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                      Pavor Nocturnus                      
                 -by A Good Troll Tavern-                  
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                      Pavor Nocturnus                      
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Pavor Nocturnus
To Calm Crescent, the nights were the worst. After being freed from the cursed sword Soul Edge, his atrocities rang clear in his mind, the cries of the dead echoing his sins, and it was even worse when there was quiet. Calm, now his own stallion, was known for thrashing and screaming in his sleep in such a violent manner that sometimes, a guard had been called to see what was up. Calm hadn't tried to get rest that night, though; instead, he just lay silent in his bed, gazing up at the ceiling in deep thought.
The unicorn, barely twenty-three standard years old, wasn't particularly smart or wise, per say, but he was sobered. He had come to understand death more than any normal pony should, as he had been the cause of it for half a decade as Nightmare. The scars where his right leg had mutated bore deep into his shoulder; the wounds stung with a dull, throbbing pain every waking minute of his life. His shoulder was stiff, too, during most of the day, but he still had his magic and, hell, even his other hoof.
Nightmare, the Azure Knight, had worn a dark blue and gold set of plate armor that once belonged to Calm's father Noble Lance, who was part of the Canterlot Royal Guard. The armor was a custom design that hid all the features of the body save the eyes for obvious reasons; the helmet even came with a gold-plated horn sheath for more protection. Noble had been called the Azure Knight as well. When he died, Calm donned the armor himself and sought out Soul Edge, the weapon he had fooled himself into believing was the only way to destroy his father's murderer.
In a way, he got his wish: he'd destroyed himself.
His hoof tapped against his bed, mimicking the drumbeat he heard in his head incessantly as Nightmare and now, to a lesser extent. It was a simple four taps that paused for a fraction of a second before looping over and over. Calm could block it out most of the time, but in moments of silence, he would hear it. It had been his motivation for continuing on with Soul Edge's will; it was an almost beckoning gesture that somehow justified the death and bloodshed.
Just think about something; it'll go away.
Calm was a nobody in Ponyville, just another drifter who came and settled down. Only one mare knew the truth about who he was, and she'd keep quiet for his sake, at least until he's made a good name for himself. People knowing that he was, at one point, a genocidal monster would have a very negative effect on his life, to say the absolute least. Silence about the past was for the best; after all, just about everypony knew about the Azure Knight.
On the first light of dawn, Calm decided today was a good day to thank the pony that had saved him from himself.
Putting on a black scarf and tying his long, dark red mane in a ponytail, Calm went out. The morning had the chill, late autumn - early winter breeze that was a tell-tale sign that snowfall was coming. The stallion cantered at a leisurely pace, deciding to take a little while since it was early   kill time and all that. Calm didn't care much for the city's architectural style; he'd seen a similar look in farmers' towns Nightmare had slaughtered.
It was about an hour later when he arrived at the front door of a grand palace built into a gigantic crystalline tree. Twilight's castle, Calm recalled from his first two weeks in Ponyville. He had stayed with Twilight Sparkle    the pony who freed him    while his body recovered from the five years it spent as Soul Edge's vessel. He'd been asleep for most of it, but once he was able to stand upright and move around, Calm was placed into his own house and hadn't seen her since.
Calm walked up the gilded steps and stopped at the top. He was hesitant for obvious reasons, but it didn't matter now; the past was the past. He raised his right hoof and knocked on one of the two doors. It was maybe six in the morning, still early, but Twilight's a princess; maybe she's already awake.
Sure enough, Calm heard light hoofsteps from inside. The right door opened, and Twilight's mulberry face was there to greet him. She looked tired and was squinting a bit.
"Yeah?" she yawned, not recognizing Calm at first.
"Princess Twilight, I'm... I'm Calm Crescent," the stallion greeted. "You saved my life almost a month ago."
Calm and Twilight hadn't exactly met under the best conditions. They'd duelled in a clearing in the Everfree Forest, keeping Ponyville out of the way. It was a highly destructive battle, laying waste to a lot of that area thanks to stray magic blasts or the mere presence of Soul Edge. In the end, Twilight was the victor, and Calm hadn't realized until now that she had to have dragged his fully-armored body    weighing about three-hundred or so pounds in total    all the way back to her castle about a mile or two away.
Not only that, but her magic had reverted most of the damage done to his body and some of the more dangerous damage done to his psyche. Calm had a lot to thank her for, now that he thought about it.
"Wait,   " she pointed her hoof at Calm "   Calm Crescent, as in... well..."
"Yeah. About that, I... I came by because I wanted to say 'thanks.' For everything. You took me in and saved me from Soul Edge and gave me a second chance. My life here now, it's more than I could've asked for from anypony, and being able to live in peace for once in a very long time, it's... it's fantastic. And I don't know how I could ever repay you for it."
"I guess the most you can do is make sure I wasn't wrong in helping you out," Twilight joked, chuckling a bit.
Calm smiled. "Don't worry about that; I'm not some villain, at least not anymore."
"Would you like to come inside?" Twilight asked, diverting the topic. "It's a bit cold out, and I've got a warm fire going."
"No, thanks," Calm rejected kindly. His smile faded as he adjusted his scarf.
"Are you sure? I don't mind the company at all."
"Maybe another time." Calm gave her a stiff salute and turned to leave.
"Hold on a sec."
"Hm?" He turned back round to face Twilight. "What is it?"
"Don't tie your mane back. It looks better when its left alone."
Calm gave her a nod and cantered off onto the road back to Ponyville. As he disappeared into the distance, Twilight smiled. She was perfectly aware that he was scarred both physically and mentally and had mental issues that stemmed from the imperfect method that she'd mended his fractured mind. But, even though he had problems, she knew that he meant well, that he was going to try and make up for his mistakes, and it made her feel like a good pony for saving him.