Nocturnal - A Scale of Scales
By M3lancholy
Tick, Tock.
Tick, Tock.
Tick, Tock.
The clock carries its sombre tune throughout my dim abode where the only other sound is my faint breathing and the only other occupant of the room is an owl. The sun is setting outside my window and with it, the night rises. As the moon clears the horizon, my companion, a tawny owl by the name of Darkeyes wakes up, bringing with him the sounds of a hungry companion, waking me from my own slumber.
I find that I've fallen asleep against my desk again; I've done that far too many times lately. Maybe it's because my bed carries too many unhappy memories, or maybe it's because I can no-longer bear to have the sun on my fur any more. I really can't tell and I don't want to find out, truth be told. I live a hermit’s life, me and my owl. Both of us prefer the hours of darkness to those of light, the difference being that Darkeyes does stay awake through the day every now and then, I've heard he goes to see a friend of his, Owlicious I think he's called, or maybe it's a she. I don't ask what Darkeyes doesn't want to tell.
I've pondered for too long it seems and Darkeyes seeks to remedy that, nipping me in the ear to wrench my attention away from whatever had captured my interest.
"Alright, alright. I'll get your food." I replied with mock-irritability, this becoming a daily routine as the numerous nips on my ear can attest to. I made my way into the kitchen to sate my owls’ appetite. That's something I can lay rest to by the way, when my parents told me that I would be able to see in the dark if I ate my carrots, they didn't count on the fact that I'd be able to do so just as well with a talent such as mine, even if it's a bit open to interpretation.
I'll tell you a bit about myself. My name is Nocturnal and I was born on the twenty-first of December, nineteen years ago, two hours past that of midnight. I am a stallion with a dark grey coat and a silvery mane and tail but both have been dyed dark. On my flanks there lies a nightscape, the stars and the moon standing out against my dark body. The moon has an eye on it, drawn in sapphire blue.
With my owl happily gulping down the treats that I have delivered to me twice-weekly, I go to set my own stomach to rest, retrieving a bowl from a cupboard, coupled with a box of store-brand cereal that tasted exactly like the branded stuff. I put the bowl and the cereal on the counter top and bring out a carton of milk from the fridge. I put it on the side and glance at the Use by date, for use on this morning apparently.
I chuckle as I pour the milk into the bowl of store-brand cereal, sitting at the counter so I could look out from the window at the town below. Yes I was a recluse; I lived at the top of a hill in the far East of Ponyville and discouraged visitors. That isn't to say that I actively turned them away from my door, I just didn't ask anyone if they wanted to visit. There seemed no point.
What could I offer them?
'Would you like to spend countless hours looking at the stars and remarking on the shadows of the land?'
'Maybe I could interest you in a walk through whitetail woods at gone midnight with naught but an owl for company?'
Or 'Hey, do you want to spend the day at my place?'
My eyes happen across the window, immediately noticing the lights in a tree, far away. Oh yeah, that reminds me. There is that mare in that tree who is as nocturnal as I. Sadly we've never met properly, only exchanging greetings when we meet each other on our night-time excursions around Ponyville. Once I briefly entertained the notion of trying to get to know her better, but then I noticed she spent many of her hours in the sun too.
It would never work out.
And then there's the fact that I'm probably not in the best health in terms of mental stability.
My theory is that my awkward sleeping pattern is going against what my brain will accept and has caused it to slowly deteriorate. Maybe, I'm not sure.
Oh no, I'm not mad, not in the usual sense of the word. I merely see things which aren't there out of the corner of my eyes. Or maybe it’s things that are there and hide too well to be seen when directly faced. I don't really care about the specifics of them, only that they're there. I'd go to a doctor about it, but the doctors don't come in until daybreak and I don't really want to cause a fuss.
I finish my breakfast and leave Darkeyes to finish his food, going to the front door to see what mail had happened across my house.
As it turned out, not a lot. There was my monthly pay-cheque from the newspaper in which I wrote columns, mainly on the subject of stargazing and night-time excursions around Ponyville. It was a small column but some ponies thought it interesting. I also got a little kick from imagining the Princess of the Night maybe reading one of my columns about her night. Not that it would happen. It was just a nice dream.
I took a coat from a hook next to the door, 'tonight,' I thought, 'I'll take a walk, to the lake perhaps.' It was a Thursday, one of my walking nights and I hadn't visited the lake for a few months, it would be nice to go that way again.
I whistled for my owl, pulling my coat over me to protect myself from the chilly air outside. "And for you." I added out loud as Darkeyes landed on my back, his talons digging into my back through the woollen coat. He twittered at me and I chuckled in response, opening the door and heading out into the night-time.
I shivered briefly as the cold hit me through the coat, then I put my right hoof forwards and began the trot to the lake. Winter was starting to take its hold on Equestria and the path I walked was linked with trees and bushes, all holding their icicles as an audience as I passed through their thickets, the grass either side of the dirt path was edged with the bright white frost which I could only just bear to look at. My owl enjoyed the ride if how he twisted around on my back to look at whatever caught his fancy was any indication. I walked around the edge of Ponyville, both myself and my owl preferring to skirt around the housing estates and cottages that made up the town, walking the path of a recluse towards the lake instead.
