#sunlight blade

Not, however, so much for the guards. See, royal guards that were on street duty always had tiring days, though these days they often stuck around the more popular areas of the city of Canterlot. Florists, Restaurants, and anywhere that sold chocolate. But, when you mostly just watch the doors and hallways of the castle? Well... Absolutely nothing. Nobody cared about coming up to the castle on Hearts and Hooves day. Certainly, lots of flowers and chocolate came in addressed to the Princesses, but honestly checking that stuff, whilst it’s kind of irritating, is often very boring as well. Most of the guard had to have a shift on Hearts and Hooves, but never a long one.

As Sunlight Blade had found out. He’d tried. Goddess had he tried, to get a double shift, or a full day shift. Preferably in the streets. But no, he’d been stuck on guard duty on the throne room. A measly four hour shift. Why? Because Celestia didn’t want her guards to not have the chance to spend time with their loved ones. Sunlight had pleaded, explaining he had no partner, no lover. He had no reason to celebrate this holiday. But, in her incredibly patient, and kind way, his Goddess had told him that it was, in that case, a lovely opportunity to find a pony to share it with.

With his father taking his mother out to a very expensive restaurant for a dinner date, and his sister... well, he had no idea what his sister was doing. She always had someone on Hearts and Hooves days, she was adored by everyone who knew her, after all, Sunlight Blade found himself completely and utterly alone. And he couldn’t ask who he wanted to join him after all. It would be...

Well, it would be foolish.

So, given his sorry state this day, he found himself, upon the end of his shift, within his church. Unfortunately, the church was actually closed, due to the priest being out for the day with his sweetheart. So, Sunny was in the Cemetery, which was always open to the public. And where exactly was he?

Where else? Before the statues of the princesses, seen as Goddesses. More specifically, before the much larger statue of Celestia, who was their patron Goddess. He honestly didn’t know what to say either, to her. It was... A horrible situation.

“My Goddess,’ He began hesitantly, “I know... I know I can never reach your heights, and I recognise I will never be your love. Why would I? I am... an imperfect, foolish stallion.”

His belief in her perfection never did do him very well. In fact, it had started only worsening his self doubt and self loathing. It was not a pretty sight.

“And... I recognise that I should stop being so obsessed with you, that I will never find the love you wish me to find so long as my adoration of you persists, as opposed to the faith of your other followers. And I apologise to you for failing your expectations. And for my jealousy of your student, and fellow goddess.”

He turned to face the statue of Twilight Sparkle, the smallest of the four (For both realism and to simulate the believed order of the goddesses in terms of import), and bowed low, doing his best not to scrape his horn through the dirt, as he saw it as hallowed ground. Best not to destroy hallowed ground.

“I am sorry, Goddess Twilight,” He apologised, holding back tears, “For my jealousy, for my arrogance, and for my heresy. I hope you can, one day, forgive me.”

Turning back to the Celestia statue, he took a deep breath, and sighed.

“You will forever by my goddess, Goddess Celestia,” He said quietly, “And, though I will do my best, I am terrified that I will fail you repeatedly in my attempts to remove this deep, abiding love for you. This physical, emotional and mental attraction I have for you, outside of my faith. And I find it difficult, more and more, to face you.”

He paused, searching for the words. Any words, to explain himself. To try and describe how he felt. But nothing came out. Nothing seemed quite right. Nothing seemed to quite make enough sense. So, instead, he took a slow, deep breath, flashed his offering of magic, and placed down, before the statue, a single white rose. A symbol of his affections. He then bowed once more.

“I am sorry, my goddess. I will do the best I can, but... for once, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to succeed in what you wish me to do.”

And, left on his own with his goddess not answering him (Not that she ever did when he prayed), he decided the only thing left to do was to just go home. So, he did. Letting himself in, he found a note in the kitchen just alerting him that his parents wouldn’t be home until possibly midnight, and Dhalia might not be coming home at all. Neither of which surprised him.

After a quiet dinner of pre-boxed Macaroni and Cheese, and a drink of orange juice, Sunlight didn’t really have much else to do, and, lighting a candle in his room, decided to simply read a book until he was tired enough to fall asleep.

He’d tried to say no. Most ponies weren’t nuts enough to take a potion from some random creature. But he hadn’t even gotten the words out before she was gone. He’d only taken his eyes off of her for a second, and she was just... gone. So, he’d taken the potion, and kept it stashed. He’d put it in his locker in the barracks once he’d gotten his break. Hell of a weird day.

He’d also checked the name on the tag of the pink sparkly potion. ‘Gritty Blossom’. He’d heard something like that before, so he’d asked his superiors. Turned out she was an ex-guard, which leant itself to him trusting the potion a bit more. So, naturally, as he was trudging home at five in the evening, he was looking the potion over.

It was in a very pleasing, gold trimmed bottle, and it was, as mentioned earlier, a sparkly pink colour. He didn’t know if he trusted it or not. More so than he had at first, given the ex-guard status of the benefactor. Why would she hurt a current guard after all right?

Either way, when he did finally reach his home, he had expected to be greeted by his parents. His father, Sunlight Spear, had been given the day off without having to ask. Not surprising, given his many decades of service in the guard corp. But the door was not opened by his parents. Either of them, in fact.

“Brother! It’s about time you got home!”

He looked up, surprised. In the doorway of his family home was his sister, Sunlit Dhalia. His younger sister was shorter than him, naturally, and she was wearing her trademark stripy socks that came up over her dapples on her legs, to hide them, and her cute little glasses. She had also re-dyed her fringe pink.

“Dhalia?” He asked, a little surprised. She rolled her eyes and nodded.

“I know, you were expecting mum and dad. You just missed them. They went out for a ‘romantic dinner’,” She explained with a good natured smirk, “You know how they get when Dad gets time off... What’s that you’ve got there?”

Sunlight blinked, looked at the potion and shrugged, “I’m not entirely sure. Some sort of potion from an ex-guard. I got given it partway through my shift.”

Dhalia blinked, and with another eye roll, ushered her brother inside, “Okay.... well are you gonna drink it then?”

Sunlight dropped his saddlebags in the entryway, rolling his eyes this time, “Dhali, this isn’t Ogres and Oubliettes. I can’t just drink some random potion without knowing what it does!”

“Why not? It’s not like another guard would intentionally hurt you right?” She challenged pointedly, “What’re you so afraid of?”

Sunlight tried to argue that point but.... sighed, “I just don’t know if it’s a good idea,” He replied lamely. His sister giggled, leading him through the house to the Dining Room, “I mean, what if it unintentionally hurts me?”

“Ugh, if you’re so scared, what if you little sister took some of it with you?” She asked teasingly, “What would the other guards say? When they find out your little sister was braver than her big, Royal Guard brother?”

“You wouldn’t.”

A smirk, “Try me big brother. I tell Term Nitous next time he’s over for a game, he tells the rest of the roster...”

“Alright! Alright!” Sunlight groaned, “Fine! We’ll drink the stupid potion. You’re evil though sis, I hope you realise that. And whatever happens? Totally your fault.”

“Nothing’s gunna happen,” Dhalia rolled her eyes, “Or, nothing bad anyway. Hang on, lemme get two glasses.”

Sunlight, rolling his eyes, sat at the table as his little sister went out to get the pair of glasses, so they could share this potion. He was already dreading whatever was going to happen with this. When she got back, with two wine glasses of all things, he popped the cork on the bottle, and poured an equal amount of potion into each glass. It really was a sparkly potion. The liquid was thin, like a sparkling pink wine. Sunlight took a deep, slow breath to steady himself, and lifted his glass. Dhalia also lifted hers, and offered it to him for a toast.

“To not being a little bitch,” She teased lightly. Sunlight rolled his eyes, but toasted in return, the quiet ‘clink’ of glass setting the moment before, to get it over and done with, He downed the glass. Dhalia, not to be outdone, did the same. For a long moment, nothing happened. Dhalia huffed.

“Well, that was disappoin-”

She paused, then put a hoof over her mouth, as if she was stopping herself throwing up. Another supposed attempt. She looked up at her brother in alarm, only for her eyes to widen further. His eyes were glazed over, and he was sitting stock still. Not even breathing.

With one last choking hack, Dhalia turned from the table and let loose. Whatever the hell came out of her mouth, it wasn’t vomit. It was dark, and there was so much of it. It was like she’d vomited up enough of whatever it was to make another one of her.

Shockingly, as she watched, panting and on the edge of consciousness, it seemed that that was exactly what she’d done. The liquidous substance formed, slowly, into the form of her. She didn’t get to see it finish forming before passing out, falling from her chair and onto the floor, her head thankfully landing on the creature forming in her image, albeit with several differences. Its fringe, whilst still bright pink, was framed by black dyed mane, which was mirrored in the pink streaks running through her black tail. Also, she wasn’t wearing glasses.

As she’d fallen unconscious, whatever effect the potion was having on her brother finally had a physical effect. Light started to split his body in half, and when it finally reached all the way around, there was a flash of bright white light and a puff of smoke, and a pair of unconscious ponies were on the floor, either side of the chair that held Sunlight Blade. One of them had deep, dark shadows under his eyes, and was several shades darker in colour than what was once Sunlight Blade, and the other was lighter. Brighter.

But all four ponies were unconscious, and who knows when they’d regain themselves?

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//Term Nitous is a character that belongs to amazingbailey, the mod behind RegularDD, check her out she’s pretty awesome! And of course, for anyone who doesn’t know, Motherhonkingmiracle is the mod behind askgrittyblossom, also amazing, check ‘em out.

//Now, said potion split both ponies into their positive and negative traits! Posi-Sunny is a happy, bright and lovable/loving pony who’s, I’m not gunna lie, probably gunna love everyone who talks to him. Nega-Sunny is jealous, obsessive, self-loathing and lustful.

//Dhalia’s been split too! Posi-Dhalia is, much like her brother, bright and happy, but also sensitive, gentle and caring. Nega-Dhalia is controlling, sadistic, rebellious and prone to swearing and generally being bitchy.