Post by Bardigan on Oct 1, 2012 23:52:50 GMT -5
Ever since Bardigan was given permission to show up at the library when he wished, he has done his best to take Twilight up on that offer. And tonight is no different... save for the fact that he has already been here for some time, having snuck in and propping himself up in a corner with not a book about stars, but about historical figures. And even at that, not verifiably real ones. He's reading of the mythical kind, the kind that only *could* exist in stories even in a world full of magic, and the candle that burns low near him is testament to how long he has been. He was reticent before, but perhaps now that it is dark and no other ponies are about his lips may be looser.
Twilight_Sparkle comes home from an errand across town, out at Sweet Apple Acres. She's looking correspondingly rosy-cheeked and windblown. She glances around; spying Bardigan, she smiles. "Hey stranger," she quips, practicing something she read recently in a book about ironic humor and understood...parts of. "Get you anything? Tea? Cider?"
Bardigan glances up with a bit of a start, his wings opening up. He looks as though he was just yanked out of a deep dream... and really, what else do you call it when you are so wrapped up in a good old story? "Oh, my goodness," he says as he realizes how late it is. "I'm sorry. I just..." He gestures vaguely with his hoof, and then uses it to brush his mane back. It's a bit less well-kept today than usual. "Tea would be fine- ah, if that's quite all right," he murmurs in Twilight's general direction, so demure he must have been taking lessons from Fluttershy.
Twilight_Sparkle puts the kettle on; she does this almost without looking, having done it so many times, the kettle seeming to move around of its own volition. "It's no trouble at all," she says to the pegasus. She rifles through some books in the return pile, and briefly debates sorting them now, or leaving them for tomorrow.
"Oh, this? It's just..." Bardigan stops himself short. No story is 'just' anything to him-he just needs to remind himself of that. "It's a collection of legends and stories. From Equestria and beyond," he says in a near whisper. "Ponies and other creatures that strove for greatness... tales of mountains made of crystal and Nightmares that grew from trees. The kind of stories most civil-minded folk pass off as total fabrication." He smiles, and then chuckles, looking at the book with an almost loving expression. "Funny. How I'm usually drawn to stories like that the most."
( A light clip-clap-clip echoes in the space of the upper library, and a mushroom of hair that behaves much like Twilight's rises up from the stepladder, followed by a horn that's noticeably shorter and a pony that's noticeably younger. "Oh, hey. I just got home." Midnight peers at Twilight, then at Bardigan, curious what they're doing here so late. )
Twilight_Sparkle resists the urge to read over Bardigan's shoulder. "Ponies used to think Nightmare Moon was a legend. A thousand years from now, some of us will be legends I'm sure. I've come to think there's a lot of truth in them sometimes, particularly since I've had some time to study Princess Luna's letters now." As the smaller pony appears, she says, "Hey, sis. Bardigan, do you know my little sister, Midnight Glimmer?"
Bardigan has an urge to peer right at Twilight and does not resist it at all! "Yes... there's a... a strange draw to old tales like that... you wonder what's true what isn't, and then I start to think maybe that doesn't really matter in the end..." About to snowball into some major introspection, he's interrupted by Midnight coming in. It brings a smile to his face as he looks at the littler Sparkle. "Oh, yes. We've met before," he says in a tiredly cheerful tone. "Hello, Midnight. I told you you'd see me here again."
Midnight_Glimmer waves a hoof to Bardigan. "Oh, hey again. Yeah, we've met." She steps gingerly over to where the pegasus and her sister are talking, sporting a lamp-glow from her horn even though there's ample light already. The second most noticeable thing about her, after her resemblance to her sister, is the distinct lack of the poise and generally good posture that Twilight carries herself with. "Wwwwhat are you guys talking about up here so late?"
Twilight_Sparkle replies to her sister's question vaguely. Among other things, SHE doesn't have specific information. "Bardigan's researching old pony legends," is her explanation. "I'm letting him have a look at some old books Luna gave me recently." She strongly suspects Luna is trying hard to tell her something, but this she keeps to her private thoughts.
"Mmm... hardly research," Bardigan says with a smile, hefting the book on one hoof. "I prefer to call it searching for inspiration. There's a lot of that to be found in these stories, Midnight. Do you read them?" He looks next at Twilight, raising an eyebrow. "These used to be Luna's?" he wonders, holding up the one he'd been looking at. "That explains how they were able to get information from that far back, even on such legendary tales..."
