The night had been long. More than ever, the word “ceaseless” used to describe the long Ponyvillian winter took on its full meaning in Soarin’s opinion. It bore no relation to the night watches he had done in Cloudsdale.
In his hometown, the whole Militia was made of pegasi like himself. The Spotters did not have a very important role since generally, First Class Lieutenants and Second Class Fighters handled things on their own to identify the misdeeds.
Here, a whole complicated network of communication had been established. Earth ponies conveyed messages thanks to a system mimicking a telegraph, the few unicorns passed bewitched parchments on, which self-destroyed once read, and pegasi had instituted a language with the flutters of their wings that they were the only ones to understand.
Soarin had to learn everything on the job, sometimes with Rainbow Dash, sometimes with Big Macintosh or Applejack. Anyone would think that the whole city had spread the word to commit crimes tonight since they had kept on running and flying all over town. And yet… They were not the only ones to be in the night watch. There were several teams ready to fight to the finish at any moment.
Back in time, Ponyville had been nothing but a small village with a weak population. Its climate, obviously, was far from ideal. It was not a place where ponies dreamed to settle in. Everything had changed a hundreds of years ago when the Cavalry Training Academy had relocated, judging that harsher weather conditions helped to build a character. Then the first factories had started to flourish, bringing more and more ponies, attracted by the prospect of a stable job. Bit by bit, Ponyville had grown and grown until it became this sprawling monster, this spider web-shaped city they sometimes liked to call the Last Shield.
Big Macintosh had just rung the Great Bell, announcing the end of the “night”. This was new to Soarin as well. The Great Guts Region did not know the Ceaseless Night. Winter there was more humid than dry and the fact that Clousdale was up high made it all softer again.
The day watch would begin soon and they all could finally get a good rest.
Soarin thought Caramel and him would go home immediately. Until he would have found his own apartment, the powder blue pegasus lived in his friend’s parents’ house, in the guest room. This temporary situation really embarrassed him. Caramel had to insist for him to accept this act of generosity. And yet, he had said yes only because the family had agreed for him to pay some kind of rent.
“First, we all are going to have a breakfast at the Royal Tavern and Inn…”
If this had not been the place he had to go to before the night watch begun, Soarin would have kept on refusing to believe that Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Big Macintosh’s family was managing the place. The structure, huge, occupied a large portion of plot at the South of the Great Weaver, Ponyville’s posh area. It erected on many floors and was like a small city inside the city. Restaurant, spa, boutiques, cabarets… Nothing was missing. More often than not, the many tourists going there were only staying at the Inn. It was said that the Royal Suit was taller than a saloon and that the Princesses Luna and Celestia had lived there during their studies.
This last detail enhanced the place’s reputation but was not very likely. If it was true that the two sovereigns had spent most of their royal studies at the Ponyville University, there were not much chance they would have stayed at the Royal Tavern and Inn for it had been an old huge abandoned building for a very long while. Why the place had been abandoned, this Soarin did not know. All he knew was what Caramel had explained to him, along with the few details he had learned back in school.
While he was following the two love-birds, and Big Macintosh behind them, Soarin felt Rainbow Dash stepping closer. She looked relaxed. All night long, she had talked to him in a firm voice, like a teacher speaking to an inexperienced student. Caramel had not lie. When Rainbow Dash was on duty, very aware of her responsibilities, she left little room for improvisation. Even her moves when fighting all were weighed up in advance, whether it was minutes or half-seconds. She was always thinking, vigilance at attention.
“So, this first night… Not too worn out?”, she asked, nudging his shoulders.
“I’m fine.”
“Good. If you could only be right on time, that would be perfect.”
“I promise I will.”
Since the day he had put his green eyes on her, Soarin was dying to get to know her better. He had felt flattered when he had received the letter from her asking him to replace one of the members of her Council. Once again very naively, he had thought that would be the perfect occasion to talk with her, to learn more about what she liked and what was her vision of the world. But it had been impossible.
Destiny finally gave him the chance and what did he do? Just trotting without a word, not daring to look in her direction, afraid she would be staring at him insistently, or worse, to discover she was ignoring him completely. He had to find some topic to speak about. Too many things rushed through his mind and nothing seemed to be reasonable, and he did not want to make a fool of himself – again.
It obviously was something neutral he could put on the table so they would both start a semblance of a relationship, even if for now that would be nothing more than a friendship made of mutual respect.
Oh, yes. There actually was something he had known about earlier and which, in his mind, explained a lot.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash…”
“Uh?”
“Caramel told me you’ve been Crimson Moon’s student… Is it true?”
A half-smile outlined on the mare pegasus’ face. Remembering this name, a hundreds of memories all-out came back by entire waves. Today she cherished these memories with all her heart, partly because he was a part of many of them, yet back when she had been through them, these moments had been among the toughest of her existence.
Crimson Moon was Equestria’s most famous Fighting Master, justifiably. Implacable, unforgiving, even cruel for the plain pleasure of being cruel, she trained the elite of warriors and fighters. All the ponies that mattered had been under her tutelage. Long moments of physical torture and sufferings. Hooves and gums bleeding, stomachs wore down by hunger, throats dried out by thirst, swollen joints, backs killed… It was everyday life when accepted as a student by Crimson Moon.
She had trained all the Members of the Head’s Council for ages, including Rainbow Dash herself and even Spitfire. Double Diamond was one exception thanks to his links with Princess Luna, although Rainbow Dash considered sending him to follow a few improvement lessons that would make him completely forget about his affair with Applejack.
She nodded with a smile, giving Soarin permission to stay on the tracks of this conversation. Next, he hoped he would be able to move on to things more personal. No matter what, as long as he would get the result he wanted.
“Is she as strict as it’s known?”
