//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Recrutment. // Story: Hearts and Ashes // by brony114 //------------------------------// In the city of Canterlot, Hearts and Hooves day was in full swing. All around Equestria, ponies were spending time with their loved ones and Canterlot was no exception. Even the palace was decorated with the colors of love. Twilight Sparkle, now a princess, was sitting next to Princess Celestia in her audience chamber as they waited expectantly for a certain stallion whom they had summoned to arrive. Twilight was a little nervous and it showed. Her eyes were fixed on the doors that were the entrance to the room and her hooves jostled around to find an ever elusive comfortable position. Princess Celestia eventually leaned over to ask, " Is something the matter dear princess?" Princess Celestia's emotions were the very opposite of Twilight's. Her mood was bright and playful while her posture was tall, confident and majestic. Twilight snapped out of her worry driven trance to look at Celestia. " Oh no Princess, I'm just... a little nervous to meet him." Twilight replied with a polite smile. Celestia's mouth turned into a grin. she had always admired Twilight’s determination in completing any task. Her attention to detail and order was exemplary. However, that type of perfectionist driven work ethic was infact double edged as it left no room for error. This particular meeting was the culmination of weeks of preparation and it showed on Twilight's face. Celestia only wanted to calm Twilight down, so she asked, " Why would you be nervous to meet him? It's not like you to be shy. You did your research so be confident in your decision; it was a wise one." Twilight met Celestia's gaze. " I know, But what if I didn't make the right decision? I can't help but worry if he is really the right pick. I'm even worried if we will get along." Twilight looked down at the floor as her worries manifested in her eyes even more so. Celestia let out a small giggle to which Twilight looked up at her in slight shock. Celestia put a hoof up to her muzzle and spoke in a near wisper, " Oh Twilight, you need not worry about that. He comes highly recommended and I know you will get along with him easily. I have confidence in your ability to make connections. Besides, he won't be able to resist your charm." Celestia said and winked teasingly at Twilight. Twilight blushed and looked down again. " Princess! You make it sound like I'm picking out a boyfriend!" Twilight’s gaze was still fixed to the floor. This comment made Celestia giggle even more. " Well how do you think your brother and princess Cadence met?" Celestia said. " Princess!" Twilight’s usual violet face was now crimson. Celestia almost outright laughed. Celestia was debating whether or not she was just having fun now at Twilight’s expense. Then she had to stifle her giggles as the doors to the audience room creaked open. A white pegasus guard trotted in and saluted. He said to the Princesses, " Your Majesties, The Lieutenant has just arrived as summoned and is waiting to be presented." Celestia was now looking up at the guard and with a smile she said, " Good! Bring him in!" Twilight was now staring at the open doors. Her hooves had instantly gotten sweatier and her fidgeting increased. The white pegasus moved to the side and he brought his right front hoof up to his right eyebrow in a salute. A small time passed as the sound of hoof steps could be heard just outside the entrance. Then an armored figure of a dark grey unicorn stallion with gold eyes and mane trotted into the the room. He was young and fit. His military uniform was not the ornately styled gold armor of the Royal solar Guard, but rather, it was the black and steel armor of the Equestrian expeditionary Army, A branch of the EUP that has slowly grown more obsolete in recent years. His armor was polished and clean, but it bared many deep gouges and scratches. The helmet was also ordinary for it didn't have the blue plume on top but instead the helmet had a ridged spine that ran from the hole for the horn, to the back of the helmet. The young officer also bared a couple of scars; one prominent scar was on his right cheek. He trotted past the the guard who let him in and he continued to trot up to the princesses stopping short of them by five meters. He took his helmet off with his hooves and held on to it under his right foreleg, he bowed to the Princesses and said in a clear, young, confident voice, "Your majesty's, Lieutenant Ash, reporting as summoned." his voice echoed in the hall. His assertive demeanor began to put Twilight off, as she was hoping for somepony more friendly. From his Records, L.T. Ash of the 125th Army battalion was a well seasoned vet with deployments all around Equestria, including Southern Equestria. What made him stand out above the rest of the candidate pool was his level of magic ability and several commendations as well as several