Chapter 35
"Here is a trick I learned." I start a new conversation thrusting the last one behind us. I grab us both with my magic, and hurl us into the air. I think I surprise Luna, who gasps audibly. "Don't worry, I can levitate two ponies as well as I might levitate my sword, but once we are above the clouds, we'll have to fly. Sorry to say my stamina is…well… pretty worthless." I say, laughing at myself, even as I send us upwards and above the cloud layer. The night is thick with them, and I doubt we'll be visible from the ground.
I release the spell as we burst through the puffy white bodies. We catch ourselves as gravity begins to affect us again. I look out around us. It is as though the earth were transformed into a world of naught but snow and the moon brought low to give us a wonderful light. The moon is waning, and so we have only a mostly full-lit moon.
"How strangely the world doth turn!" I exclaim, hardly containing my thoughts of beauty of this place, which will exist as it does for a single night and then pass on to being somewhere and something else.
"Yes, how strangely it doth turn, for turn it does, ever on and on." Luna says, circling even higher as she speaks.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean only that while the earth has two great celestial bodies circling it, it too spins in space, much like a spinning tops would. And down on the ground, live are led that make it all the more confusing. As they say, 'what tangled webs we weave'. And those lives continue on, begetting more lives that then beget more lives and even as one life passes, another is made to fill it's space. It is almost sad how the system of life never stops on the whole as a part of it dies. No, it is sad, not nearly, nor almost. It is sad how a part of life goes on and what remains continues onward. Too short is life! Too short and too ignorant of that which is larger! Too short to learn the greatness there is! Too short at all!" Luna cries angrily.
"Except for you."
"Except for me." Luna repeats. "Yes, I will live a long and healthy life, never needing to fear death or disease or old age. If I so choose I might live to see the world end, and unless that kills me, see a new one be born. Yes, I will remain here in this life, and bear witness as so many pass on without me. Friends I may make, but they will pass and I will stay. I will ever be a witness to death! Never will I join in restful sleep as due to mortal ponies!" Luna flies up, her form rivaling the height of the moon, then comes crashing down on the clouds. "Ever will I be alone in eternity!" She rises back out of them, hovering in place, hooves clenched.
"But you'll have me. Remember? Not once, but twice have I promised to remain at your side, lest you bid me otherwise, forever." I say, taking hold of her hooves, relaxing them. "Ever you will have me to be with you. Forever!"
"How long does forever last, Knights?"
"As long as you want. I'll not tire of waking hours to spend with you, I'll not weary of seeing your face, never will I be weighed down with fatigue or exhaustion; you will have me every night onwards if that is your wish! I made a promise, to you and to myself, that I would never see you sad, unhappy, or in pain! I can be anything if only you command me! I will tempt death from this day forward, but never will I yield to it's desires should it come for me! Fear not that I will pass and leave you behind; your happiness is worth more than any eternal rest that I may ever be graced with!"
"How easily it can be said that death will not claim you, but I do not foresee your words holding true forever. I fear the death of all around me, those I come close to, and will have to lose. I know that you mean well, but all this…I am afraid. I fear that we will live life together, happy, but that you will wither and die, and even as I fear it, I know it to be true, that you will wither and die, like a flower in my midst, and have given all to me. You have blossomed, but how long will this period of youth and strength persist? Not long enough I tell you, for soon to me you will grow old and I will watch as you fade into a life beyond this. Or perhaps you will meet with nothing, and have truly wasted another life on me…"
"Do not say that!" I yell, more in hopes to shock her from her misery than out of anger. "If it is to happen then it will, but I will not see you linger on sorrow! My princess and my superior you may be, but I'll not let you hurt yourself in thinking such things! Can you not see that it would be worth it to me, to spend every night with you? It is no waste to me to spend my time with you, attending you! I am not able to fully express all that I feel, and I may not even understand all that I feel, but I know that it is wholly worth spending every minute I can with you! And if ever I die, I'll not rest easy! I'll fight my way back to you if I must, to make sure that you are happy and whole!" Tears spring to my eyes unbidden. "No, it is you who is wasting your time worrying over something so far away in the future! I have made you a promise, and I'll see it through, through time and space, chaos and destruction come after me, as though to chase me away, so help me will they learn I'll not so easily bend! Let all bear witness to my devotion unto you, Luna, She Who Raises the Moon and Stars, for not even death will stop me in my eternal quest to make you safe and happy!" Words fly from my mouth rapidly and without any censor. I pant after finishing, and look at Luna as she looks at me.
