“Honey, I’m bucking home!” Blister shouted as he forcefully threw open the front door to his house. He chuckled to himself as he trotted in, landing in a foyer leading to the dining room. The sound of hooves against wood reverberated throughout the house as Blister made an immediate left into his kitchen. Greeting him was a large white refrigerator which he opened to retrieve an odd jar filled with a pink, jelly-like substance. Sighing, he used his magic to remove the lid from the jar and let the thing slide out of the jar, down into his mouth. Swallowing whole, he shuttered. ‘I’m never going to get over that,’ Blister thought.
Sighing again, he made his way out of the kitchen and back down the narrow hallway, mindful not to hit the small oil lamps hanging from the walls. Exiting the hallway, he entered a clearing where a wooden table with five chairs sat in the center on top of a carpet. Turning to the right of the table, Blister used his magic to reveal a small lever embedded into the wall. Before he could take another breath, a message was sent via magic to his horn. ‘Magical signature verification required,’ it read in his mind. He sent back a message to the system with the password before stepping back. ‘I still need to change it back to something a bit more secure,’ Blister thought, ‘Don’t worry I’ll change it later apparently seemed like a really good password to my sleep-deprived self.’
A small hiss of air could be heard, akin to a light breeze on a summer day, as the once unappealing wooden wall in front of Blister parted in the center and opened, revealing a staircase. The wide and towering ceiling had electrical wires running along the top corners, running through light bulbs and descending down further below the house. Taking a deep breath, the unicorn began to trot down the stairs that led far beneath the ground as the doors behind him closed themselves, shutting him off from the outside world.
“Welcome back, sir,” Jarvis told him through hidden speakers. Blister smirked as his memories flooded to the front of his mind. “It’s been a while,” he said to no pony in particular. Turning his head around, he could see his reflection in the smooth metal plating that lined the brightly lit hallway as his attention was pulled back to the bottom of the stairs. The sound of hoof steps echoed throughout the chamber that Blister had just entered. Looking around, he began to reminisce. The high ceiling hid security cameras in its corners, the expertly placed electrical lights casting them into shadows.
Ignoring the large double doors with an intricate lock on the front on the other end of the main room, Blister looked over to his left. A rectangular table with rounded corners came into view, its holographic view of Equestria bouncing in the air above the table like a graceful pegasus. Several large blue dots could be made out that spanned across the vast country, marking important locations, with a large orange dot somewhere towards the north. Walking over to it, Blister used his magic to slide a compartment out from under the table, revealing a computer controller of his own design. The rectangular device was fairly simple in its design, consisting of only two large slightly inverted domes on either side of the rectangular base. Surrounding the left dome was a small ring that showed little letters, each corresponding to a color. The dome on the left, however, was surrounded by the same colors in a much larger quantity. Shifting his hooves around expertly to the corresponding colors and letters, the hologram now showed a new image: a list of all the important ponies in the world. Filtering by “Equestrian High Royalty”, the display showed him six profiles: “Princess Celestia”, “Princess Luna”, ”Prince Blueblood”, “Princess Cadence”, “Prince Shining Armor”, and “Princess Twilight Sparkle”. Blister sighed as he looked up from the keyboard and laid his eyes on Shining’s profile, forelegs shaking. The large cursive text that ran across the profile brought an odd, almost slightly comforting feeling to Blister.
“Deceased”.
A single tear fell from his eye as his ears folded back and he made his way back over to the main room with the staircase in it. He plopped down in a chair in front of a monitor that shared a similar volume to Blister’s head, accompanied by its own keyless keyboard. Jarvis spoke up, “Sir, would you like for me to play some memories of Mr. Armor?”
“Yes, please, Jarvis.”
Suddenly, the display on the monitor shifted rapidly from the file explorer to GlassframeOS’ video player program. Blister lazily rolled his head over his shoulder as he slouched further down in his chair. ‘If only I’d been faster,’ Blister thought to himself, ‘then you’d still be here.’
