A Father's Love: Alternate Epilouge 1
Canterlot, Evening, Iggy Rock's Bar
The bar was quiet, the mahogany tables vacant of any patrons, the quiet music in the background the only thing preventing the bar from adopting a tomb-like atmosphere. Soft yellow light filtered in through shaded lamps, situated at strategic locations throughout the bar to evenly shed light. Dark oak paneling lined the walls, the varnished tone giving off an almost glossy sheen to the otherwise dark and mellow colors of the bar. Red velvet booths lined the coners of the room, and an old pool table sat under a slightly brighter light than the rest of the bar, its red top scuffed and faded. The bar itself was unremarkable: the black glossy counter catching any light and absorbing it, the shelves behind lined with bottles of all different shapes and sizes. The overall feel of the bar was of a recalcitrant moroseness, the lingering feeling of quiet and calm class one gets when in a very old mansion or a museum. The only noise that stood out from the music was the rustling of cloths and glasses as the bartender quietly and methodically washed a few dishes in a sink behind the bar, his stone-grey color and black dress shirt matching the bar perfectly. The only other occupant of the establishment sat not at the tables, but at the bar, his dark blue self somewhat hunched over, years of injuries taking their toll on his posture. He sat propped up on a stool, an almost finished drink in one hoof, the ice in it swishing and clinking as he idly shifted his heavily tattooed foreleg back and forth. The pony sighed as he rustled his folded wings, his icy blue gaze seeming to pierce the wall in front of him. In reality, he wasn't actually staring at anything at all, his eyes were simply open as he swam in the depths of his mind.
"Can I get you anything, Night?" the bartender asked, wandering away from his draining sink to the lone Pegasus.
"Perhaps a double of bourbon, if you don't mind, Iggy." he replied quietly, his voice a deep baritone, yet pensive and calm.
"Not at all. Rocks?" the bartender replied with a slight smile. Night nodded, quietly reaching down and pulling a few bits out of a matte-black saddlebag on the floor beside him. He set the coins on the counter as the bartender returned with a fresh, refilled glass, the ice cubes clinking audibly in the light brown liquor.
"Thanks." Night spoke, the bartender nodding as he returned to clean his sink at the far end of the bar. Moments later, the door swished open with barely any noise, a cold breeze drifting in from the outdoors. Night did not spare so much as a glance, already expecting the arrival but carefully engineering his face to show absolutely no connection with the world.
Princess Luna silently walked over to where Night was sitting, her hoofsteps by nature stealthy and quiet on the hardwood floor. "Is this seat occupied?" she asked quietly, Night shaking his head in reply. Luna sat on her haunches on the stool beside him, sighing minutely. The bartender wandered over, nonplussed. A whole lot weirder shit has found its way walking through my doors, he thought to himself.
"Can I get you anything. Princess?" he asked cordially.
"Yes, a glass of Trottingham Rouge cognac, if you posess it." she replied, her voice level and placid. Night finally shifted his eyes to look at her.
"I didn't know you drank." he stated simply as the bartender wandered away in search of Luna's particular choice.
"I do not drink regularily, though it is pleasant once in a while." she replied, glancing at Night, "Alcohol does not affect me, so I will admit there is a lack of purpose for my consumption of it. Nevertheless, I enjoy the myriad of flavours." Night nodded as the bartender brought out a crystal glass filled with an amber liquid and set it on the counter in front of Luna, Luna levitating a few bits into the bartender's pocket.
"I'll be in the back room taking inventory if either of you need me." Iggy said, both ponies nodding in response. He walked into a door situated behind the bar, closing it gently behind him. A few minutes of silence ensued, both patrons sipping their drinks and staring at the bottles behind the bar, both waiting for the conversation to begin.
"Why do you drink?" Luna said, her dark voice barely breaking the auditory stillness.
"Helps me sleep." Night grunted. His eyes gravitated to her again, his ice blue gaze unreadable, "Especially after days and nights like the last few." Luna nodded, sipping her cognac silently, "That kind of shit turns you old." he reminisced.
"Oh, I could write an encyclopedia about that topic." Luna mused.
"I'd imagine so." he returned, the conversation tapering off. He sipped his drink, then glanced at the ice in it. "You know, I originally became a soldier because I was told that I could make a difference. Do the right thing. Yeah, I also did it for home and country and all that patriotic bullshit, but you forget about that after awhile. All you think of is making a difference, and after that all you think about is getting home." he returned his gaze to Luna as he spoke, "Of course all the officers shove down your throat is doing your duty to do the right thing, all the time. But who decides what that is?" he laughed bitterly, "I tried to do the right thing, you know? And when somepony else did what they thought was the right thing, it killed many and almost killed me. Then I was tossed in that hole and left to rot. Ten years I sat in the penitentiary, a decade of shit. Would've been a lifetime if you hadn't come along. But then you did, and you told me that I could make a difference, do the right thing. Yeah, it made me a traitor to my country by default, but I accepted that. The important thing was that I was always doing the right thing." he continued, his voice somber, "Tell me Luna, what in the last few days indicates that we are doing the right thing at all?" he asked, his tone almost accusational.
