Bliss in Darkness

Building Bridges

After my run in with Princesses Luna and Celestia, my recovery went almost uninterrupted. I almost began to think that the Princess had ordered other ponies to stay away from me. Luna seemed warm to me, but Celestia still seemed wary. Perhaps it was because I had almost killed her. Causing death seems to be one of the only things people know me for. That's something I was going to have to fix if I wished to live here in peace.

Luna visited me quite frequently. It was refreshing to talk to such a bright person, even if that person wasn't human. But then again, neither was I so I was hardly one to judge. The first few times she came to visit Celestia sent royal guards to escort her in case I tried any funny business. I understood, even if Nightmare had been expelled from my body I was still a completely unknown creature to them. I fondly remember the latest visit Luna graced me with. She brought me some books about Equestrian history. Equestria. The name of the world that I was hoping to be my new home.

I learned that the land was occupied by a race of sentient and highly intelligent ponies. They were divided into three main groups, Earth Ponies who were strong and in tune with the forces of nature, Pegasi who had wings and could manipulate the clouds and weather, and Unicorns who possessed the ability to control the arcane forces of magic. In addition to those three, there was the master race, the Alicorns. They possessed nearly god like abilities, and lived forever. There were only two in existence at that point in time. Princesses Celestia, and Luna. Celestia raised the sun every morning, and Luna raised the Moon at night. And Luna was my first friend.

"I brought you a gift!" Luna happily exclaimed as she set down a present before me. I was surprised at her enthusiasm. The previous day we ended on a rather sour note. I made the mistake of asking her about her confinement on the moon. Needless to say she left the room crying.

"Oh! Thank you!" I said with a smile. I couldn't believe her kindness. From what Celestia told me, most of Equestria was  still scared of her from the whole Nightmare Moon thing. Because of this, she never got out of the palace and was very lonely. I think she was just happy to have somebody to relate to.

"No problem. I'm sorry for running away earlier... I never get asked about that and I'm not used to it..." She said shying away from me.

"Don't worry. You aren't the only one who is ashamed of their actions... But enough of the past! We have an eternity's worth of a future to spend doing the right thing!" I said, trying to pick up both of our spirits.

"Eternity? I'm an Alicorn, so I'll live forever... but you?" She said with intrigue. I forgot to tell her of my.. condition. I elected not to tell her the more gruesome parts of my past, and with good reason.

"Well. In my world, the dominant race is called Human. I'll tell you more about them later, but I recently discovered I was... More than human. To make a long story short, I can live forever."

"Oh I see. That must have been an... interesting revelation." She said with a tone of sadness in her voice. Being immortal, she knew the pain of outliving your loved ones. Being one of the only two alicorns in known existence, I suppose she shied away from others simply because she had had to live through the deaths of her close friends before. Ah the trials of immortal life, the trials I will have to face until the world ends, or somebody takes my life.

"I take it you have lost loved ones? I know the feeling..." I said trying to be sympathetic.

"Yes... after a while I just stopped making friends and finding lovers simply because when they die I lose everything. Then I was banished for a thousand years. I have nopony but my sister to keep me company..." She said, almost crying. If that was enough to tear her up, she would probably die if she heard what happened in my past.

"Well you have me now! That's something isn't it. That is, unless your sister banishes me to the moon for a thousand years!" I chuckled, but I was also rather fearful being that was a possibility. I gulped.

"So...," I started, eager to end the awkward silence, "What's in this gift?"

"Open it and find out!" She said, her sad face turning happy in an instant.

I unwrapped the midnight blue paper covering the box. It wasn't heavy, but it was rather large. I lifted the lid and inside was a large book. The cover was deep blue. It had an illustration of the night sky on it. In bold teal letters on the cover it was titled...

"Night Time Astrology?" I said questioningly.

"Yes!" Her eyes gleamed with excitement. "Look at the pictures!"

For being a thousands of years old goddess of the moon, she sure had a funny way of expressing herself. Of course, I was her only real friend she has had for generations of being alone, so I would just have to bear with it and pretend I was at least excited. It was a gift after all, and I wanted to be polite.

I opened the book, and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it. It had pictures of her night sky that she had created every night for years. A beautiful sight that everypony slept right through, completely ignoring. I could see why she was so jealous of her sister. The night is misunderstood, and so was Luna for the most part. I have always preferred the night to the day and not just because of my.. abilities. It is peaceful and calm, and the dark sky is a beautiful sight to behold. If I told her that, it would probably make her happy. So I did.

"Thank you Luna! You know, I've always preferred the night over the day." I said, knowing that she would freak.