The sound of frantic yelling filled the once silent room as the monitor displayed a first-person perspective of dirt rapidly rushing to meet it. A few recruits in bronze armor stood off to the side and watched with unreadable expressions as memory-Blister collided with the unforgiving ground. A fairly noisy groan emanated from the monitor’s speaker as the view shifted itself to look up, only for the camera to view white with some green, brown, and bronze surrounding it. The camera refocused and eventually revealed a younger Shining Armor, hoof extended outward with the recruits chuckling off to the side, the forest behind them completing the picture. This memory-Shining looked less tired, Blister thought, as he recounted the events of that day in his own head. Blister looked down and sighed as his memory-self hesitantly took the alabaster hoof and rose up to his full height. A shocked expression had latched itself onto the surrounding recruits, like a parasite intent on sucking their life away.
Eventually, the monitor’s screen faded to black, only to fade back in a moment later, this time showing a fairly large and spacious room with a wooden floor, stone walls, ceiling, and fence enclosing the circular wood floor with a series of thinly cut pieces of stone.
This routine of memories fading in and out repeated, over and over again as what was once just sighs and head hangings became light somber sobs. Blister’s eyes were now slightly red and puffy as a new memory became visible on the screen. This time it was one of the shorter ones, lasting only a good 15 to 20 seconds. A very darkened room made itself known on-screen as the rest of the room came into focus. It had an incredibly small area, only enough for two ponies. Cleaning supplies littered the ground and broom poles sprouted up from the ground like vicious vines one could find in the Everfree. Memory-Shining Armor stood in front of Blister, his expression hidden by the enveloping darkness. “What’d she say?” he asked, failing to hide his nervousness. Without saying a word, Blister’s magic encompassed the side of his saddlebag and heaved it open to retrieve a small letter in a red envelope. The darkness of the closet hid the words written on the side, but Blister could recall perfectly what they read in all their beautifully cursive glory: ”For Shining Armor xoxo”. The stallion flashed a quick expression of gratitude as light began pouring into the room and he sprinted off down the hall, his hooves echoing off the hard stone floor.
Blister almost lost it at that. “Jarvis, pause the memory,” he asked frantically, voice unsteady, lips quivering. “What’s the status on the Mark 7?”
Jarvis replied, “up and ready, sir.” Blister quickly regained control of himself and smiled, a newfound determination fueling him. Glancing to his right, a circular room now filled his vision as his eyebrows furrowed. The numerous workbenches on wheels were empty, save for a few thick robotic arms with odd grabbers on the ends. The circular metal platform that they surrounded was empty, causing a small smile to form on Blister’s face, his brows still not parallel.
Setting his attention on a fairly large set of metal double doors, almost completely hidden on the opposite end of the room from the stairwell.
“Jarvis, what’s the status of our funding?”
“We almost have too many gems from the mines, would you like me to slow the production of the machines in the mountains surrounding the Everfree Forest for now?” With a quick word of agreement from Blister, gem production was slowed slightly, for the time being, a fact that was almost complicated by the next update from the AI.
“Sir, one of the two satellites has just been damaged by orbiting rocks left over from a meteor shower. Shall we make repairs?”
“Yeah, gather the materials and I’ll start assembling them later. I’ll still need to prepare the noise-canceling and invisibility spells. We’ll launch from Site B just north of the Empire since Site A was used recently, I’ll assemble the parts there,” Blister replied plainly.
“So that’ll set back the fund a little bit, but I’ll still have more than enough,’ he thought. Turning his attention back to the circular room, his smirk returned to its home on his face.
“Time for an upgrade.”
Her white coat seemed almost a shade darker to the passersby along the street. The once majestic and regal alicorn seemed to radiate a distinct aura, one that wasn’t identifiable, but uneasy nonetheless. Maybe it was an attempt to hide her grief, or maybe it was the gloomy sky. Nopony seemed to know. Ignoring the distant sounds of rumbling thunder and the staccato notes played by the wrenches and hammers, she glanced back to the four guards trailing her and nodded, signaling for the leader to fly ahead and knock on the wooden door up ahead. The entrance to her destination. The house in question seemed rather bland, almost nothing setting it apart from the surrounding houses. The guard that had slightly flown ahead rapped his hoof against the old wooden door. If one listened hard enough, they might have been able to make out a muffled “buck buck Buck BUCK” from inside the crystal structure.