"These last few days...I do think we did the right thing, but at a cost." she replied. Night huffed, Luna's eyes meeting his, "As far as your involvement stands, anything farther than Feather's initial capture and Ditzy's search effort was of your own accord." she commented.
"I would ask what cost, but I already know the answer. And how did we do the right thing? Everypony we tried to help, save Hard Hat, is dead. Not the initial optimal result." he said, a deep undertone of anger in his voice. Luna gazed at him, reading him.
"What was the 'optimal result', pray tell? Your interpretation, rather." she asked. Night paused for a few seconds.
"You should have stopped fucking with Hard Hat and Feather the moment Ditzy was stable in hospital. We wouldn't be down this road." Night shot, changing gears to cover his lack of an answer.
"That period of time has already passed. We must focus all of our efforts into finding Ditzy." she replied, very calmly.
"You know as well as I do that Ditzy never made it more than a day in those forests. We're looking for a body now, one that I'm not particularily pumped to find. Hard Hat knows it too, he's way beyond gone. No, I'm not going to give up the search, but I know what I'm looking for." he growled, "Unless the timberwolves get to her first, or whatever horrible shit lives in that forest."
"We will search until results are found." Luna calmly intoned.
"How can you say that? Results? This is a little, innocent filly we're talking about, one who you actually cared for! These aren't fucking numbers! How can you quantify it so coldly? We knew these ponies, and cared for them!" Night said angrily, gesturing at Luna with his drink, "And you can't tell me that you never cared for Feather. I know you did. I could see it. You just purposefully distanced yourself. Why? I know why." he continued, quieting down in volume but not in tone, "Because you knew what would happen. You fucking knew. Yet you stood by and did nothing. Why?" Luna calmly sipped her drink, silently setting it down on the bar.
"I did know. I knew that Feather would harm Ditzy. I knew that this would result in Feather's death. I knew that it would be by her own hoof. I knew that this would become a tragedy. A simple logical progression." she began, icily staring at Night, "However, I did not know exactly what Feather would do to Ditzy, nor where she would transport Ditzy. In the event I had known, I would have been waiting to spirit Ditzy away. I did not know the timing of the course of events. Most of all, I did not know how Hard Hat would react. After all it was his reactions that set things in motion." she finished.
"So you're blaming this on Hard Hat?" Night asked, unsuprised.
"Have I vocalized as such? I think not. I have merely stated that he set this in motion. His actions could easily have prevented this." she replied cooly.
"Yours could've as well, had you done anything." Night retorted.
"And what did you do? You merely warned him, I witnessed no affirmative action on your part." she replied crossly.
"Yes, I didn't do as much as I should, and I regret my inaction." he growled, leaning towards Luna, "But at least I'll admit it." he quietly intoned as he leaned away, sipping his drink. Luna sighed.
"We have differing definitions of the word inaction." she growled as she addressed the barb. Night sighed, changing directions, no energy to fight left in him.
"Look, we both didn't do as much as we should have, okay?" he said bluntly. Luna nodded, her mood resuming its prior placidity.
"Are you familiar with Nightmare Moon?" she asked.
"Would we be having this conversation if I wasn't?" he replied, sipping his bourbon.
"Valid observation." she replied.
"In other words, the blood-crazy variant of yourself?" Night commented, his tone disarming but his words seeking out Luna's reaction.
"No. Not me." Luna replied, shaking her head, "I allowed my greed and zealotry for power to take possesion of my being. I became uncontrollable, even by my own mind. At some point in time, my greed acquired a voice. Her voice. She pushed me back into the dark recesses of my mind, relinquishing me of everything that made me who I am." she explained, "For that is what occurs when an alicorn is corrupted. Evil reigns free."
"I'm not seeing a point." Night replied honestly.
"Before that event, as myself and my sister ruled over the land in that difficult time of recovery after Discord's reign of terror, Celestia and I created what is known as the Equestrian Writ of Rights. One of the lesser-known points was the Right to Will. That right binds us to never, under any circumstances, control the will of our subjects. This was created to ensure every single ponies' freedom, to preserve their free will to choose for themselves. Nightmare Moon committed thousands of atrocities, all of which I witnessed, but was powerless to stop. Stallions, mares, fillies, colts, many have been murdered by my hoof." she intoned, her voice regretful, "Innocents all. That event occured because I had fallen to a force which did not respect free will. Self-imposed, perhaps, but a force nonetheless." she paused as she took a sip of her cognac, "We must respect free will, regardless of if it leads to great evil or tragedy. To respect free will is to respect potential and the sanctity of life itself; to ignore it will surely bring tragedy and death. Sometimes free will leads to sadness and death as well, this is true, but life has a chance this way." she continued. Night nodded. "Choice breeds change, and change is the flow of life; the law of all metaphysical and physical beings in this life and beyond it." she finished quietly, her thoughtful monolouge absorbed by the Pegasus beside her.
"So you're saying that you couldn't have saved Ditzy's life." Night replied, more of a statement than a question.
