A Kindred Spirit

The morning's breakfast with Celestia had been quite placid; she appeared to have taken well to my new status as a royal protege, and congratulated me. I had not yet the time to dwell on the real impact of my new position at that time, but as of now it was a major contender in the war of what thoughts would occupy my mind. I was struggling with all the changes to me since my coming to the castle, including: transformation into a pegasus pony, my knowledge that it had been magic inside myself that had done it, an already deep relationship with the princess of the night, a casual, friendly one with the princess of the day, and the fact I was going to be creating for myself a living all my own in this new land.

Like I have said, it is all so much to process. I had many hours' worth of deep thinking that could be done from all of this, and I was exhausting one when I arrived at the train station. The grand depot, which I had not examined thoroughly on my arrival from Ponyville, had almost completely absorbed whatever processing power I had allocated to the things around me, and so I was quite surprised when I turned to apologize to a white unicorn stallion for so rudely running into him to realize it was, of all ponies, Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard and brother to the most studious mare in all of Equestria.

"Captain!" I spouted good-naturedly, above the din of the many other ponies about. He, about a head shorter than me, looked at the, in all likelihood, unrecognizable stallion before him, trying to put a pony to a body.

"I know you from somewhere," he said, half to himself, amidst his wonderings. I decided to cut his musings short, for both our sakes.

"Captain Armor, although I'm sure you don't recognize me, I am--was--the human you met when the Elements arrived." This, now made clear to him, was obviously understood, for he stamped a forehoof in realization and piped, "Of course!"

Turning back to me from his assisted epiphany, he asked me how I'd been in a way that one's friend would usually do, to which I gave the response, "Not at all bored." We both laughed a moment before I asked him where he was planning on traveling to.

"Well, I've got a little leave time stored up, and I figured I'd go visit my sister, Twilight Sparkle." I smiled warmly inside, only to have it inexorably bleed through; it's simple acts of sibling love that strike a happy note so deep inside.  He caught wind of this, I'm sure, but he said nothing. He asked me for where I was bound, more in a manner of courtesy than in one of true curiosity, due to the fact it was rather obvious. By this time we had made it to the front of the ticket queue, where Shining got his ticket, as did I, but with a fair bit more difficulty. It's a little hard to reserve a ticket for someone without a name...

As we boarded the train, the simple stallion-to-stallion banter flowed along quite naturally; we talked of such things as how the last few weeks in the guard were, how my strange week had unfolded... Week? How many days had passed...? I was not sure, but that was unimportant. Needless to say, Armor thought my life the past few days was far more interesting than his, and I ended up quite deep into my recollections of the time. After much talk and a in-transit dinner, we had passed much time and had arrived in the modest town of Ponyville. It was refreshing to see a common town again; there was nothing wrong with the majesty of Canterlot, but it held not the homeyness that this little town did. Shining and I proved fast friends; we did not part ways at the station, but instead collectively walked towards the library that his little sister called home.

It was very refreshing to talk to another male for once; as kind and welcoming as all the mares were, they were still, well, mares. It somehow takes less energy to talk to somepony of your gender than of the other; I'm sure y'all know what I mean.

Anyhow, we'd arrived at Twilight's house, where Armor took the liberty of knocking on the library door. The massive tree that was the library was awe-inspiring; how this thing live hollowed out, I didn't understand. When the lavender unicorn opened the door, her expression immediately changed from one of neutrality to one of joy as she saw her brother.

"Shining Armor! I didn't know you were visiting!" she cried, as she wrapped the aforementioned guardspony in a massive hug. "Good to see you too, Twily," responded the not-quite-overwhelmed white unicorn.

"So, how's my BBBFF been doing?" she asked. I couldn't help but have a large smile grow on my normally stoic face at this display of sibling love before me; it was so sweet. Twilight apparently noticed me long beforehand, because she teased, "What are you smiling at?"

I grimaced in mock-hurt, saying, "What? No hellos for me?" This garnered a soft giggle from the studious mare, before she greeted me and asked about the past few days. I dried up slightly at this, and responded, "That's a long story. I think you'd want to talk to your brother first."

I was rather fond of the idea of leaving the two be, but of course, Twilight would have none of it and Shining Armor would have enjoyed it if I stayed. I obliged the two, having to duck through the small doorway to enter the little library and avoid bumping my head on the archway that led up to Twilight's living spaces. It was about 4:30 by now, and the spring sun was already starting to show signs of falling. Twilight asked us what kind of tea we wanted, which caught me off guard, causing me to respond automatically with "English Breakfast, little milk and a spoon of sugar." She looked slightly confused, and I had realized my mistake of using an Earth country name. She appeared to understand, however, because she got out two bags of tea leaves without having to ask for clarification. I sat down in one of the chairs spread around the room, as did Shining, as we waited for our hot drinks. The siblings conversed for a good long time while I sat by, listening and thinking, interrupted only by the kindly bookmare bringing me my (delicious and)just-as-ordered tea. About 45 minutes since my entrance into the building, I was happily sitting out of the conversation until I was pulled in by my hosts.

"Funny how you both got the same train."

"Yeah, we literally just bumped into each other at the station. We talked about how everything's been going recently." I knew I was supposed to do something at this point, so I just nodded and awkwardly waited for them to say something else.

"So, how's your past couple of days been?" asked Twilight. I sighed internally. "Interesting," I stated simply. I wasn't exactly dodging the conversation at this point, but that was the general intention.

"Enlighten me," she asked. I was just about to begin speaking, when out of the blue, a soft, pale, moon-white glow outlined my neck, and an intricate and extravagantly made silver amulet with a solid band materialized-- along with a note. Before examining the fantastic object about my neck, I grabbed for the note, interested in what this could possibly be about.

I found this necklace in my study just a minute ago; I knew I forgot to give you something. It's an ancient and charmed thing, worn by past students and aides of mine. I encourage you to wear it every day; experiment with it! There are, as I said, many charms about it. It's bound to you, for example; it will always find its way back to you, and won't lend any of its power to anyone other than those you give consent. Enjoy.

-Princess Luna

The other two dumbstruck ponies in the room had been inspecting the piece of jewelry for a short time now, and I decided to do the same. It was made by someone with much skill; the silver had so many small and precise engravings. The center of the thing held a round sable medallion inlaid with a pearl crescent moon. Sable. It was an amazing piece of artisan craftsmanship, that was for sure, but it was a bit... showy. I wished it were a bit less so if I were to wear it all the time.

As if sensing my thoughts, before my very eyes the tips of the silverwork glowed with the same unearthly light as before, and shrank down, the extra silver vanishing as it left a still intricate piece of work behind; the sable medallion had been unaltered. Sable.

Twilight broke the silence. "Wow...Did Luna take you on as a student?"  Perceptive and smart.

"More of an aide-de-camp," I specified.

The sun princess' student seemed very excited at this prospect. "That's amazing! Congratulations! What did you do to earn that?"

I was not affected by these what could be considered unintentionally striking words. "I'm not sure," I answered honestly.

Shining spoke up now. "You didn't tell me about that..." I frowned. "It's not really in my nature to parade around some sort of status to hold above people's heads. I'm sure you understand."

His features turned serious again. "I do."

After a long evening of chatter and another tasty meal, it was late and we were all tired. I moved to leave, but then realized I had nowhere to go. Of course, the purple mare would pick up on this.

"You can stay here overnight." Shining backed her up. "I don't mind."

She frowned. "I don't have another open bed though... one of you guys is going to have to sleep on the couch..."

"That's fine," I said. I truly didn't care, as long as I had a place to stay.

I don't think I really have to tell you that we all took a turn washing up and retired.