With her guards standing at attention behind her, Princess Celestia elegantly walked up the steps to Blister’s home. After what seemed like an eternity, silence turned into a bowling alley of noise as the door was flung open, which revealed a panting and disgusting looking Blister. Celestia’s earlier thoughts about his unkempt mane were thrown out the window as she stared at him. The head of snakes that very few would call a mane was crawling with a greasy, reflective substance, and his grey-ish coat was blackened by almost an entire shade. Shaking her head slightly, she spoke up. “Can I come in? There are matters that I must discuss with you.” Her smile betrayed no inner emotions.
“Yeah, sure, it’s not like I was in the middle of something.” He responded sarcastically while waving his hoof to welcome her in. Well, not ‘welcome’ her particularly. Flaring a wing out to her side, she leaned down and muttered “Don’t worry this won’t take long.” Seeing her guards nod, she proceeded into the house and shut the door behind her.
Taking in her surroundings, she nearly hit her head on the oil lamps lining the hallway. “Not at all what I expected,” she muttered to herself.
“And what exactly did you expect?” Blister spoke up from the wooden table down the hallway.
“Never mind, it's not important. What is important is what I came here to discuss with you.” She said firmly as she took a seat at the wooden table across from Blister, the wood creaking and groaning from the weight being put on it. Her tone set Blister a little on edge in a way that caused his mind to race. Had she somehow found out? Was he about to be executed with no chance to defend himself? If his previous behavior was anything to go by, he just might be.
Luckily, Celestia’s expression softened into a genuine smile causing Blister to breathe an internal sigh of relief. ‘Dodged a bullet there,’ Blister thought.
“Since I never got the chance, I wanted to properly thank you for the work you did after the castle collapsed. When the four of us were incapacitated, instead of panicking and leaving the Empire out to dry you picked up the slack and kept the Empire running. For that, I owe you a lot.” Her words made Blister feel warm, warm in a way he hadn’t felt in a very very long time as her words washed over him like a soothing breeze from a heater.
Chuckling to himself he said “Honestly, Princess, you didn’t need to do that whole flattery thing like you’re parenting a small foal. A simple ‘thank you’ would have sufficed.”
“I still feel like it’s necessary, and I wanted to at least stop by before my sister and I board the train back to Canterlot. There’ll be a lot of work to catch up on once we get back there.” She said while getting up from her chair before making her way to the door. Before she opened the door, Blister opened his big mouth to interrupt her.
“Well, if you need any help, don’t hesitate to call me.”
“I might just take you up on that offer someday.”
Princess Celestia opened the door with her magic to be saluted by her guards stationed outside the house. Before she made to leave the steps to his house, Blister said one last thing to her that caused her to smile, more so than last time.
“And Princess,” he said. “You’re welcome.”
“Ugh, where is that colt?! I swear to Celestia when I get my hooves on him I’ll...” Cadence took a deep breath to calm herself down. She was reading over another complaint that was filed into Blister’s folder by the new First Lieutenant. He hadn’t reported for duty for a week since the funeral, and his lack of attendance had Cadence a little worried and more than angry.
Was he cold? Yes. Unfeeling most of the time? Yes. Annoying to deal with? Yes. But late? Never.
ring RING RING
The chiming of the grandfather clock interrupted her thoughts as she let herself give a small huff of frustration. His antics have caused her an undue burden, more so than the usual uncooperative attitude he gave others. She already had more than enough to deal with! Nobles were demanding the crown pay for their house repairs, their regular citizens were scared, the castle was being repaired and everypony was on high alert. The semi-surprise attack forced both the Empire and Canterlot to go on high alert with guards patrolling most, if not all, of the Empire at a time with scouts were sent out into the frozen north every hour to check for any stray changeling or changelings.
Rubbing her eyes, she stole a glance at the clock as its chiming finished for the hour. ‘9 p.m.’ she thought. ‘I should be done with paperwork for the night after this. Then I can go and confront him and make it back to have time to be with Twilight.’
