“So with new conviction, the stallion brought his blade to bear and attacked his opponent,” Hendrick said, leaning backwards against a pair of cushions provided by the hospital when he had asked for them.

“And then what happened?” Moon Light asked, her eyes shining brightly as only children’s eyes could. She had been the reason why Hendrick was placed in a public hospital instead of the one in the castle, though she didn’t know it. When Luna had thought about transferring him, she had remembered the small filly and decided to let him stay in the public hospital so others could visit him easier.

Hendrick paused for a moment, looking back at her. “The mighty hero, Flare, the savior of those who had been rejected, attacked the villainous fiend. His quest to avenge his family could not be achieved so long as the man who stood before him now still lived.” Hendrick seemed to be enjoying his time telling Moon Light a story from his hospital bed. A soft breeze came in through an open window, leaving the scent of the room fresh. As if in spite of the fresh breeze, the room maintained it's usual medicinal scent.

“The evil guy who killed his parents?” the filly asked, her hooves held over her muzzle in anticipation. She was lying on the bed and was enraptured by his current tale, having forgotten he was in the hospital, and pushed against his leg, but quickly pulled back as his face twisted in pain. After gathering himself again, he continued.

“The very same.” Hendrick had a wry smile on his face. “And do you know what he did next?” The suspense was obvious in the air and Moon Light leaned forward so as to not miss a word. “He defeated him and took back the land!” Moon Light let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.

“That’s good. That’ll teach the bad guy.” Moon Light’s face took on a puzzled expression. “But then, what happened to the villain? He didn’t kill him, did he?”

“Of course not. Good guys don’t kill people.”

“Then, what happened?”

“No one knows; he just vanished. Some say he became a librarian, but very few people believe that. He was called a war hero by his home town! Why would he become a measly librarian?”

“Maybe he learned his lesson and didn’t want to hurt people anymore.” Moon Light sounded quite sure of herself.

“You think so? What makes you say that?”

“Well, he didn’t really want to kill people to begin with, did he? He just kinda accepted it. Maybe when he was defeated, he realized what he had done was wrong.”

“Maybe so,” Hendrick said, his tone unreadable. “Maybe so.”

Moon Light’s ears twitched as a sound caught her attention, and she turned her head to the open window. After a moment, Hendrick mimicked the action, hearing something as well. Busy voices tumbled into the room, carried on the air. None of them sounded familiar, but they had an official sounding tone behind them.

“I wonder what’s going on,” the filly said idly. Hendrick remained silent and seemed to be focusing on the jumble of words.

“I need to go,” he said eventually. He removed the blanket from himself and carefully placed his legs on the ground. A flinch shot across his face, but he steadied out and the grimace faded. His limbs didn’t show any obvious damage, but the chart hanging on the bed told a different story, one that involved inner muscle wounds. Moon Light looked at him, confused and worried; she didn’t want him to leave. “Just to the lobby. I think something bad is about to happen there.” This only increased her worry.

Moon Light had grown extremely attached to the stallion after he protected her from her drunk father that night. She was happy to spend time with him, and after he saved her the second time from the fire at the orphanage, she didn’t feel safe unless it was in the company of the odd adult. He, in turn, had began to spend more time with her, though he never told her exactly why, always brushing it off with another question or going off on a tangent. Or a story. He had quickly discovered Moon Light’s passion for listening to stories.

“If something bad is going to happen, why are you going towards it?”

“To make sure the bad thing doesn’t hurt anyone,” Hendrick replied calmly, taking his signature swaying steps towards the door. “And I want you to stay here, where you’ll be safe. I’ll be right back. I promise.” Then, he closed the door, leaving Moon Light in the room.

She waited, patiently. As patiently as she could, anyway. Her hoof drew circles on the floor and she silently fought back the urge to run after Hendrick. She managed to succeed with that restraint until she heard an echoing thump from below. Adrenaline shot through her as the restraint she had showed shattered with the silence. Her legs were running with worried steps and she hurried out of the room, her footsteps light on the floor, and down the stairs to the lobby.