Right away, Midnight's eyes light up - well, as much as they CAN in this low lighting. You could see them glimmering if you looked closely. "These books are Luna's? ...Can I... borrow some of them? I think I *do* want to read some of those." She's been feverishly curious about the dark princess for some time now, but there's no way she's going to admit why NOW.
Twilight_Sparkle nods. "That's...what amazes me most, about both princesses. They're living history. I'm not sure why any historians have ever done anything besides talk to them." She peers at her sister. "If you're that interested in Princess Luna, you do know I'm also sorting and preserving a thousand years of her old love letters, right? Don't touch the originals, but you're welcome to look at my transcriptions."
Bardigan looks down at the book in his hooves with renewed interest, and a sense of veneration, running his hoof over the cover. His ears twitch. "Love letters?" he asks in a rough whisper without looking up. When he does, it's with another smile as he holds out the book to Midnight. "Here. This one's turning out well. Especially the story of Quick Pen the Silent..." He sits back against the wall, taking a deep breath. "It is amazing, isn't it?" he remarks. "What kind of stories are being missed by ponies simply because what happened long ago may or may not have really happened. But it's not about that, is it? It's about the story. About what it could *mean* for us today."
Midnight_Glimmer's interest wanes subtly at the mention of history, and wanes visibly when Bardigan mentions the story. She was hoping for more like... forbidden spells. "Oh. That's cool," the unicorn foal replies, though clearly not as rapt as she had been moments earlier. After a pause, she adds, "I'd really like to talk to Princess Luna someday. About magic. About me."
Twilight_Sparkle smiles, nodding. "Midnight and I are both descended from Luna's affair with Starswirl the Bearded, I found out recently. That fact made history seem REAL...and made me think of other stories differently. According to the princesses, a surprising amount of it is true. And even the ones that aren't...reflect the way ancient ponies thought about themselves, in ways that are still useful." To her sister, she says, "You're welcome in her chambers any time, you know. If you'd rather go with me, I'll take you. But you could go without me, too."
Bardigan quirks an eyebrow and smiles in amusement at Midnight's clear lack of enthusiasm, taking the book back. At least Sinderea the star maker got her attention. "Case in point," he says slowly. "Not enough ponies appreciate old tales. What can be gleaned from them. Knowledge is in every word, not just those found in textbooks..." His gaze falls on Twilight, though he doesn't move his head. "You appreciated, though," he says quietly. "To the point you risked your reputation for it. Not often you find ponies like that."
Midnight_Glimmer's eyes roll when Bardigan tuts her. "Yeah, yeah," She groans. "Another grown-up, another lecture. I also don't eat enough carrots." There's a small amount of guarded spite in her tone of voice. She tries to ignore a fresh wave of the particular impatience that washes over her when someone is complimenting Twilight for being exemplary in front of her, and instead turns her thoughts to what her sister said. Going and meeting Luna. She needed to make some plans and do that. Soon. Preferably before her student record from the School for Gifted Unicorns was made available for this past semester.
Twilight_Sparkle looks at Bardigan, then looks into the distance. "No, you don't eat enough carrots," she agrees, distractedly. "But you do know that if I have a destiny, so do you? And Luna's...been putting a lot of ideas in my head recently, and Celestia hasn't been denying them."
There's a reason Bardigan is trying not to talk about Luna, but the conversation is swinging that way regardless. He suppresses a weary sigh. In his case, Luna has gone out of her way to make sure he *doesn't* get ideas. Suddenly he feels like his spot in the corner is just that, and these are things he's not really meant to hear. "I don't know much about destiny," he admits in a gentle murmur, glancing at Midnight. "But it's not something that is necessarily set in stone."
Midnight_Glimmer goes very silent when her sister speaks next. The words from her sibling's lips steal the air out of the room for her, and her jaw hangs slightly open. "Ideas...? Sis, what kind of..." And then she startles. "Wait, did you say we were -related- to Luna? Like, her lineage?" The youth suddenly seems taken with a fit of feverish introspection. The light from her horn fizzles out momentarily. She's putting some pieces of a very frustrating puzzle together - a puzzle she's been working out alone so far. She looks back up at Twilight with new eyes - somehow it comforts her to know that she and her sister are both thinking about this. "We need to talk to Luna."