However good my senses might have been, they were still no match for the owl's as he suddenly took off from his perch upon my back with no warning, and flew straight towards the lake, and even knowing which way he'd flown, it still took me a few minutes to spot the two small shapes flitting to and fro above the lake, one of them with a wing-span very similar to that of my tawny, the other with the wingspan of my tawny.
Chuckling slightly at my owls' antics, I made my own way towards the lake, not running or hurrying and simply content to trot the distance towards the lake. As it turns out, I wasn't the only one there, for there was also a purple unicorn mare sitting beneath a tree, watching the two owls frolic in the air. It was the same unicorn that I occasionally saw on my walks.
At the sound of my crunching hoofsteps against the frosted ground, she turned towards me, then turning back towards the lake.
"I didn't know anyone else kept an owl as a pet, save for me and Owlicious." she offered as way of a greeting, which solved one mystery for me at the very least.
"I don't so much keep Darkeyes, so much as he stays with me, and return he keeps me from falling asleep and forgetting to feed him." I replied, my tone jovial as I took a seat under the frosted tree.
She chuckled, still looking at her owl, high above before turning to face me.
"I've seen you before haven't I? What's your name? Mine's Twilight Sparkle." the unicorn said with excitement. I can only imagine that she was happy about meeting a new person
"We've seen each other here and there." I reply to the former question, holding my hoof out as I offer my name. "Nocturnal, Miss Sparkle."
"Oh, I remember you, you live in the old observatory don't you?" she asked, surprising me. I don't make it a public advertisement as to where I live, giving my address to those who need it and keeping it close-knit otherwise.
I must have offered some stuttering attempt at a reply because she laughed, loudly, into the night at something only she could see or hear. "heh! You needn't worry about being stalked, I just know that someone nocturnal lives in that old place, and it turns out that you do." Twilight said with a happy grin.
I offered her a weak smile, "You got me." I said without much enthusiasm, happy that my housing was still hidden from the general public. I preferred my peace and quiet in the evenings, keeping my outdoors life separate from my indoors one.
Silence reigned for a while as we watched our owls tussle about within the air, before flying over the nearby woodland and disappearing from view, giving Twilight her cue to ask another question.
"Erm, if you don't mind me asking, why have I never seen you out and about in the daytime?"
"Hmmm? Oh, it's because I sleep through the day." I said nonchalantly, still looking at the place where our owls had disappeared to.
"What!? All of it?" came her reply, disbelief in her tone.
"Mhmm, from moonset to moonrise is when I sleep." I answered, still not turning to the mare beside me.
"Sunset to sunrise." She said automatically.
"No, I meant what I said, Moonrise to Moonset." I turned to face her, to see her head tilted, facing me. "What?
"Why do you call it that? Everypony else calls the time according to the sun, why don't you?"
I shrugged, I'd never given it much thought before, "I suppose because I've always done it that way, plus it's more appropriate for me. I could ask you why you reference your time to the sun rather than the moon and you'd probably give me the same answer."
Twilight opened her mouth as if to argue, then closed it again, thinking. I continued instead.
"It's still the same times, I just measure mine on a different scale, not everyone measures the passage of time the same, nor anything for that matter."
"I… don't think I understand what you mean Nocturnal." Twilight said after a moment."
I turned to face the forest again before continuing, "Alright, think of it like this. If we were both to measure the distance from here to the lake, but one of use used a metre rule and the other a yard stick, who would get the right answer?"
The answer came immediately, "Both of us would."
"Now apply that to the passage of time."
There was silence as Twilight thought for a moment, then she answered, pronouncing each word carefully as she thought about it. "So what you're saying is that you measure time by a metaphorical Yard stick while the rest of us use the metre ruler?"
I smiled at Twilight, happy that she'd got the analogy. "Yep, that's right."
Sadly, this didn't satisfy her as much as I'd hoped, for a moment later she states "But surely there are common measurements that everypony uses to keep things simple."
I sighed, this conversation was the longest I'd had with anyone in a long time. "Maybe, maybe not. Does it really matter? Everyone measures their own achievements on a different scale to others; there is no common scale for that. The scale is what we make it."
Twilight opened her mouth to reply to me, only to shut it a moment later as something small and furry dropped on the ground next to her. Moments later, something equally furry dropped next to me, a quick glance to the side revealed that both me and Twilight had received a dormouse from someone or other, that particular question answered moments later as I felt clawed feet grip onto my shoulder.
I turned my head and raised an eyebrow at my owl, who hooted innocently. A glance over my other shoulder showed Owlicious introducing Twilight to the wonders of an owls present. I sighed, shaking my head as I got to my hooves, Darkeyes scrabbling across my back to get a better grip as I left the dormouse where it lay.
"It was nice to meet you in any case Twilight." I offered, stretching slightly as I tried to dispel the cold from my knees.
"You too Nocturnal." she said, not looking at me and instead starting a staring contest with her owl. I could have told her about the impossibility of winning one of those, but she looked pretty busy.
"Good Night Twilight Sparkle." I said, leaving the mare alone as I and my owl left for home and a few other activities until the moonset came.
Then I would sleep at a bed which wasn't a bed, and await the next moonrise.
Author's Note
Random fic is Random...
Nothing more to say.