//------------------------------// // Pain // Story: On The Wings of a Relic // by Lone Maus //------------------------------// Strider awoke to a sunny clear day. She got up made her bed washed up and trotted out to one of her gardens. She smiled as she looked through the rows of plants tell she found a nice head of cabbage, picked it and walked back to her house. She lived on a old airfield from all the way back when humans walked the planet, it was big and she even found some things from the past. She stopped at her mail box and found a letter and mumbled, "I'm not coming back to Canterlot." Strider put the letter on her table and went head and made herself some food and sat down at the table to eat. As she ate something kept telling her she should read the letter and she gave in with a sigh. She opened the letter and read it. "To Strider Sky, I'm so sorry we didn't see eye to eye but I thought it would best and I know you didn't like the idea but that's what being a Past Finder is about and some times you must take risks and your friend knew that." She put the letter down, it was from her sister and well she may have gotten the fact that Strider won't come back to Canterlot to hunt for relics of the past, she still thought she did nothing wrong. Strider looked at the clock and realised the market would open soon, she got up and got her saddlebags on and got her cart full of fruit and vegetables she grew. She thought about the event that led to the falling out her and her sister had well she walked down the long trail that led into the town of Crystal Falls. It happened three years ago when her, her sister Strafe and, her very best friend Dusty where checking a lead for the Canterlot Relic Recovery Service (CRRS) and they had to go down into a cave that had a wind current running through it. The normal way of going in would be to have a pegasus fly each pony in but Strafe who was the only pegasus was to weak of a flyer, so instead her sister had them climb in by rope and Dusty went first. Half way down he fell and got paralyzed in his hind legs and the CRRS just dropped him no aid or anything, soon after that was when she left. The sound of fillies laughing brought Strider back to the real world she was in the market. She quickly got set up and ready to sell her crops. The day went by slowly but when she sold her last item just past noon she loaded up and walked back up to her home unsure if she dared to read the letter any more. As she got close to her home she looked into the Crystal Mountains and wished she could fly so she could see with her own eyes what they were like. She got to her home opened her shed put her cart into it and went about her normal every day things. She watered the gardens, pulled weeds but even through she was busy she still was wondering about the letter and what it said but she kept working tell it started getting dark. She grabbed two potatoes and went into her house were she washed them peeled them then mashed them for supper, as they were cooking she walked the to her window that faced the sunset and watched it. The sun slowly dipped behind a mountain peak hiding the sun but filling the sky with crisp amber rays of light, it looked so inspiring. She dished up her food and sat down to eat, it was good but not the best she had but then again cooking wasn't what she was good at she was good at reverse engineering thing not art or cooking but she still tried and had fun doing so. The night went on slowly as she looked through the things she collected over the years one was a long knife that was seventeen inches long and the blade had holes cut through it making it unique in the pony world, sitting next to it was a picture of her, Strafe and Dusty taken on the day they found the knife. She missed that life the adventures the places you see the things you did and the ponies you meet it was joyful well tell the day Dusty fell. She sighed what good was thinking about the past when you had so much in front of you. She walked in to her bathroom and looked in the mirror, the days had taken a toll on her. She got in the shower, cleaned herself up then got out and looked at the mirror, she combed out her dark blue mane and brushed her snow white coat. After she finished and was about to get in bed she heard a knock from the front door and when she opened the there standing at her door was the mail pony. He levitated out a letter and said, "Sorry for any inconvenience but this letter got mixed up in the mail and wasn't delivered so here you go." Strider smiled and the pony walked away, she closed the door and went and got in bed but instead of going to sleep she opened the letter and read. "Dear sweet Strider. This is Dusty, I hope life is treating you better than me and I don't really know how to say this" She noticed a mark on the letter that looked like it was caused by a water droplet, she continued, "but I feel you should know this. I am" She stopped as tears welled up in her eyes, she had feared this for so long hoping for a letter saying I can walk again but not this she felt like she was bucked in the guts. She didn't know if she should continue or not, she swallowed and read on, "dieing the doctors finally told me the full truth" a tear dropped onto the letter and she wanted to stop but she couldn't, "that I had been slowly dieing since I fell. THEY LIED TO ME! They said I would live a full life, and now they're saying I got six to twelve moons. If so if this is true I want to ask you something" Strider silently said "Anything." The letter went on "This maybe weird but we been friends for years so will you please marry me?" Strider dropped the letter on the bed shocked. Yes she thought, by now the tears were running down her face as she slowly fell asleep.