recommendations; one from Celestia herself. Still Twilight was worried. " Welcome Lieutenant, it is good to see you here." Celestia welcomed the young lieutenant. Twilight was looking everywhere but at Ash. She didn't want him to notice her nervousness. The young LT. got up and turned around to face the first guard as he saluted back to him. Only then did the pegasus bring his hoof down and then he marched out of the room. Ash turned to face the two princesses again. " Do you know why you are here, lieutenant?" Celestia asked. " Your highness, I believe I'm here for a new assignment." Ash answered as he looked over at Twilight who seemed to be very aloof. " Yep that's her, and like before, she doesn't seem to notice me." Ash thought to himself. (11 years ago) Ash, a young unicorn colt who lived in Canterlot, was getting his school bag ready to go to magic grade school. It was hearts and hooves day and all the city was in its decor of love. Ash also had a special card for a special somepony. He never talked to her, mostly because she had her head stuck in a book all the time, but he was definitely interested in the young filly because he thought she was the cutest filly he had ever seen. She was a purple unicorn with pink and violet stripes in her mane. She still lacked her cutie mark as did he and she was always reading a book, usually a new one every day. It was rare, but Ash would work up enough courage to go talk to her. Unfortunately she usually didn't notice him and would continue trotting on past him. Not that it would deter him from further attempts, but this hurt him. He felt insignificant and useless. However today was going to be different. He was going to stand in her way until she acknowledged him and took his card. It was an all or nothing plan. For better or for worse, she was going to notice him. Usually he would cross paths with her on the way to school at the corner of a doughnut shop. The corner was close to the Royal Guard academy as well and many cadets attending could be seen around it. Ash set up his ambush site around the corner of the doughnut shop. He sat there with the card in his saddlebag and sure enough he could see the cute young filly trotting along with a book in her ethereal hold as he peeked around the corner. Oh but he was extremely nervous and he had to continuously fight the urge to take off and not talk to her. The young filly was about 30 meters down the street when Ash heard another filly crying, “ Hey stop it! Give that back!” " What the hey?" Ash thought to himself. Out of curiosity, he looked for the source of the crying. Then he heard an older colt's voice. " What's the matter, you're gonna cry like a little baby? WAAA! Ha ha ha!" The voice said. This made Ash drop what he was doing and trot over to the alley next to him, where he heard the colt's voice. " Hey give it back, That's mine!" The filly screamed. Ash rounded the corner of the entrance into the alley. He saw a white pegasus filly with sky blue eyes and light blue mane. She was hopping up as high as she could, just shy of reaching a doll being dangled by an older brown pegasus colt who was hovering over the filly. " Well then why don't you get it from me? What's the matter, can't fly? Ha ha ha!" He laughed at her as she tried to grab the doll. Tears had been streaming down her cheeks for a while now and her efforts became increasingly more desperate. " Come on now you can do it. ha ha ha..." His cackle was aggravating and just as he was laughing, a stone hit his hoof, making the doll land on the ground. Angerly, the Colt trurned to look for the source of the attack. " Hey! Who did that!?" he shouted, making his wrath known. Ash was levitating another stone as he stared down the older and much bigger pegasus colt. Ash was seething with anger. He always hated it when older ponies would bully him or his friends. Normally, Ash wasn't too keen on picking fights with bigger ponies, but this one was a huge jerk and Ash wasn't about to just trot away. " Do you have death wish or something?" the colt asked Ash. " What's the matter, can't pick on anypony your age? I bet you’re too weak to pick on the bigger Colts, aren't you?. " Ash just couldn't keep his mouth shut. He knew taunting the jerk would make him mad. " Say that to my face." The colt said staring down the young agressor. " Why don't you come down here so I can?" Ash gritted his teeth. The colt hoovered for a moment with a look of deep thought on his face. Then a smile showed. " OK." he said calmly. Then , like a flash of lightning, the pegasus shot down at Ash and knocked him into the building behind him. The stone went skipping across the street and Ash laid on the ground in a daze. He didn't expect him to be so fast. The pegasus landed next to Ash and he was laughing. " What's the matter, Don't you have something to say to me? Pft! You weren't even a challenge!" The Colt scoffed at him. Ash shook his head to clear his senses, then he tried to get up, he was slow. " Looks like you were all talk little foal!" Ash thrust a hoof up that would have made contact with the pegasus's face, but he moved to the left and Ash went stumbling down past him. "Leave him alone, you're going to hurt him!" The filly demanded. " Shut up squirt! He asked for it when he showed up! Now he's gonna get it!" The colt looked down at Ash, who was trying to get back up again. The colt let him as he laughed at him. The filly wanted to help but she didn't want to get hurt either. Just then another colt trotted up to the alleyway and shouted to the older colt, " Hey Blitz, come on already! Were going to be late for roll call!" Blitz turned to answer back, " Yeah, Just give me a sec!" Ash was up and still in a daze from the impact he had been in. the colt looked at Ash and with his left hoof, he punched Ash in the right eye, hitting him to the ground. " I hope you learned your lesson blank flank!" Then he flew off towards the Academy. Ash didn't get up for a while because his face was in too much pain. His eye swelled up so he couldn't see out of it, his lip bled and his head pounded with pain. The filly pegasus trotted over to Ash leaving her precious doll behind on the ground. " Are you ok? Oh this is all my fault! I so sorry! please get up!" she said as she was sobbing. Her voice was high pitched but easy on the ears. Ash started getting up slowly and then he was on all hooves. He looked around through his open eye and surveyed the alley for the colt. He was slightly disoriented and wasn't sure what happened exactly. Then he looked at the filly, she was crying still and was looking him in the eyes. " uhh,... are you ok?" Ash asked wearly " Yes... are you?" She relied. " sort of... you should do a better job of standing up for your self." He said while looking at her with his good eye. " I know, if only I could fly..." She said. Ash got annoyed. " No! Flying had nothing to do with it, it was because you were playing his game!" This warranted a look of confusion for the filly. “Don’t give him what he wants, do anything to make it not fun for him to tease you. If you do that and stand up for your self, He’ll stop bothering you.” Ash spoke as if reciting from a book. "Really?" The filly asked. " That's what my dad always tells me, 'never give in to a bully.'" Ash said and finished with a groan as he put a hoof to his eye to rub it. The filly stood there silent, staring at her new friend with a look of confusion. Her Hero was not the biggest colt, his demeanor was brutish and his actions were reckless. Still he was her hero and definitely now her friend. " What's your name? I'm Blue Ember!" Her voice sounded perkier. " I'm Ash?" He said and then winced as he continued to rub his eye. " What were you doing here Ash?" Ash looked up and his open eye was wider. "Oh no!" he thought to himself. Ash stumbled out of the alley way and towards the corner. He looked around in a desperate manner. Ember Followed right behind him. She had a look of concern and confusion as she stared at him. " What's wrong Ash?" She asked cautiously. " ( grrr) She gone." he growled. His eye kept scanning the the street. " Who's gone?" She asked. " The filly I was going to give this to!" Ash levitated his card out of his saddle bag, which had been crumpled in the scuffle. Ember recognized it as a hearts and hooves day card. Suddenly she was sad again. " Who is she?"She asked, saddened. Ash then gave up as he knew the filly had been long gone. "( Sigh) A purple unicorn who trots this way every morning. I think we go to the same school but I don't even know her name." Ember looked down in dejection. " Twilight." she muttered. " huh?" he said with confusion. " Twilight sparkle. Her brother is an upper class pony at the royal guard academy." She said a little louder. Finally, Ash had a name to go with the filly. " ...Thank you!" he said with a smile. Ember didn’t reipricate the smile. After a moment of silence that struck them, Ash said, " Well I need to go to school." Ember was still looking dejected. Ash looked in the doughnut Shop's window reflection taking notice of how messed up he looked. He looked pretty bad. " My parents are going to kill me!" He said. Ember looked up at him with a worried look. Ash looked at her with his good eye, gave a half smile and said, " It’s ok, I’ll be fine. Take care, it was kind of nice meeting you Ember!" He turned and started to limp off. To him, finding out Twilight's name made this whole mess worth it. Ember shot him a look of surprise. he said it was kind of nice to meet her. Another smile made its way on her face. " Do... do you trot this way every morning too?" She asked timidly. " Yes." he said looking back and then continuing to trot his way to school. Ember wanted to help him but she felt he wouldn't take her help and she was kind of shy. " OK! See you around!" she called out to him. " See you around." she said softly to herself, as she blushed.