Twilight_Sparkle peers back at Bardigan. Then at her sister again. She gestures with a hoof. "Yes, yes, Luna's at the center of a lot of things at the moment. Which means, Midnight Glimmer, that you and I probably are, too. I'm sorry I haven't kept you more in the loop." She regards Bardigan. She looks as if she's about to say something important...she hesitates...and then she simply says, "destiny is what it is but it depends on our cooperation."
"Or lack thereof," Bardigan says, glancing down at the floor. This is turning into a very personal family matter he doesn't have a place in, and the awkwardness is only growing. "Well, ah..." He plucks up the book and places it into his saddlebag as he stands to leave. "I'll just... return this in a few days. I can see there are important things ahoof... and if it involves Luna, I'm afraid I cannot be of much assistance."
Twilight_Sparkle turns. "Bardigan...wait." She looks him in the eyes. "What...is going on, with you and Luna? I'm not blind, you know."
Midnight_Glimmer looks between her sister and the bard pegasus as they exchange, then steels herself with a look of resolve, locking eyes with Twilight. "Whatever happens, Twi? We're in this together, from now on."
Bardigan stares back at Twilight over Midnight's head. "Nothing," he says, and not in the tone one uses to pass something off. This is his actual explanation. "Nothing is going on." He looks away. "Nothing that wasn't meant to, at any rate. I'll, ah, be back. About the firestones. We should discuss that, some... time." He hurries out the door immediately after that.
Twilight_Sparkle, as Bardigan departs, sighs softly, then turns to face her sister. She touches front hooves with the filly, gently. "I've always told you you're important," she says, a little chidingly. "Now maybe you'll believe me."
Midnight_Glimmer huffs, staring straight down at her hooves - and now Twilight's as well. "Sis... I really want to know everything that's going on. I wanna be involved. When you left for Ponyville, and all this stuff started happening, something didn't feel right with me. I got this gut feeling like my place wasn't in Canterlot, reading it all in the newspapers the next week. It's here." She looks up into her sister's eyes. "And if you'll tell me everything that's going on, I'll tell you everything that's going on. I kinda..." Her brow furrows, "I got suspended from the School for Gifted Unicorns. Like, not even a -normal- suspension. But like, an extended suspension. That's why I have so much ...free time all of a sudden. It's a long story, and I'll tell you. In the morning, maybe."
Twilight_Sparkle frowns at her little sister only briefly. Then, it turns into a smile. "Even if you screw up sometimes...I do, too." She shakes her head. "Tomorrow we have a lot to talk about. For now, let's go to bed."
Midnight_Glimmer leans up, nuzzling her sister with the very slightest hint of a sniffle. "Love you, sis."
Twilight_Sparkle comes home from an errand across town, out at Sweet Apple Acres. She's looking correspondingly rosy-cheeked and windblown. She glances around; spying Bardigan, she smiles. "Hey stranger," she quips, practicing something she read recently in a book about ironic humor and understood...parts of. "Get you anything? Tea? Cider?"
Bardigan glances up with a bit of a start, his wings opening up. He looks as though he was just yanked out of a deep dream... and really, what else do you call it when you are so wrapped up in a good old story? "Oh, my goodness," he says as he realizes how late it is. "I'm sorry. I just..." He gestures vaguely with his hoof, and then uses it to brush his mane back. It's a bit less well-kept today than usual. "Tea would be fine- ah, if that's quite all right," he murmurs in Twilight's general direction, so demure he must have been taking lessons from Fluttershy.
Twilight_Sparkle puts the kettle on; she does this almost without looking, having done it so many times, the kettle seeming to move around of its own volition. "It's no trouble at all," she says to the pegasus. She rifles through some books in the return pile, and briefly debates sorting them now, or leaving them for tomorrow.
"Oh, this? It's just..." Bardigan stops himself short. No story is 'just' anything to him-he just needs to remind himself of that. "It's a collection of legends and stories. From Equestria and beyond," he says in a near whisper. "Ponies and other creatures that strove for greatness... tales of mountains made of crystal and Nightmares that grew from trees. The kind of stories most civil-minded folk pass off as total fabrication." He smiles, and then chuckles, looking at the book with an almost loving expression. "Funny. How I'm usually drawn to stories like that the most."