“She’s not. Strict is too soft a word to describe Master Crimson Moon. There was a mare with me when she took me under her wing. Just because she unfortunately had corrected a fact the Master was wrong about, she chopped off her hoof. I was there. In fact, I can’t even tell you how many times I had a wing broken because of her.”
Soarin froze. Like for the rest, rumors ran about the uncompromising Crimson Moon. Her bad attitude and the training beyond what was bearable she inflected to her students were only being equaled to the efficiency of her methods. A look at Rainbow Dash was enough to be convinced. But he never thought the Fighting Master could go as far as mutilation.
In front of his eyes blank of any expression, Rainbow Dash shook one of her hooves.
“Soarin to Equestria… Is there anypony home?”
“Yes, sorry. I wasn’t expecting this.”
“Did I scare you?”
“Scare me, no. Shocked me, a little.”
“Well, you must have survived worse before. No one can fight the way you fight if he never had anything to suffer from.”
She started to trot back in front of him, not without smiling at him in a way that, he was sure about it, probably had melted down the snow around. It was the first time she smiled at him this way. So natural, so relaxed, so… radiant. With one glimpse, he followed the tracks of her hoofsteps in the snow. Then he set forth and went back by her side.
If she had said such a thing, Soarin was now sure, it was because she had been watching him a lot during the watch. It could not be based upon his sole Warrior Test. Only a meticulous study allowed to determine these kind of things. The fear he had concealed with all his soul probably had showed through too, but he was glad to notice that, far from making him look weak, for Rainbow Dash it was perceived as some kind of strength.
That was what he surmised, anyway.
“Come on, hurry up”, she told him as soon as he was by her side again. “The others already are far. Melrose and Pinkie Pie are probably waiting on us for breakfast.”
“Pinkie Pie? Does she live at the Inn as well?”
“She doesn’t. She works here. She’s the one in charge of the security and she looks after my family. When I go in town, she’s my ponyguard.”
So, this was how it went. As soon as he had seen her in the Headquarters’ locker room, Soarin had wondered what was Pinkie Pie’s role exactly. Now that he knew, he almost thought he had been silly not to think about it before.
Yet… He had to admit it was a bit weird to envision. She was so eccentric. Each time he had seen her, she could not help but bouncing around, asking questions, speaking quickly, wildly. She was not the pony who, most likely, seemed the most qualified to watch a place such as the Royal Tavern and Inn. However, if Rainbow Dash had decided to entrust her with her life, as well as with her parents’, it meant one should not get trapped by her eccentricities. A bit like Caramel and his innocent appearance…
There was a lesson to learn about it, essential to any kind of fighters. Appearances were demons always trying to betray you. It was necessary not to get trapped and to be able to see beyond them.
Easy to say.
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Hardly, Double Diamond opened up his eyes. His left eyelid was swollen and stabbed, as if somepony pulled his retina from inside. As for the second eyelid… It definitely stayed closed.
He had no idea how long he had stayed in a haze. All he could remember were the kicks, each one more violent than the last. The chains detaining his hooves and forcing him to remain standing in the most unnatural way were so tight he could feel the links penetrating his flesh.
The shadow of the unicorn stallion who had mutilated him so much stood out again in front of him. Tall, holding his head aloof, his white coat looked as pure as the snow falling outside, and his horsehair had the same color than sunbathing hay. Double Diamond was sure he already had seen him before yet was not able to put a face to his name.
Even so, he knew his name.
For hours, he had endured many jolts and injuries. He wanted him to talk, to say everything he knew about The Militia, but he had made the oath never to tell anyone about the powerful organization’s secrets. Even if Applejack had broken his heart, he refused to give in to the flames of personal revenge. Something told him that, somehow, whether he talked or not, it would not change anything to his fate.
Sounds of hooves, light and graceful, came nearer. The dungeon in which he was locked up was damp and poorly lit. No pony had even bother to light a fire to warm up the room. Double Diamond could not stop chilling. He had to focus very hard not to smell the rotten and stale scent which took over the whole stony room.
From the mist which was his vision, all he was able to see was that the hooves belonged to a mare, a white-coated unicorn. What did such an elegant mare do in such a place, he could not understand. Until she spoke, with a couth voice.
“My King…”
“I would like you not to disturb me when I am busy”, he answered firmly.
“I know. I am only here to tell you the plan is ready.”
“It is perfect. Just perfect.”
He grabbed his sword, a large silver blade that shone even in the dark, and galloped through the few inches that separated him from Double Diamond. In one gesture, whistling into the air, he lowered his weapon. A shriek tore the atmosphere as a pool of blood spurted against the floor, the walls, and soiled the stallion’s immaculate coat. The hoof he had just chopped off flew through the room and landed directly at the elegant mare’s hooves.
She stepped back and expressed her disgust in an ostentatious manner.
Crushed against the floor, Double Diamond laid in the middle of his own blood, paddling the best he could in order to stand back up. Boiling hot tears struck his cheeks and burned his eyes which already were feeble. For a very short while, he regretted he had ever met The Militia, had ever had this stupid idea about being a fighter. Maybe he never would have to endure such a pain.
It did not last. Because he knew, deep inside of him, that the simple fact of treading upon Equestria’s ground was to give destitution a chance to be your guest. Life did no pony a favor, all those he had known would say it so. He had sworn he would have given his life for the Militia, and for her. If he really had to die tonight, each of his thoughts would be for them. The mare he still loved and the organization to which he had made an oath. They both were the part of a whole, and the whole of a part.
When a second blade strike pierced through his shoulder, suddenly, the fog which impeded his brain became clear. He knew where he had met the unicorn stallion who tortured him since hours. In the Princesses Palace. He was Princess Luna and Princess Celestia’s nephew. The Fallen Apparent Heir, Prince Blueblood.