"Not by puppeteering Hard Hat's choices, by my influence. Had I known of Feather's choice, and of Hard Hat's, I would have been waiting to take Ditzy home. Alas, I did not," she replied darkly. Night's ears perked.
"Hard Hat's choice. Not plural. Does that mean anything?" he asked suspiciously.
"Is your radio device charged with energy?" she asked.
"No, it died a few hours ago." he replied slowly. Luna slowly nodded.
"Then you have not yet been informed of the recent tragic news. Hard Hat has committed suicide." she said, her voice saddened. Night gritted his teeth, internally hurt but unsuprised.
"Well...can you blame him?" he asked quietly.
"No." she answered simply. The two sat for a few minutes in silence, listening to the gentle tones of a piano filter through the air. "Alas that these evil days shall be mine, that unto which the innocent die young, the undeserving die in sadness, and the damaged die alone." she lamented quietly, "And now I must guide two souls, one to salvation, one to damnation." Night tilted his head, his eyes meeting Luna's in slight confusion.
"Guide two souls?" he asked, knowing Luna's method of speaking always had more value than what was immediately obvious.
"Our souls, metaphorically speaking. Your salvation will be through the knowledge of the truth. Damnation shall be mine, for the guilt I carry will last an eon." she replied cryptically. Night visibly stiffened.
"No. Don't you fuck with me about this. Don't you dare." he growled, a eureka moment lighting up his eyes with hope. Luna sighed deeply.
"Ditzy is alive." she quietly spoke. Night shook his head, incredulity in check.
"How? Why doesn't everypony know this? Or do they already?" he asked, bombarding her with questions.
"I have kept this discovery in secret." she responded.
"What? Why the fuck would you? Hard Hat might be alive had you let everypony know!" he said, regarding Luna in a different light. Luna stared directly at Night, her eyes filled with the extremely rare emotion of pain.
"Not five minutes after my radio bereaved me of all of my hope, I found her as she fell asleep. She was tucked into a fallen tree, the hollowed out log a natural barrier against the rain and the cold. Not five minutes." she said, hollow, "Truthfully, the timing of this rattles me. She awoke, and immediately began asking for her father and mother. What do you say to that?" she asked rhetorically.
"What did you say?" Night asked, gently.
"I had told her that her mother and father had left for a little while and I would take her somewhere safe. I am certain, however, that she had correctly guessed what was going on, as she began crying halfway into the flight." she replied, her voice cool but depressed.
"Flight?" Night asked.
"I have her somewhere safe, there is no need to worry." she replied, the sadness dissappearing.
"Please elaborate." he stated. Luna glared at him.
"If the news ever escapes secrecy that Ditzy is not dead, she will be put in an orphanage. Are you familiar with those?" she asked, a strange cloud of anger crossing her face.
"Yeah, Mom used to talk about the one she ran once in a while when I was born, she'd always say hers was the only good one and how the other homes were neglectful." Night replied, placidly keeping his tone in check to avoid provoking Luna.
"As long as I am alive, she will never be subjected to such a thing." she said resolutely, "You are hereby sworn to secrecy under pain of death."
"What do I know that I can say without pain of death? My name." he grunted, nodding.
"She is in a small town named Ponyville. The mayor of said town owes me a favor, I prevented her early death at one point, and she was all too happy to reciprocate to Ditzy." she stated, voice level.
"Good." Night grunted simply. After a few minutes of silence he spoke again, "A very good thing too, if she went to an orphanage, well...we know where most of those children end up." he mused darkly.
"Indeed we do." Luna replied.
"Straight to the Rainbow Factory." he finished his thoughts.
"This way, Ditzy has an opportunity, however slight, for a normal life. That is why. I am trying to make the best of a bad situation, as they say." Luna intoned.
"The coin in the shitpile?" Night asked.
"More or less." she replied.
"Yeah, at least you have that going for you." Night said as he slammed down the rest of his bourbon, "I must say, I hate how all of this went down, and how I lost a friend because of it, but...at least Ditzy's alive." he said resolutely, getting up and reaching for his saddlebag.
"Where will you go?" Luna inquired, unmoving.
"My hotel. Why?" he asked, confused.
"Truthfully,...I had thought that my navigation of this debacle would have you giving me a resignation." she said slowly, her voice calm and level. Night paused on his way by her, saddlebags atop his back, thinking.
"No. You had the guts to give me the truth and ease my road a bit. I respect that. You also know that I know too much, and would have to die because of it." he replied, continuing before Luna could speak, "Some things a memory wipe spell can't remove." He walked up to the door, a determined look on his face with a hint of a half-smile edging in, "Besides, there is a war to fight and a revolution to begin, remember?" he said as he exited the bar into the night air, the door closing silently behind him. Luna remained at the bar, quietly staring at her cognac thoughtfully before shifting her gaze to an etching of Princess Celestia mounted on the wall, an icy glare creeping it's way into her eyes.
"Yes," she said to herself darkly, finishing the last of her drink, "There will be."
FIN