"You do?! Oh isn't it just wonderful! I have always wanted to make the moon a bit larger and outline the..." She continued to speak as though I had any idea what she was talking about. I just looked at her. She was as beautiful as the night sky that I had come to adore my whole life. It gave me strength, among other things, but I always saw it as a time when I could reflect on myself and other things. A time where I could slow down and do things calmly at my own pace. I loved the night. And I was scared I loved Luna too. I had no idea what the consequences of this would be if anypony found out, so I just shut up and kept the feelings locked up. Still... her eyes bore into me like a drill digging to my soul.

"and that's how the stars work!" She finished, me still staring at her. "What are you staring at?"

"Oh, nothing... I was just... yeah... anyways. I should probably get to sleep. Tomorrow is a big day for me. I have to meet with Celestia and those six ponies who defeated Nightmare Moon. I'll talk to you later!" I said, trying to get her to leave. I was embarrassed and besides Claire, I had never been good at talking to girls I liked. It was always my downfall. To think... Eternal life, strength, brain power and night vision, but I just couldn't grasp the concept of my own emotions. That was also something I would have to work on.

"Oh.. ok. Well I hope you like the book! I'll see you tomorrow!" She said happily exiting the room. I did like the book. I loved it. I continued looking at it for what seemed like hours before I finally drifted to sleep.

***

The next day I was awoken rudely by a pair of armed guards bursting into the room. They said something that had to do with getting presentable for the Princesses and rolling my lazy ass out of bed. I would have protested, but I was too tired to work up the will to say anything. I got up and they presented me with a box of clothes. Pony clothes. That obviously wouldn't do.

"Do you have anything that would fit me?" I said eyeing the tiny apparel they had presented to me.

"This is all we have. Get dressed" The leader of the two said.

Lovely. For the third time I would have to present myself to the royal ponies, who at any time could banish me to the far reaches of space, nearly naked. Whatever, its not like any of them ever wore clothes anyways.

I reached for what looked to be a black cloak in the box. It was a dress, so I ripped off the top half and put it around my waist like a skirt. I then took the remaining fabric and fashioned a belt to tie it up with. I figured I could go bare chested. Personally, I thought my scars made me look like a badass. Maybe they would think that not wearing a shirt all the time was a human thing.

The guards looked at me with a completely undetectable smile, using every bit of their training not to laugh. It was their fault, they refused to bring me decent clothing.

I followed the armed pair into Princess Celestia's throne room. The light of the day burning my retinas as my pupils slammed shut. The room was massive and had many stained glass windows depicting events that took place in the land. I recognized a lot of them from the books I had read while recovering, but some of them eluded my knowledge. The one on the far right was shattered, and being repaired by a dozen pegasus ponies.

At the end of the room I saw Princesses Celestia and the beautiful Luna, along with an orange earth pony wearing a stetson hat, the rainbow maned pegasus that beat the shit out of me a week ago, the purple unicorn, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, a white unicorn with a purple mane, and sitting at the far edge of the group was a pink earth pony who was smiling so wide I thought her mouth would tear off from her face.

I approached the throne until I was stopped by the guards. I then bowed, as was proper for officially meeting with royalty. I stood like that for what felt like an eternity as questions soared through my mind at lightning fast speed. What if she banishes me back to my world? What will happen to me if Salazar catches up with me? Will they just execute me on the spot for attacking the princesses? Why would they do that after giving me a week to recover?

"Rise, Human." I heard Celestia's voice boom through the room. Everypony went silent and I raised from my bow. The princesses and the other six looked at me as if they were staring into my soul.

"For committing crimes of assault on the royalty of this land, I hereby declare you a traitor to the throne." She said with a voice that was cold as stone.

"However, for saving the lives of me and my sister, I grant you a full pardon and offer you citizenship in this land." She said with a smile on her face that said 'HA! Got you!'

"Thank you Princess! I am overjoyed to hear that you approve of me. What kind of ponies are good medium rare? Earth ponies look like they would be good with sauteed carrots..." I said dead seriously. The princess couldn't harm me, and I had to get her back for scaring the absolute shit out of me.

"..." Before she could call for the guards to detain and execute me I spoke.

"Got you." I said with a small smile.

"I can tell we are going to get along quite nicely." She said, half grinning, half wanting to tear my head off. Nopony had the courage to stand up to her. I had heard from Luna that she was always pranking the poor unsuspecting populace under her control. Which is why I had stepped up to the plate to challenge her.

'This is going to be so much fun...' I thought mischievously.

Authors Notes: Uplifting shit going on right now. Hope you appreciate the change of pace as much as I do, writing such brutal scenes is hard work. Also, I know that Cadence is an Alicorn in the story, but I honestly know nothing about her. So for now, she doesn't exist. If for some reason you desire nothing but Cadence, I'll include her, but otherwise I'm going to leave her out.