Getting up from her eternal prison others would call: a chair, she stretched her forelegs and wings earning a satisfying pop from them. With a sigh and one last glance at the clock she made her way out of her personal study and into the castle proper. As she traversed the halls of the castle, it seemed more quiet than usual. Her hoof steps were more audible, her heartbeat noticeable, but none of those drowned out the constant remarks from guards and castle staff alike when she passed by them. “I’m sorry.” was all they’d say as she simply nodded and tried to move on. It was nice in the days immediately after but now all they caused her was more grief and sorrow.
They had good intentions sure, but that alone didn’t spare her psyche from replaying the Doctor’s words in her head over and over right after she woke up.
He’s gone
He’s gone
He’s gone
And there was nothing she could do about it. All she could do was smile and nod at them in silent thanks. She sighed. Her life had been turned upside in the past week and a half and all she wanted to do was grab a tub of ice cream, lock herself in her room and cry herself to sleep. But alas, one does not simply neglect their duties and neither will Blister once she was done with him.
As she exited the castle through the front gate, two of the pegasus guards stationed there silently fell into step behind her, leaving their two other comrades alone. Cadence took a deep breath as she stepped into the cool and calm night, calming her nerves slightly from the day of stress and running around and all the anxiety that came with running an Empire.
Steeling herself back up, she made her way down one of the many streets of the Crystal Empire. While the pity from her ponies hadn’t ceased, she guessed it’d likely be another month before it did, she was able to pay less mind to them this time, instead choosing to focus on the layout of the street. Small craters littered the middle of the street and small slashes were etched into the sides of buildings like a horrific puzzle. Barrels were smashed, vendor carts were upturned and construction teams drilled away and carried wooden beams up sturdy and creaking ladders.
Even her guards stationed around the Empire looked worse for wear. Eyes drooping, slouched posture, and hanging heads told her the Empire was strained enough already as it is. They couldn’t afford another blow, and the prevention of another disaster began with retrieving her new Captain of the Crystal Empire Royal Guard.
She narrowed her eyes at the small cottage before her. Her golden slippers went clang clang on the small concrete steps as she trotted slowly up to the wooden door. Her guards silently took a position either side of the door facing out into the silent night as she knocked her hoof on the door three times, clop clop clop.
A minute of waiting and one frustrated growl later, Cadence banged impatiently again against the wooden door, the door groaning against the increasingly strained mare.
“I’m coming! I’m coming.” Blister shouted from inside the house as frantic hoof steps could be heard crescendoing as they approached the door, ending in an accent when he threw the door open with a frustrated sigh.
“What is it now? I was just--oh.” His scowl was replaced with a surprised look on his face, his mouth in a dumbfounded “O” shape. “Hey Princess,” he said wearily, his eyes still fixated on her scowling form. “Long time no see?”
This colt. This colt. This Celesta-damned colt. Cadence was done.
“You, me, talk, NOW!” She screamed at him as he backed up hastily while still looking at her. After slamming the door shut Cadence took a moment to actually examine the house and the current target of her anger in front of her. His fur was heavily matted and he wreaked of sweat and...something else peculiar. Was that oil? He had bags under his eyes and strands of hair stuck out on his mane but the bruise on his chest had mostly healed up. The foyer she had stepped into had a tall ceiling with a large oil lamp on top, providing ample illumination in the dead of night they were in. The walls, on the other hoof, were bare with no color or paintings or pictures or anything that would give this colt’s life a little color! ‘I’d go crazy if I lived here.’ Cadence thought to herself.
Blister shook his head to dispel his stupor, gulped, and quickly walked away deeper into the house. Cadence took the cue to follow him as he led them down a narrow corridor with several protruding rooms to an average-sized wooden table in a clearing before a curved staircase in the back of the house that led to another room. But that wasn’t her concern. Her concern was with this IDIOT in front of her!
Cadence began as they both took their seats opposite of one another. “So, where’ve you been?”
