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Shades of Night

by Sketchy Changeling

Chapter 7: Chapter Seven - Seeing the Signs

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I woke up from my slumber with my head jolting up from atop my arms. I must have dozed off on my desk… again. It didn’t really bother me, though. As a renowned astronomer, I was my own boss, so it’s not like I was gonna get in trouble. I looked at my laptop and started to aimlessly surf the web, and then I heard my cell phone ringing.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Yo, Noah! How’s it hangin’?”

“Eh, it’s just a regular day at the observatory. Nothing new. What about yourself?”

“Tartarus Entertainment just posted the first trailer for my new video game! It’s gotten two million hits in a half hour!”

“Sounds like this may be your best release yet. I’ll check it out right now, and I’ll call you back when I finish it.”

“Great! Looking forward to it!”

I hung up the phone and set it on my desk beside the computer, and I logged on to Tartarus Entertainment’s website, where Klaus’s trailer was on the front page. Before I could view it, though, I heard a knock at the observatory door.

“Hm… I wonder who that could be,” I thought out loud as I walked up to the door, fixing my lab coat, and when I opened the door, I was met with quite the surprise.

“Guess who!” an obsidian-coated alicorn cheered as she hugged me tightly.

“M-moon!” I said in disbelief “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Equestria?”

“What in Tartarus are you talking about?” she asked back.

“Well, you know, you made amends with Princess Celestia and the other princesses and went back to Equestria to rule alongside them.”

“Is that what the me in your dream is doing?”

“Wait, what!?” I asked.

Moon gave me a confused look, as though I wasn’t in my right mind, and then she let out a laugh. “Oh, that’s right! I forgot! Most people and ponies don’t realize they’re dreaming until after they wake up.”

I blinked. “Wait… this is a dream?” After taking a second to evaluate the reality I was in, I realized that this had to be a dream.

“Quite the place you’ve got here,” Moon said as she walked inside. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in someone else’s dream.”

“You relearned how to go into others’ dreams now?”

“M-hm! It was weird, too. I wasn’t even trying. Soon after I drifted into sleep, I found myself in the space that I used to travel between dreams, and the portal to your dream was quite close since I was sleeping right next to you, so I decided to pay you a visit!”

Now, I wasn’t an expert in magic, but I realized that Moon’s strength has been growing faster lately. At first she was relearning mundane spells like short-distance teleportation and instant transformation, but now, less than a week after that, she could go into my dreams!

I began to wonder what would be next.

“Isn’t this great!” she cheered. “Now we can spend more time together! Of course, the range of my dreamwalking magic is still rather short at the moment, so we’ll have to sleep together every night from now on!”

“Um… cool?” I said, unsure of how to react to this news. It’s not that I didn’t want to spend time with Moon, it’s just that sometimes I liked being alone.

“As much as I’d like to spend more time with you, we have to wake up now,” she said as she lit up her horn and brought us both back to reality. When I woke up, I found myself in the same position I was in the previous night: wrapped in Nightmare Moon’s embrace with my head resting on her chest. Wait… No it wasn’t! I definitely don’t remember having my head on top of her breasts! I mean, not that I could complain, what with all that milky softness against my ear… but still! This was a rather intimate position we were in!

“Good morning,” she cooed as she looked at me with a smile.

“Morning…” I said.

“Well, we’d better get ready. We have a test in Physics today.”

“WHAT!?” I yelled as I tore myself from her embrace and looked at my calendar, where all my test dates were marked. Sure enough, right on today’s date, was a note that said “Physics test”.

“Shit! I totally forgot about that test! I have to get ready so I can cram for it!” I zoomed into the kitchen and made a quick breakfast for moon and me, and after I quickly gulped my breakfast down, I brushed my teeth and took a shower, and then I got dressed and got my Physics textbook.

“I have to go right now. You can catch up later. Your breakfast is on the table. See you in an hour!”

I rushed out of the apartment and caught the shuttle to the school, where I confined myself to the library for the next forty-five minutes, cramming every piece of information I could into my head. When it was time for me to get to class, I walked and read at the same time, hoping that I could at least get a passing grade on the test.

I entered the lecture hall and sat in my usual spot in the back. Nightshade entered after me and handed me a sheet of paper while the professor was clumsily getting the tests out. She then sat at her usual spot on the other side of the classroom. I looked at the paper she handed me as the professor called the students in the front row to get a test. The paper was folded in half and there was a note scribbled on it.

Here are the answers to today’s test. It’s all multiple choice, and since you sit in the back of the class, you should be fine. Because I know you’re wondering how I got these, I used an invisibility spell to sneak into the professor’s office behind him. If you decide not to use these, that’s fine. I just want to make sure you have an out in case you get desperate.

Love, Nightshade.

The shocked expression on my face intensified as I read each sentence.

“Nightshade stole the test answers for me?” I thought. “Was she insane!? She could get expelled if… oh right, she’s not an enrolled student, so she didn’t have anything to lose. Still why would she do this for me? And what’s with writing ‘love’ at the end of the note!?” I looked over to Nightshade, who was gazing at me with lidded eyes, and she subtly waved at me, doing that little finger-flicking thing that girls do when they…

Oh, God.

“No way,” I thought. “She has feelings for me, doesn’t she? Now it all makes sense! Wanting to share a bed with me for a second time, always holding me close to her when we’re sleeping, the way she’s been looking at me lately, and what she said in my dream about ‘spending more time together’. She definitely likes me!” I shook my head and tried to calm down. “Okay, Noah. Relax. Maybe you’re reading too much into this. Maybe she’s just being affectionate because I helped save her at the party two nights ago. Plus, she’s always been an outgoing mare, so maybe she’s just getting more comfortable being around me. Still, no normal friends sleep in the same bed hugged close together like we were for the past two nights. Plus she’s been teasing and flirting with me increasingly often lately.”

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the professor’s voice. “Will the students in the last two rows please come and get their tests,” he announced, and I folded the answer sheet and stuck it in my pocket before getting up.

“Well, even if she does like me, why am I stressing out about it so much?” I asked myself inwardly as I walked to the professor’s lectern. “I mean, it’s not like I hate her, or anything. She is really pretty, both as Nightshade and as Nightmare Moon, and we get along very well… but do I really feel a romantic attraction to her?” I sighed. “In any case, I’m thinking too far ahead. I still don’t know for sure if she even has feelings for me. I mean, I could always be direct and ask her, but if I end up being wrong, it might make things awkward between us, and if one thing is certain, it’s that I value our friendship. I shouldn’t ask her until I’m as sure as I can be about how she feels.”

I picked up my test and went back to my seat and began my test. I tried to do my best on it, but I was too distracted by my suspicions about Nightshade.

“Fuck it, I’ll just use the answers,” I thought, not wanting to make my brain explode. I copied the answers onto my test, and when I finished, I waited until about half the class had turned in their test before turning in mine. After that, I left the class with Nightshade following close behind.

I wonder…

“So, what do you wanna do now?” she asked.

“Well, I have two hours before my next class, and Klaus is free right now, so I’m gonna go see how he’s doing,” I told her. “It’d be best if I went alone.”

“Well, are you sure you want to go alone?” the unicorn asked.

“Don’t you have a class in ten minutes?”

“Yeah, but I stopped going to the classes that I didn’t share with you.”

Wait… what? I was just testing to see if she really didn’t want to be separated from me, but that last sentence of hers proved more than just that.

Not only did she not want to be separated from me, but she wanted to spend as much time as she could with me. I mean, I understand wanting to be around her best friend, but the idea of her cutting class just to be with me made me feel uneasy.

“I don’t think it’d be a good idea if you came with me,” I told her. “It’ll be better if it was just me. You can survive until I’m done, right?”

Nightshade looked down and sighed. “Okay,” she conceded. “See you later.”

I nodded my head and the two of us parted ways. I decided to see if Klaus was in his room, and along the way, I bumped into Maud.

“Hello, Noah,” she said with her usual monotone greeting.

“Hey, Maud.”

“…”

I gave the earth mare a confused look. While she was a mare of few words, she would usually have at least one thing to say to me other than “Hello.”

“You okay?” I asked her.

“I’m fine. I’m just surprised.”

Maud can be surprised? Well, this was new.

“Surprised at what?”

“Nightshade is usually with you when I see you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“That’s what it’s been like for a while now. I rarely ever see you two apart, hence my surprise.”

Maud was right. Nightshade and I have been spending a lot of time together, and it wasn’t through any prior planning of my own. She was just always around, and since I enjoyed her company, I never bothered to do anything about it.

“I am a lot more perceptive than I let on, Noah,” she told me. “She’s growing attached to you. Nightshade, I mean.”

“To be honest, I’ve been noticing that myself, as well… Can I ask you something?”

“I don’t know. Can you?”

“You know what I meant,” I said, not enjoying her passive grammar correction. “Do you think that Nightshade is growing attached to me because she has feelings for me?”

Maud blankly stared at me, looked up in thought, closed her eyes for a moment, and then she shrugged her shoulders.

“It is possible, but I can’t say for certain,” she admitted. “She’s harder to figure out than most other ponies and people that I’ve met. She’s a strange one, really hard to figure out.”

Look who’s talking.

“I’m sorry I can’t answer your question, Noah,” she said as she looked at her watch. “I have to go. My Advanced Geology class starts in ten minutes.”

“Sure. See you later,” I shrugged. “By the way, have you seen Klaus?”

“I last saw him at the student lounge sitting at our usual spot,” Maud answered as she kept walking.

“Thanks!” I called out before heading towards the lounge. As Maud had said, Klaus was sitting at our usual table, a cup of coffee in one hand and a bagel in the other, and from the look on his face, I could tell he was falling apart.

“Hey, man.” I said as I approached him. “You mind if I sit here, or would you rather-”

“Go ahead,” he said.

I nodded my head and sat down across from the griffon, who sighed as he sipped at his coffee.

“Things have gotten a little better, I hope,” I said, trying to stay positive, for his sake.

“I wish,” he scoffed. “They’ve been bugging me more often than usual… I don’t see why they can’t just leave me alone.”

“Have you tried asking Griselda to help you out?”

“She tried, but they won’t even listen to her, which just proves how adamant they are about this. I actually feel guilty for asking my big sister to fight my battles for me, though. She was the reason why I was able to leave home and come to Florida with my folks being none the wiser, and she’s the one paying my tuition.”

“Don’t think about it that way. At least you have someone in your family that supports you. It’s because of her that you were able to go to school here.”

“I guess that’s true,” Klaus said as he took a bite out of his bagel. He gulped it down and let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s such bullshit. Why can’t my parents just let me choose what I want to do with my life? Just because my older brothers and sisters all followed the same path doesn’t mean I have to.”

“Well, maybe they’ll adjust if you give them time.”

“I don’t know Noah. For generations, everyone in my family has gone on to be either a soldier, an athlete, or a law enforcement officer. I’m the only one that decided to do something different, and my folks can’t handle it. I once overheard my dad telling my mom that I was ‘just going through a rebellious phase’ because I was the youngest.”

“Well, you’re a grown adult now, so it’s not like they can force you to come back home,” I told him with a matter-of-fact tone. “You’re your own man now, so whatever decisions you make are none of their concern.”

“You wanna try telling them that?”

I opened my mouth to say something, but from the way Klaus described his parents, they sounded incredibly intimidating.

“I can see why you’d hesitate to tell them that… Look, maybe we could do something to cheer you up. You know Mary’s comet will be here in less than two months. You, me, Maud, and Nightshade can all drive to the beach together and watch it, and isn’t your sister supposed to be visiting from Texas around that time, too?”

“I don’t know if I can endure another two months…” Klaus said.

“Well, maybe you should try talking to your parents about this. When you told me about all this two months ago, I understood why you never really stood up to them, but the way things are going, you have to say something or else things will get worse.”

Klaus didn’t respond. He simply took another sip of coffee. “I get what you’re saying, but it’s a lot easier said than done.” The griffon sighed and got up from his seat. “Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Noah, but I need some more time to think about this.”

I nodded my head, not wanting to push the issue and inadvertently upset him. “Okay, take some time to mull it over. I’ll catch you later, okay?”

“Yeah…” Klaus said as he left the lounge.

I left not long after him, and I had a good amount of time until my next class, which was chemistry. Just then, my phone chimed and vibrated in my pocket; it was a text from Maud.

“Met up w/Nightshade @ the library. She’ll catch up w/you after your chem class.”

As I read the message, I wondered what I could do with my free time. Maud was hanging out with Nightshade and Klaus was busy moping, so I didn’t really have anything else to do. I shrugged my shoulders and let out a sigh.

“I guess I’ll just take a nap in the library.”

Author's Notes:

So it looks like Noah is finally picking up on Moon's signals... or is he just overthinking things? If Moon really does like him, who'll make the first move? Hell, does Noah even like her back? You'll have to find out in the next chapter.

It just occurred to me that every chapter so far has ended with a line from Noah. Ah, well. Might as well continue the trend.

Let me know your thoughts on this chapter in the comments, and I'll see you guys next chapter.

I'm gone!

Next Chapter: Chapter Eight - Hints and Insinuations Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 7 Minutes
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