( A light clip-clap-clip echoes in the space of the upper library, and a mushroom of hair that behaves much like Twilight's rises up from the stepladder, followed by a horn that's noticeably shorter and a pony that's noticeably younger. "Oh, hey. I just got home." Midnight peers at Twilight, then at Bardigan, curious what they're doing here so late. )
Twilight_Sparkle resists the urge to read over Bardigan's shoulder. "Ponies used to think Nightmare Moon was a legend. A thousand years from now, some of us will be legends I'm sure. I've come to think there's a lot of truth in them sometimes, particularly since I've had some time to study Princess Luna's letters now." As the smaller pony appears, she says, "Hey, sis. Bardigan, do you know my little sister, Midnight Glimmer?"
Bardigan has an urge to peer right at Twilight and does not resist it at all! "Yes... there's a... a strange draw to old tales like that... you wonder what's true what isn't, and then I start to think maybe that doesn't really matter in the end..." About to snowball into some major introspection, he's interrupted by Midnight coming in. It brings a smile to his face as he looks at the littler Sparkle. "Oh, yes. We've met before," he says in a tiredly cheerful tone. "Hello, Midnight. I told you you'd see me here again."
Midnight_Glimmer waves a hoof to Bardigan. "Oh, hey again. Yeah, we've met." She steps gingerly over to where the pegasus and her sister are talking, sporting a lamp-glow from her horn even though there's ample light already. The second most noticeable thing about her, after her resemblance to her sister, is the distinct lack of the poise and generally good posture that Twilight carries herself with. "Wwwwhat are you guys talking about up here so late?"
Twilight_Sparkle replies to her sister's question vaguely. Among other things, SHE doesn't have specific information. "Bardigan's researching old pony legends," is her explanation. "I'm letting him have a look at some old books Luna gave me recently." She strongly suspects Luna is trying hard to tell her something, but this she keeps to her private thoughts.
"Mmm... hardly research," Bardigan says with a smile, hefting the book on one hoof. "I prefer to call it searching for inspiration. There's a lot of that to be found in these stories, Midnight. Do you read them?" He looks next at Twilight, raising an eyebrow. "These used to be Luna's?" he wonders, holding up the one he'd been looking at. "That explains how they were able to get information from that far back, even on such legendary tales..."
Right away, Midnight's eyes light up - well, as much as they CAN in this low lighting. You could see them glimmering if you looked closely. "These books are Luna's? ...Can I... borrow some of them? I think I *do* want to read some of those." She's been feverishly curious about the dark princess for some time now, but there's no way she's going to admit why NOW.
Twilight_Sparkle nods. "That's...what amazes me most, about both princesses. They're living history. I'm not sure why any historians have ever done anything besides talk to them." She peers at her sister. "If you're that interested in Princess Luna, you do know I'm also sorting and preserving a thousand years of her old love letters, right? Don't touch the originals, but you're welcome to look at my transcriptions."
Bardigan looks down at the book in his hooves with renewed interest, and a sense of veneration, running his hoof over the cover. His ears twitch. "Love letters?" he asks in a rough whisper without looking up. When he does, it's with another smile as he holds out the book to Midnight. "Here. This one's turning out well. Especially the story of Quick Pen the Silent..." He sits back against the wall, taking a deep breath. "It is amazing, isn't it?" he remarks. "What kind of stories are being missed by ponies simply because what happened long ago may or may not have really happened. But it's not about that, is it? It's about the story. About what it could *mean* for us today."
Midnight_Glimmer's interest wanes subtly at the mention of history, and wanes visibly when Bardigan mentions the story. She was hoping for more like... forbidden spells. "Oh. That's cool," the unicorn foal replies, though clearly not as rapt as she had been moments earlier. After a pause, she adds, "I'd really like to talk to Princess Luna someday. About magic. About me."
Twilight_Sparkle smiles, nodding. "Midnight and I are both descended from Luna's affair with Starswirl the Bearded, I found out recently. That fact made history seem REAL...and made me think of other stories differently. According to the princesses, a surprising amount of it is true. And even the ones that aren't...reflect the way ancient ponies thought about themselves, in ways that are still useful." To her sister, she says, "You're welcome in her chambers any time, you know. If you'd rather go with me, I'll take you. But you could go without me, too."
Bardigan quirks an eyebrow and smiles in amusement at Midnight's clear lack of enthusiasm, taking the book back. At least Sinderea the star maker got her attention. "Case in point," he says slowly. "Not enough ponies appreciate old tales. What can be gleaned from them. Knowledge is in every word, not just those found in textbooks..." His gaze falls on Twilight, though he doesn't move his head. "You appreciated, though," he says quietly. "To the point you risked your reputation for it. Not often you find ponies like that."