“I-”
“Shut it. Do you have ANY IDEA how much STRESS you’ve caused me in the past week?” I have been working my FLANK off trying to run this Empire after everything that’s happened and you’ve been doing what? JACKING OFF INTO AN OIL PUMP?” She leaned in for that one, causing Blister to shrink a couple of centimeters from her angry glare and tone. But he sat there and listened nonetheless. One does not simply calm an angry alicorn very easily.
“You haven’t shown up for work in a week to officially assume office and the Captain of the guard and you’ve left your new First Lieutenant out to dry! I’ve had multiple complaints from her already within her first week about you. WEEK! Do you understand how bad that looks? There’s been talk of questioning my rule simply because we granted your promotion and everypony is on edge. I just wanted to take some time to be with Twilight and mourn but NO! I’ve had to try my best to cover for YOUR SORRY FLANK!” Cadence had now broken down into a crying mess and her cries of anguish echoed out into the spacious room and into Blister’s heart.
He took a deep breath, thought to himself ‘Control yourself, no feeding right now,’ and trotted over to Cadence and sat in the chair next to her and embraced her. After a few seconds she hugged back a little, her sniffles now joined by Blister’s own.
“I just want to see him again…” she whispered. They held onto each other for what seemed like an eternity before finally releasing each other. They simply stared at each other, each unsure of what to say. Finally, Blister broke the silence while wiping a tear from his eye.
“Remember that time Shining found that spider in the bathroom so he spent 10 minutes running around the castle wailing like a foal?” Blister smirked as he sniffled. It took a few seconds for Cadence to react. Eventually, she smiled. A soft smile. A delicate smile prone to breaking. Then she started giggling and Blister smiled even more now. Then they burst out laughing, both collapsing to the floor in laughter, tears in their eyes.
“My abs hurt!” Cadence cried out while her howling laughter still echoed off the walls. “And remember that time he got himself stuck in the doorknob hole he was trying to fix, so you had to get him out?!”
Blister wheezed even more. “Oh gods! It took me 10 minutes just to stop laughing!” His words became even more breathless as they struggled to maintain oxygen. After about 20 more minutes of laughing, soft giggles were all that remained of the once bountiful laughter.
And for the first time in almost a month, Cadence smiled. A genuine smile. A smile that, if directed at you, could simultaneously melt your heart and make you jump for joy. A smile that told you everything was going to be alright. Cadence sighed as she rolled over on the hardwood floor and looked at Blister, still giggling.
“Ya know,” he started. “In my experience, it’s better to focus on the memories you have of somepony rather than drowning yourself in grief over what you lost.”
Deciding not to pry, Cadence giggled again. “Wow, I didn’t think I’d ever hear something so profound come from you of all ponies. When did you get all emotional?”
“Hey, I have emotions.” he retorted, feigning offense. “I just never had any reason to show them.” Waving him off with a hoof, Cadence got her hooves underneath her and stared at Blister. He smirked.
“You like what you see?” He said in a sultry tone, causing Cadence to start laughing again.
“You-, you-, PFFFT HAHAhaha! You’re such an idiot!” She yelled. But after calming down she was reminded of something and put her hoof to her chin. “Hey, that reminds me. Would you like to join me on my weekly night flight? I missed my usual Saturday night one this past week because of you, so it’d only be fitting.”
Blister just looked confused and cocked an eyebrow. “Uhh, Princess, no wings, remember?” He said while gesturing to his back. “I think you’ve spent too much time alone, not everypony is an alicorn, remember?”
“And whose fault is it that I’ve been swamped with more work than I normally handle?” She said smugly while wearing a victory grin. Blister just deadpanned.
“Fair point, but that doesn’t suddenly make me able to fly.” Cadence just giggled.
“Really?” She said in disbelief. “One of the best unicorns I know and you don’t know about self-levitation?” At the revelation, Blister’s eyes just went wide.
“Wait, what! I didn’t think that was possible!” He cried, his face clearly in disbelief while Cadence retained her smile.
“It’s a little trick Aunty Celestia taught me right after she arrived due to the threat. It’s pretty hard to get down but not the most difficult thing. Which means you’ll get the hang of it within 20 minutes. You know how you ