I was staggered as the Earth Pony set down a pack with Golden Ring’s cutie mark on it, the rapier clattering against the floorboard. He was haggard and beat up, a rough bandage around his head and one eye. He also held out a small letter to me.
“She said to make sure you got this,” he rumbled, giving me a small smile before patting me on the head and turning to leave.
I absently put a hoof onto the backpack, still not seeing the present. I was remembering all the moments I had shared with the Pegasus, her easy smile and her rough and tumble way of teaching me life lessons. She had never been one to mince words with me, but she had also been the only pony that seemed to care about me on her own behalf. The matron of the orphanage was not what one would call a sympathetic soul. She came over and levitated the pack away, giving me a look over her glasses.
“I’ll place this in storage until you come of age,” she said flatly. “You wouldn’t want the other foals to try and take it.”
I sat on the porch, not really registering her words, images still playing through my mind. Even after I went to what they laughably called a bed hours later, I hadn’t spoken to anypony. My mind wasn’t willing to move on. I still hadn’t even opened the letter that was clutched in my hoof. I glanced around and saw that all the other orphans were either asleep or close enough to it they wouldn’t care.
I slipped from my pallet and moved to the door, slipping my way down the hall to the porch where I could use the street lamps to read the last words she had thought to give me.
I opened the envelope after slipping behind a rain barrel. There were two pieces of paper in it, one looking like an official document and the other a hastily written note.
Azure,
I know I promised that at the end of this tour that we’d head off and set up shop in another place, get you some schooling and such. I guess Serendipity had other plans for me.
In this envelope is the deed to the house I had purchased in Ponyville and the name of a fine young mare that would be willing to check in on you from time to time if you can make it there. I’m sorry I can be there with you right now and I know you’re hurting, but remember. I’ll always be there in spirit and in your heart. And remember this above all else: To thine own self be true.
I’m sure you’ll figure out what that means one day. You’re a bright young filly.
I love you,
Golden Ring
Tears had filled my eyes at the end of the letter, and I hunched over and cried, choking back the sobs so I wouldn’t be found. The grief had caught up to me now, and the hole in my heart burned with pain. I looked around, and I knew a simple truth. I couldn’t stay here anymore, there were too many places that would remind me of her and I was tired of it all. I glanced back at the door to the orphanage, and I sniffled a little, wiping my eyes and putting the note back in the envelope with the deed. The matron slept like a log, and I knew that the door to her room looked like it locked, but it was just a slipshod as the rest of this building. I had explored it thoroughly in my time here, earning a lashing or three in the process.
“Better to be hung for a goat than a sheep,” I said to myself. I didn’t exactly know what it meant, but it was one of a few sayings I had picked up from Goldie. It didn’t matter what it meant. I crept back inside and stole my way to the matron’s room, nudging the bolt open with a tiny stream of my magic. The door slowly swept open, the hinges thankfully not squeaking.
I looked around in the faint moonlight streaming in. The surprisingly large bed took up a good portion of the room and it contained a snoring mare. There were two doors on the far wall, one of which I knew contained a closet and another that was an office that also served as the storeroom. I walked over and pushed the door to the office open. I slipped in and saw the pack with the yellow rings on it sitting on the floor next to the desk, rapier still attached to it by a strap. I lifted it in my magic and gently settled it over my body. It was a little heavy, but no more than I thought I could handle.
I turned to leave and saw a pouch sitting on a table next to the door. I lifted it out of curiosity and heard it clink gently. Opening it, I saw that it contained gleaming coins within, more that I had ever seen before. I looked at the pouch and saw it bore a seal and an emblem that I recognized as the emblem of the EUP, the army that Golden Ring had served in. The seal was from the personal company she had served in.
I felt anger flare up. This was Golden’s, gifted to me in a dying wish and she thought to take it from me? Sure, it could have been useful to the orphanage, but something told me that she hadn’t meant to use it for that. I closed the pouch and tucked it into the pack and slipped out, locking the door behind me.
I stepped onto the street outside and glanced both ways. It didn’t really matter to me where I went, but I knew that west would lead me towards Canterlot while east would lead out to some of the more wild areas of the world. I looked up at the moon, beginning to sink lower in the sky and tossed my mane out of my face.
And left the town I had known all my life, heading west. I was more than ready to shake the dust of this town from my hooves. As the sun began to rise behind me a few hours later, I had long since lost sight of the tiny hamlet.
I sat down later to take stock of my belongings and found a few packs of dried fruit in the pack and the short vest of Golden’s that she had always worn under her long coat. I pulled it on, still a little large for me but it was warm and smelled of her. There was also a single feather of hers stuck through one of the buttonholes.
I stroked it with a hoof as I ate a few pieces of fruit.
“Let’s hope I’m not a rudding fool,” I whispered, glancing up at the sky, tinged bright by the dawning sun.