Midnight_Glimmer's eyes roll when Bardigan tuts her. "Yeah, yeah," She groans. "Another grown-up, another lecture. I also don't eat enough carrots." There's a small amount of guarded spite in her tone of voice. She tries to ignore a fresh wave of the particular impatience that washes over her when someone is complimenting Twilight for being exemplary in front of her, and instead turns her thoughts to what her sister said. Going and meeting Luna. She needed to make some plans and do that. Soon. Preferably before her student record from the School for Gifted Unicorns was made available for this past semester.
Twilight_Sparkle looks at Bardigan, then looks into the distance. "No, you don't eat enough carrots," she agrees, distractedly. "But you do know that if I have a destiny, so do you? And Luna's...been putting a lot of ideas in my head recently, and Celestia hasn't been denying them."
There's a reason Bardigan is trying not to talk about Luna, but the conversation is swinging that way regardless. He suppresses a weary sigh. In his case, Luna has gone out of her way to make sure he *doesn't* get ideas. Suddenly he feels like his spot in the corner is just that, and these are things he's not really meant to hear. "I don't know much about destiny," he admits in a gentle murmur, glancing at Midnight. "But it's not something that is necessarily set in stone."
Midnight_Glimmer goes very silent when her sister speaks next. The words from her sibling's lips steal the air out of the room for her, and her jaw hangs slightly open. "Ideas...? Sis, what kind of..." And then she startles. "Wait, did you say we were -related- to Luna? Like, her lineage?" The youth suddenly seems taken with a fit of feverish introspection. The light from her horn fizzles out momentarily. She's putting some pieces of a very frustrating puzzle together - a puzzle she's been working out alone so far. She looks back up at Twilight with new eyes - somehow it comforts her to know that she and her sister are both thinking about this. "We need to talk to Luna."
Twilight_Sparkle peers back at Bardigan. Then at her sister again. She gestures with a hoof. "Yes, yes, Luna's at the center of a lot of things at the moment. Which means, Midnight Glimmer, that you and I probably are, too. I'm sorry I haven't kept you more in the loop." She regards Bardigan. She looks as if she's about to say something important...she hesitates...and then she simply says, "destiny is what it is but it depends on our cooperation."
"Or lack thereof," Bardigan says, glancing down at the floor. This is turning into a very personal family matter he doesn't have a place in, and the awkwardness is only growing. "Well, ah..." He plucks up the book and places it into his saddlebag as he stands to leave. "I'll just... return this in a few days. I can see there are important things ahoof... and if it involves Luna, I'm afraid I cannot be of much assistance."
Twilight_Sparkle turns. "Bardigan...wait." She looks him in the eyes. "What...is going on, with you and Luna? I'm not blind, you know."
Midnight_Glimmer looks between her sister and the bard pegasus as they exchange, then steels herself with a look of resolve, locking eyes with Twilight. "Whatever happens, Twi? We're in this together, from now on."
Bardigan stares back at Twilight over Midnight's head. "Nothing," he says, and not in the tone one uses to pass something off. This is his actual explanation. "Nothing is going on." He looks away. "Nothing that wasn't meant to, at any rate. I'll, ah, be back. About the firestones. We should discuss that, some... time." He hurries out the door immediately after that.
Twilight_Sparkle, as Bardigan departs, sighs softly, then turns to face her sister. She touches front hooves with the filly, gently. "I've always told you you're important," she says, a little chidingly. "Now maybe you'll believe me."
Midnight_Glimmer huffs, staring straight down at her hooves - and now Twilight's as well. "Sis... I really want to know everything that's going on. I wanna be involved. When you left for Ponyville, and all this stuff started happening, something didn't feel right with me. I got this gut feeling like my place wasn't in Canterlot, reading it all in the newspapers the next week. It's here." She looks up into her sister's eyes. "And if you'll tell me everything that's going on, I'll tell you everything that's going on. I kinda..." Her brow furrows, "I got suspended from the School for Gifted Unicorns. Like, not even a -normal- suspension. But like, an extended suspension. That's why I have so much ...free time all of a sudden. It's a long story, and I'll tell you. In the morning, maybe."
Twilight_Sparkle frowns at her little sister only briefly. Then, it turns into a smile. "Even if you screw up sometimes...I do, too." She shakes her head. "Tomorrow we have a lot to talk about. For now, let's go to bed."
Midnight_Glimmer leans up, nuzzling her sister with the very slightest hint of a sniffle. "Love you, sis."