“I said, ‘where is she?!’ ” The voice was gruff and ground against her ears familiarly. It sounded similar to her father. She had always assumed alcohol must be full of rocks, because he always complained about the taste and his voice always sounded worse after a night out drinking. Just as it had for her entire life, the voice slowed her movements and she found herself slowly approaching the lobby of the hospital, scared of what she would see.

The worries of the filly intensified as the large form of her father came into view, his large frame obscuring the stallion he held against the ground. With his attention focused on whoever he had pinned, one of the ponies in the room managed to sneak out undetected. Moon Light could only hope they had gone to get the guard as she stopped behind a green plant sitting awkwardly where the room narrowed and formed the hallway. From her position, the filly was hidden from pretty much everypony.

“Tell me where she is!” the drunken musclehead shouted again. He slammed his captives head against the floor loudly, revealing the pinned stallion’s identity to Moon Light. In retrospect, she realized she could have just looked at his flank; it was very hard to miss Hendrick’s cutie mark. “Tell me, or I’ll kill you!” The air fell still for a moment, both stallions having fallen disturbingly silent. To everyone else, it seemed like the captive was scared; but from Moon Light’s point of view, she could see a contemplative look on his face. “What is it, you punk? Now that the guard isn’t here to help you, you can’t do anything?”

“No, quite the opposite, actually.” Hendrick’s tone was cold and sent shivers down Moon Light’s spine like no winter air ever could. His hind legs, still injured, lunged out and connected with the beer gut of the stallion, though it clearly caused him pain to do so.

The force from the blow was enough to knock the drunkard up and onto his hind legs. While he was rearing back, Hendrick rushed forward, using his momentum and that of his foe to get the larger opponent onto his back. Once that had been accomplished, Hendrick placed his foreleg tight against the drunk’s neck.

“You learn a trick or two in the army,” Hendrick said quietly, seeing the surprise in his opponents face. “Now, let me tell you what’s going to happen, you slug. You said you were going to kill me. Now, if I assume you're smarter than you actually are, let’s say you attack me in the middle of the night, when I’m asleep.” Everyone in the hospital looked on in shock after the quick turn around. All except for Moon Light, whom looked on in fear. The tone in the words wasn’t angry, or loud; it was like hearing a teacher state facts to her students.

“Now, that would be a good plan, but you’re an utter fool, so you would stumble or trip or make some noise and I would wake up, because I’m a light sleeper. I would have the advantage and you would be a complete idiot, so I would be able to get you in this position again. But this time, I wouldn’t have onlookers. This means I would be able to kill you and call it self-defense. Do you understand? I would kill you.” He lifted his front leg from his opponent’s throat for a quick moment so he could get breath, then pinned him again. Tears began to run down Moon Light’s face at the severe brutality Hendrick, the stallion she had thought the kindest in the world, was displaying.

“So if you ever think it’s a marginally good idea to come after me or the filly you call your daughter again, I will end you and serve whatever amount of time in jail I need to to make sure you stay away from her.”

Moon Light moved back in shock, fire suddenly flaring behind Hendrick’s eyes, fueled by his anger. Crimson lept across the white of his eyes and sweat began to pour from the portly stallion he had pinned. Eventually, the guard arrived and took the father away, though at this point in the engagement, it was probably better for the prisoner than the onlookers.

Hendrick’s fiery eyes followed the drunkard being escorted. When he was gone from sight, the fire died away and their bearer started rubbing his hind legs in an effort to remove the lingering pain shooting through them. Slowly, he turned.

When he easily spotted Moon Light and the tears running down her face, it became immediately clear from his facial expression that he would have preferred not to have seen her. He opened his mouth to speak, but she didn’t want to hear it. She was out the door before he could stop her. As she ran, she heard him sigh and say to a nearby nurse, “I’d like to check out, please.” Her feet carried her over the cobblestones while the voice of Hendrick echoed in her head. “Of course not. Good guys don’t kill people.” She couldn’t quite believe he had just threatened to go against that. After all, in her mind, Hendrick was the goodest of guys.