"Knights… why? Why do you feel so passionately?" Luna says slowly.
"For to me, you are my flower, my most precious. I cannot say myself why I feel such a way, but I will always feel thusly. To me, you are the one thing I would give everything for, and haven't I?"
"You have given much, yes. Why am I worth it to you?"
"Why? That is like asking why the wind blows or why birds sing. I just do. I feel it inside me. It is something I must do, and I want to with all my heart. I would give my very spirit to see you happy."
"Do not say that! You cannot mean that!"
"Of cou-"
"NO! Promise that you will never give your soul to save us! Of all things, you must. Promise. This!" Luna cries, speaking in a voice like three in one. I can feel her emotions running through her, a memory of something horrible as well.
"As you wish." I remember my place suddenly, and land on the clouds below. I kneel before her still hovering figure. After a short moment, Luna floats down and walks over to me.
"I….I am sorry. I will not get into details, but something similar happened once, and the outcome…was most grim." Not looking at her, I hear her sniffle. Did I cause this? I must have, one way or another. Perhaps I was too stern with her. It isn't my place, after all, to command her, but her to command me. "Let us…let us forget of this. Rise, and let us do what we came to do." I look up at her, still kneeling on the clouds.
"What did we come to do?"
"To enjoy ourselves." Luna says, trying to smile. Luna jumps back and grabs some clouds and begins to shape them. I see that the image she forms from the clouds is a tree, and I hesitantly grab at some clouds, and upon success, join in making birds, who sit in the aforementioned tree.
"Luna…I'm sorry I got cross with you. It isn't my place…" I start to apologize. "I-I just.."
"It is quite alright. I am sorry that I started us down a dark conversation's path. We cam here to put worries behind us yet at a happy statement from you I steered us towards something sorrowful and pointless. I believe the blame is equal upon us." Luna says as she kicks up a deer from the formless clouds.
"Are you certain? I was out of place." I rustle up some more clouds to make a new tree.
"Perhaps if this was another time, it would be proper of me to punish you, but in this era it is different. And it is your place to make sure I think no dark thoughts. You are right, you did say that you would keep me happy and safe above all other things. Worry not about it. It was a thought that had been plaguing me." Luna shapes my lengthy lump into a more natural shape, one that actually looks like a tree.
"Had been? I doubt the thought is no more." I place an owl in the boughs.
"You are right to doubt. But having spoken my fear, I do feel better. If you want, I will speak with Jasmine about it. She has been doing so for the past few nights anyway. I have not as of yet spoken with her of this fear in depth."
"I…I would like that. I do not want you to worry for me. I… I'm sorry."
"Stop saying that! I understand, you need not repeat it again!" Luna says with a laugh. At this, she grabs a bundle of cloud and hurls it at me. I dodge and kick up a cloud at her. But instead of the cloud rolling off, a small bolt of lightning spawns and dies. "Oh, you do not know how to 'kick' a cloud properly. We shall fix this." Luna says and lands near me. She rolls up a ball of cloud above the rest, and motions for me to do the same.
"A well trained pegasus can kick a lightning bolt out of any cloud, but for beginners there is a kind that reacts especially well. I will transform these two into that kind, that we may practice." Luna begins to circle around the two clouds, and they change into dark stormy rain clouds, without the rain. "These are typical storm clouds. They tend to give off lightning even when they are not prodded to do so by a pegasus, which makes them ideal training clouds. They will create lightning at the slightest, but proper, tempting. The proper way to 'kick' a cloud is to stand on it, rear up, and bear down on it with both hooves at once. This is the easiest way, but there are others that work just as well if done correctly." She hops on top of one of the clouds, and demonstrates the correct way to 'kick'. A clap of thunder and a flash of light escape the bottom of the cloud. She makes a face that means 'now you try.'
