Memories of a Life Long Forgotten
Chapter One-Memories of a Life Long Forgotten
I do not remember much of my foalhood. My first happy memories would come later, but my beginning….it pains me to relive that tragic night. I remember his large green bloodshot eyes, gleaming with sadistic pleasure as my parents lay there, unmoving, not breathing as he stood over their bodies as the red stained blade dripped blood rhythmically onto the floor by his hooves. His light grey coat, stained red around the legs from who knows how many murders. I thought my horrors were ending, he would leave and I would be left to wallow in my anger and guilt, Goddess, how I wished that had happened…I watched as he took that knife to my Dad’s horn…and began sawing and every stroke was like a hoof on a chalk board in my ears.
My father had done everything to keep us safe, he fought that bastard with every last ounce of strength he had but…My mother hid me in an upstairs closet, all I could do was sit there, watching and wishing I could help in any way, while this monster carried my father up the steps. I heard every thump of my father’s head hit the stairs as the monster ascended and tossed my father’s body before her. Father was so battered-so bloody and torn… the monster backed mother into the corner, and levitated the corpse up to her face, making her look at his destroyed mug. I’ll never forget those words the beast spoke to her…
“You little Pegasus slut… you think your kind are good enough to mate with such beings as us?! Well you and your disgrace of a husband can no longer fuck with evolution any further…”
I saw that blade rise, but tears welded my eyes shut as I heard the wet stab of the blade and the screams of my mother fade away into the darkness.
Aero opened his eyes, the fresh tears drying quickly as the breeze swept across his face; he looked out over the cliff, staring at the quiet village, residing in the valley below. He leaned against his favorite tree, the one that he liked to sit and read by as a foal, and rested on the soft, green grass.
“I can’t keep thinking like this,” he thought to himself, “Today is one of those happy memories.”
Yet, he still couldn’t, the memories of the past week could not help but resurface the past traumas of his foalhood. His adopted mother was now dead, and suddenly he was forced to relive every last detail of that night.
“Happy memories...” He told himself under his breath. “Happy memories, happy memories…”
The mad pony was startled, Goddess knows what he would have done if he hadn’t been interrupted. The banging and yelling grew louder as the door was busted to splinters. He had seen me by now, watching him through the open door, we could hear the loud footsteps rushing up the stairs. He turned his face to me, his eyes shining like a demon’s.
“Purity demands sacrifice.” He stated.
His horn began to glow, and in an instant he had vanished, leaving behind only a small trail of black smoke. My head was frozen in place, locked on the area where the killer had once stood.
The rest of that night passed by like a terrible dream, but no matter how much I wished it to be just that, the voice of that bloody unicorn still rang in the back of my mind to remind me that it was real.
The rest of my years were spent here, at the Griffin village of Lionhart. Before my parent’s death, I had been here to visit my “Aunts and Uncles” as my parent’s griffin friends had come to be known as, but after they had…passed, they were the first to take me in, raise me, teach me to fly, fight, learn right from wrong, all that good stuff, and I must say, they did a damn good job of it. What was to follow my parents passing was what you might actually call a happy life. Too bad life had to catch up, and remind me that it was there.
My adopted mother, Aquila, had been fighting a bad case of wing-rot these past few months and finally passed about a week ago. So now, here I am, lying beneath a tree, feeling sorry for myself.
Aero had had enough of this; he refused to let the week’s events bring him down. He closed his eyes, hot tears pricking his eyelids shut as he remembered all of the good times he’d experienced in the village, he cycled through his memories and found the ones that made him happiest, his first full flight, the day he saved his big brother’s feathery ass from certain doom, the day he earned his cutie mark…
“C’mon, hurry Aero! What are you, chicken?”
Ugh, how I hated that nickname. I remember my brother, Adrian, as such a rambunctious young griffin, always getting into trouble and causing annoyances.
While I made my way down the cliff, slowly rappelling along the stone wall on an old grappling hook, Adrian was soaring alongside me. How I envied him.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t fly, in fact I could fly loops and circles around some of the fastest griffins in the village, but the problem was that I couldn’t do it for very long. Being barely a teenage Pegasus, the muscles in my wings were now strong enough to lift me, but weren’t strong enough to keep going for more than a few minutes without having to rest.
I glanced back at my dark red flank and let out an audible sigh. During those years I had felt so lost, I should have gotten my Cutie Mark years ago. I just felt so trapped, stuck in a community of creatures who couldn’t understand how I felt. Barely any of the griffins even knew what the purpose of our marks were and none of them could know what it’s like to be talentless, basically everyone here had the same talents either farming, building, or the more popular one, fighting. The village, despite its small size, had quite the military, which they hired out to other armies as mercenaries. Whatever talent I eventually wound up with, I still hoped to join someday. I remembered all of the old war stories my adopted father, Leos, had told Adrian and I before he was unfortunately killed in action. So exciting, he remembered every detail, every order given by his superiors, every enemy that ever dared to charge at him, and every slash of that “legendary blade” of his. I missed him sometimes, which was one thing Adrian and I agreed upon.
“Hey, ‘Poultry in Motion’, you asleep up there?” Adrian snapped bringing me back to reality. Looking down, I saw him standing on a cliff about twenty feet below me; right in front of the mouth of one the village’s old mine shafts.
“Does he ever run out of chicken jokes?” I remember thinking. “Yeah, hold on to your beak, I’m coming. What was it you wanted to show me?”
“Just hurry it up! I’ll explain when you get down here.”
“Ugh…” I rolled my eyes before touching down on the stone cliff, I gave a few sharp tugs on my rope, dislodging the hook at the top and stepping back as the large metal object clanged down in front of me. I noticed Adrian was already strolling down into the mine without me.
“Hey! Wait up!” I yelled back, hastily rolling up my rope and tucking the hook into my harness, it was a couple hundred feet, and took a moment to gather and tie together.
Adrian walked ahead of me, holding a rusty old firefly lantern, and leading me through tunnel after tunnel until I saw it, an old vault. The large door was rusted from age and large enough to weigh probably a ton at the least. My brother could see my surprise and let out a bird-like chuckle. Caw, caw, caw.
“If that gets you excited, wait until you see what’s inside”
His claw reached up and grabbed the vault’s lever and gave it a strong tug. It stuck about halfway as Adrian let out a strong deep breath freeing the lever which then let out a horrible scraping noise as it continued down. The vault let out a few groans and hisses as the door slowly opened and the smell of stale air filled the mine shaft, but what laid inside made me let out an audible gasp.
The inner part of the vault was indeed large, ceilings high enough for pegasi to fly in, and about wide enough to play a game of hoofball in. The ground was littered with skeletons of griffins that must've been trapped, and dug into the walls were various mining machines, large drills, almost twice as big as a normal pony. But what caught our interest was at the very center, a thirty foot tall mountain of gold, jewels, and other riches, just lying there, just barely skimming the top of the ceiling, waiting to be taken, but one thing didn’t make much sense…
“I thought this was a coal mine.”
“It was.” Adrian replied, “Guess they must’ve found a few other things while digging and decided to keep it to themselves.”
I still couldn’t break my gaze from the riches before me, their glowing majesty the only thing illuminating the dark room; I clumsily trotted inside, never bothering to look away. Adrian stepped up beside me, a smug smirk on his beak. As I looked at his expression, I saw something in the darkness behind us, a red glow. Two eyes piercing the darkness, and a small breath of fire from beneath, revealing the monstrous face that they belonged to.
Adrian saw my face wash over with fear, and looked in the direction of my gaze. A bright green tail, thick as a tree trunk, whipped out of the darkness and rammed into my brother and I. The blow knocked my body directly into the golden pile, not exactly the softest thing to land on, but as for Adrian, the tail wrapped itself around his body, constricting around him and pulling him up to the face now emerging from the shadows, the face of the dragon.
The beast was probably twenty feet tall, and just as fearsome as I had heard of in those old mare’s tales. It looked directly at the creature trapped in its tail, the griffin looking like a mouse in comparison. The dragon grinned, exposing its teeth and opened its giant maw. I had seen enough. Thinking fast, I grabbed a large golden chalice sitting next to me, mustering all the strength I had, I hurled it straight at his eye.
The cup bounced off of him, but the beast barely noticed, but still, he saw me, and I don’t think he liked there being a pony on his precious riches. With a large whip of his tail, Adrian was flung to the stone floor, crumpling to a ball but still alive. The same wouldn’t be true for me if I stayed on the pile; the dragon gave an insane roar as it charged directly at me, I sprang from my sitting position and launched my body into the air, through a bit of effort I soared up above the beast’s head, hovered for a moment, and closed my wings, dive-bombing straight toward his eye. Putting all of my weight behind my hooves I pierced straight through the sticky membrane, blood and small chunks of eye exploded upward onto me as the dragon screamed in pain.
A claw, much bigger than me, swung up and backhanded me out of the air and straight across the room. I swear I heard something snap as my back collided with the drill at the other side of the room. The impact knocks all breath from my lungs as the shockwave of pain shoots through my body and I hear the drill suddenly kick into gear, whirring as it spins into the rock wall behind me. I forced my eyes open as I leaned my damaged form against the machine’s control panel for support, looking across the room, I saw Adrian standing, but looking rather beaten. I know there’s only one way out of this.
“Adrian! Run! I’ll hold him back for you!”
He glanced at the vault door, less than a few feet behind him, but he simply looked right back me. “I’m not leaving you.”
I allowed myself a small bit of happiness, realizing that my brother actually cared. But now was certainly not the time for sentiment. Adrian took off towards the monster’s face, distracting him as he evaded the dragon’s swats and bites and left me time to think of something, after a moment, I did.
I whipped out my grappling hook and let the rope hang loose. I let out a quick whistle toward Adrian; he glanced down to see me twirling the hook by my side. I think he understood my idea.
I took a deep breath, gathering my focus as I aimed toward Adrian, my thoughts falling into rhythm with the swirling sound of the rope twirling in my hoof, I let out my breath before finally-
“JUST THROW THE DAMN THING!” yelled Adrian, narrowly evading another swat by the dragon.
I let the hook fly, a direct shot straight to the griffin. With one swipe of his talons, Adrian snatched up the projectile before speeding straight back to the dragon. The beast kept swinging at the annoyance as Adrian weaved the rope around and around its neck and cleanly hooking it in the back. He gave a quick salute to me to signal the final blow.
I already had my climbing harness undone by the time he had finished, I gathered up all of the extra rope in a messy pile as I tossed it right into the drill behind me. The rope became instantly entangled in the spinning machinery, wrapping around the giant drill and becoming taught as it strangled the great dragon. The beast was gasping for air as the pure strength of the drill tugged it toward the wall
Adrian was already on the ground, motioning like a mad pony towards the exit, we knew that dragon wouldn’t be held for long. We sprinted toward the vault’s opening, just as we made it to the door, I heard something that I did NOT want to hear, at least not this quickly. There was a load groan as the drill died from the stress, and a quick snap as the rope fell apart. We were now running even faster. As soon as we were out the door I heard something else I didn’t want, I could hear a roar echoing through the caves, I could see the bright orange glow illuminating the tunnels, I could feel the heat rising as it was catching up behind me, and the rush of adrenaline as my brother and I weaved through the tunnels, remembering our path in.
We could see the light at the end of the tunnel, literally. The cave was collapsing, the flames burning through the support beams holding the tunnels up. The fire was so close, the heat singeing our feathers and tanning our coats. Almost….there!
Adrian grabbed onto me and launched off the cliff, the sudden surge of hot air pushing us into the sky.
Bad takeoff.
The entire cave collapsed finally, sending a shockwave that shook us in mid-air.
Disorientation.
Adrian’s wings left a trail of smoke as his singed feathers flapped crazily, attempting to catch the air.
Nothing to fly with. Basically speaking, we were fucked.
The two of us spiraled towards the earth, nothing to break our fall. Adrian was screeching like a dying parrot as we sped toward our deaths. In a last ditch effort, I spread my wings and kept flapping, trying desperately to slow our impact. The wind whipped through my mane, my eyes watered, my wings and every other square inch of my body were in flaming pain, but my heart kept thumping in my chest to let me know I wasn’t dead yet. Of course, I hadn’t hit the ground yet.
I remember the pain of impact, the extra soreness as I tumbled head over hoof in the dirt, and the feeling of my mouth full of dirt when I woke up. I saw Adrian standing over me, his worried look replaced with one of relief as he saw me awake. I attempted to smile back, but the taste of mud quickly turned it into a disgusted grimace. I coughed up clumps of wet earth and bits of grass as I heard Adrian letting out his bird-chuckle. That kept the grimace going.
“I think I swallowed a worm!” I complained, hoping to get a bit of sympathy.
“Lucky.” He joked.
I rolled my eyes.
“Seriously though, thanks.” He said, “I mean, if you hadn’t fought that dragon I-oh Celestia! I think you’re burned!”
“What?!” I gasped, frantically looking over my body, “Where?!”
“Right there!” He pointed, “There’s something on your flank!”
Aero opened his eyes, his tears had dried and he was now smiling for the first time in what seemed like forever. He glanced back at his Mark, a shield with dual swords crossing behind it, a symbol for his skill at defending what he loved, something that he accepted and practiced with enthusiasm. “This is a good day, the first of many.” He assured himself. Ever since Aquila’s death, there had been nothing keeping him in the village, he had all of his belongings packed, it was just a matter of when, and he’d be on his way toward starting his adult life. That day was today.
Aero had said his goodbyes, but he hardly had any friends beside his brother and trainers. He was just sitting by his tree, reliving some memories and letting go of some stress before he was ready to leave.
He had decided that it was time, and stood up, ready to go. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the sight of a familiar griffin landing clumsily next to him, looking rather out of breath.
“Hey there Chicken-Wing,” Aero chuckled, “What’s the rush?”
Adrian smiled while still gasping for breath. He and Aero had grown closer after the whole dragon incident, the month spent indoors together as punishment had seen to that, but they still enjoyed a little brotherly teasing.
Adrian finally stopped panting. “Looks like I caught you just in time.”
“I already told you, I’ll still be visiting for Hearth’s Warming.”
“No, not that.” He said, “I’ve got something for you”
It was then that Aero noticed the sheath strapped at his side.
“What’s with the sword?” Aero asked, “You’re not planning on murdering me are you?”
Adrian rolled his eyes, but kept his smile going. “No Dumbass, it’s a gift, remember Dad’s Will? That one particular item that went unaccounted for?”
Aero understood.
“That ‘Legendary Sword’ of his.” He said, surprise in his tone.
After their father had been killed in battle, his Will left many of his belongings to his sons, one of which was an old weapon of his; a sword which he bragged had “Tasted the blood of every family-line in Equestria”. Their old man had probably said that jokingly, but he was still one tough son of a bitch.
“I thought that fancy Unicorn lawyer lost it.” Aero added, still in disbelief.
“Yeah, well I guess you ponies are always disorganized.” He joked, “But apparently Dad was too. I found it while cleaning out my shed.”
Aero let out a small groan. “I thought we searched that thing dozens of times!” he thought. Still, it was nice to finally know what happened to it.
“So, did you just come up here to show off your new fancy weed-cutter?” He chuckled at his farmer brother.
“You mean your fancy weed-cutter.” He replied.
“What? I can’t take that thing! He left it to you.”
“And I am giving it to you.” Adrian was firm, “C’mon man, you’re the warrior, and I’m the farmer. As the Great Warrior Leo would probably say ‘Swords should taste blood, not corn’.”
“C’mon man, you’re his real son-”
“But you take after him the most.” Adrian cut him off, a smug look on his face as he knew he had won the argument.
Aero felt a twinge of happiness, Leo did love him, and he loved him back.
“Fine.” Aero said, a smile refusing to let go of his face, “But when you get attacked and have to defend yourself with an old gardening hoe, you only have yourself to blame.” He chuckled.
Adrian smiled, and gave his little brother a hug. Aero returned the gesture and after saying goodbye to his brother for probably the twelfth time that day, Aero gathered up his saddle bag, filled with food and a few climbing supplies, spread his wings, now fully-grown and strong, and took off towards his new life.