Luna sat on her throne as she listened to the pony currently talking. Her attention was focused as her mind thought about what he had to say. The issue he was talking about was deeply important to the protection of Canterlot and the continued future of Equestria. So, naturally, she wanted to make sure she didn’t miss any of his words.

“And so,” he began, coming to his conclusion, “that is why it is important that we up the levels of chocolate quality. It’s clear that if we don’t, it will affect our snack consumption in the long run.” Okay, maybe it wasn’t important to the safety of Canterlot, but Luna really liked snack foods. The next pony had started to move up when Luna noticed the new librarian approaching, a look of worry and panic set on her face. Luna held up her hoof to signal a brief intermission. The pony nodded and Luna waited for the librarian to reach her.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness,” the librarian said with a bow to her. “I wasn’t sure what to do!” The attention of the ponies in the court was pulled towards her curiously, but the mare didn’t seem to notice. “He just barged in with that, that, alcohol! Then, he went straight into the section of old tomes, and just sat there. Then he started singing! He’s starting to worry me and I can’t get him to leave.” Someone had barged into the library? That didn’t bode well. Luna nodded to her and she left the room quickly, worried for what might have happened in her absence.

“I’m sorry, my ponies. It seems something has come up. I apologize to those of you whom I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting. I shall be holding a lunar court tomorrow, but not the night after. Please visit me before then if it’s important.” After a short bow from each of the ponies, Luna left, teleporting herself to the library. The librarian was nowhere in sight upon her arrival, so the princess started into the deep collection of books for this arrival.

She was progressing through the aisles when the sound of a song drifted through the air, altering her path slightly she progressed toward where it was coming from, listening to the voice as she went on.

“I miss the night like I miss my heart,

I often wish I could appreciate art.

But there is one thing I know for sure,

The world hates me and there is no cure!”

The tone was surprisingly upbeat despite how down the lyrics seemed to be. It was around this point in the song that Luna realized she recognized it was Hendrick singing. She paused a moment to listen to the next verse before she continued toward him again.

“Despite how down on myself I may seem,

I know that true love awaits in my dreams.

I love her truly, I miss her so.

I hope noone tells her though!”

His tone was different and the words seemed to sway through the air blindly, their tone sometimes changing mid-pitch. Luna was blushing slightly as she rounded the corner and spotted Hendrick, a bottle of wine sitting in front of him and an open book next to it, though it was upside down from his point of view. It also detailed extremely complicated spell diagrams.

“Oh, hello, Luna. You didn’t hear that, did you? Oh, you did, didn’t you? Crap. Well, anyway, I was hoping you could help me read this. No matter how I turn this book, I can’t seem to read it,” Hendrick said, taking another deep drink of wine. “Ooo, look, now the book is turning on its own. Magic is crazy stuff.” The book, however, remained idle.

Luna placed her hoof on the book, disgusted by the drunken stupor in which Hendrick had put himself. As she did so, she spotted an empty bottle behind him. “Funny,” he started, “the other guy seemed to be quite happy to be drunk. I just feel really dull.”

“Hendrick,” Luna began, “what’s gotten into you? What happened?”

“I acted like myself. I hate acting like myself, always hurts people I don’t want to hurt,” he said, his words slurring.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Luna asked, wondering what he could possibly mean.

“Not particularly, but it’s clear you do. So tell you what, you get rid of this drunken stupor and I’ll chat. Deal?”

“Deal,” she said instantly. Her horn flashed and Hendrick blinked. His eyes were straight once again and he took a moment to glance at the half empty bottle of wine resting next to his hoof.

“Well, crap.” He turned his gaze once more toward Luna. “I didn’t think you could actually do that.”