but I'm not sure. I'm not a doctor and I don't know how he works, but hopefully he'll be okay." She got up and walked over to the fireplace on the far side of the dining room. She stared into it. "I think we should check on him."
Luna raised an eyebrow and sipped her water again. "Motherly instinct, dear sister? Or... Something else?" she asked.
Celestia shrugged and walked over to her. "I don't know. I think I just want him to be okay. Sounds stupid, I know, but I can't help that."
"Fair enough." Luna finished her water and stood up. She and her sister walked over to the room and opened the door. Ki was sound asleep in the bed.
Celestia sighed. "He's so young and he nearly ended his life... I don't want that to happen." She looked at her sister. "Check his dreams tonight to make sure he doesn't have any nightmares, okay?"
Luna nodded. "Of course, sister." She looked at Ki. "I think you're right. He'll definitely be fine." Celestia smiled wearily and walked back down the hall, retiring to her bedchambers for the night.

Luna pulled a wooden chair into the hall and sat in front of the door. She exhaled deeply and closed her eyes. She hummed an ancient lullaby to herself, slowly drifting into the state she called "seeing". In this state, a projection of her exited her body and could see into dreams and nightmares, influencing them or simply observing. The projection drifted into the room and looked at the sleeping Ki. He was still sound asleep, but a transparent cloud hung over him. Luna's projection floated across the room and looked into the cloud, seeing the current dream Ki was having. Ki, in a black robe, was laying on a slab. He stared upwards at nothing. All of a sudden, a rope coiled around his neck and dragged him off, roughly pulling him off of the slab. He didn't react, and he still stared upwards as the rope looped itself around a beam on the ceiling and pulled him up. His vision drifted to directly ahead of him, towards a massive wooden wall. He wasn't breathing, Luna noticed. He hadn't been breathing the entire time, since he was on the slab or being dragged. Suddenly, a crack in the wall split it in two, and blinding light entered the room. The light grabbed Ki and dissolved the rope, laid him on the floor, and he suddenly began breathing again. The light disappeared and Ki was laying in the same bed he was in now... And then he woke up. The projection, though invisible to his eyes, still quickly returned to Luna as if it was afraid of being seen. She snapped out of her "seeing" state and put the chair back. She walked up to the door and knocked.

Ki was in a cold sweat, breathing heavily as he sat up violently. The dream he had just had... What was that blinding light? Was that supposed to be Celestia? He heard a knocking at the door. He caught his breath. "Come in."
Luna opened the door and poked her head in. "I wanted to check on you, Ki. Are you alright? You don't look well..."
Ki sighed and shook his head. "I'm fine. Just a nightm-" he stopped himself. "Bad dream. Well, not really bad, just... Strange."
"I see." She stepped in and sat in the chair next to the window. "Any idea what happened or what it meant?"
"I think..." He moved so that his back was against the wall. "I think it was supposed to represent Princess Celestia stopping me from killing myself. What's weird is, I was dead in the dream until I was saved, so..."
Luna stood up and walked over to him. She put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it too much, Ki. You need rest." She smiled and leaned closer. "I'll make SURE that you have a better dream this time."
He raised an eyebrow, but finally nodded. "Thank you, Princess." She did a quick courteous bow and stepped out of the room. Ki laid back down and drifted to sleep again.
He dreamt of a field of light and roses.
He slept like a stone.

Author's Note

Finally done with this. Hallelujah.

A little shorter than I expected but hey fuck it, I'm happy with it being out.