So I too climb aboard an angry looking cloud. I watch carefully as Luna demonstrates again, and then do so as well. I stand back on my hind legs, and kick down on the cloud with my forelegs as I come down. A huge bolt comes erupting out of the bottom of the cloud and circles around to zap me. I feel the jolt for a few seconds before the lightning finally dies.
"Ow. Didn't know that could happen."
"You do not have to kick so hard. I am surprised that it looped like that." Luna laughs a little. "Thank goodness you did not kick well, or else I fear the bolt would have killed you."
"So it's a good thing I'm terrible at this? Never thought I'd hear that."
"It is quite alright. Kicking is actually the hardest pegasus skill. Clouds are fickle about the way they are kicked, and if they are not kicked properly, they can be very unruly. Let us instead do something more fun."
"Like what? Turning clouds into rain?" I say laughingly.
"Actually, that is a good idea."
"Wait, what? That's a thing you can do?" My eyes go wide. I'd been joking about that.
"Yes, of course. Normally a pegasus lets a cloud fill up, become heavy with water, when they want it to rain, then kick it so that it will release that water. But clouds are made of water. Remember I said that they are nothing but water attached to dust in the air?"
"Yes, that was one of your first points in our discussion earlier."
"Well, just as a pegasus can create a cloud by attaching water to dust, so can a pegasus undo a cloud to make water."
"How does a pegasus create a cloud?"
"Some form of magic. I think that it is a magic that comes with their wings. See: I can circle here and make a cloud, because I know there is water in the air, and that there is also dust in the air." Luna circles tightly and a cloud begins to form in the middle. "The essential part is simply knowing there is water and dust, and willing them to merge." Luna's cloud becomes thicker and larger until it is the same size as her. Seeing this, I begin to fly in a semi-tight circle, tasting the air and feeling the moisture. It is the back end of summer, and while there is less heat, I can still feel the humidity. I imagine a cloud forming in my circle, try to will it, but I can see nothing.
"Am I doing something wrong?"
"Not that I can see. Perhaps you do not have all the pegasus skills, seeing as you are not, by birth, a pegasus."
"I can grab and kick clouds, and shape them and walk on them, so why not forming them?"
"I would not know. The fact that you are reborn has interfered with other parts of your life. I believe that this is the reason you are not a unicorn; your rebirth and old life interfered. Perhaps, even though in your old life you were a pegasus, the fact that you were an alicorn when you died and that you were reborn has interfered once more. Perhaps you have lost some skills in gaining stronger magic. Most ponies have weak magic, and even if they desired, would not be able to access it. Seeing as you can access yours, for whatever reason, you have a naturally strong magic, unicorn magic. Perhaps you lost pegasus magic in gaining unicorn magic."
"How interesting. Why then was I never able to access it as a young colt?"
"For one you did not have a channel device, as you do now. Second, you probably had no inspiration or desire for using it, and believing that you had none, you shut out the idea of using it."
"That makes sense. You know what's funny? The unicorn doctors said I would be a powerful unicorn if only I'd had my horn. And here I am, still hornless, but with wings and able to use magic. I almost wish my parents could see me now."
"To show them that despite all their beliefs, you are a strong successful pony who achieved more than they ever allowed you to think?"
"Well, yes, but also to just tell them how wrong they were."
"Wrong?"
"They told me I would never amount to anything, that I would always be a hindrance on society, that nopony would ever care for me. But I'm here, with a job, friends, something to live for. Every night is a new night and the world is my canvas. I have a cutie mark, I know royalty personally, I'm learning more about myself than I ever thought possible; oh how far I have risen from that sad little colt I once was!"
"Is not all that what I had just said?"
"Yes, but I just wanted to say 'you were wrong' and leave it at that. If I were there I wouldn't elaborate so much." The idea sounds much better in my head.
"If we ever meet them, I will bear witness to this glorious event."
"I hope we don't. Gloating could never be worth it. I'm sure they'd just bite me back."
"If they bite you, I will be very upset!"
"No, not literally. I meant that they'd just find a way to insult me or something."
"Oh. I would be upset at that too." Luna says, with a little embarrassment.
"Come on, let's finish our forest. There's only two trees!"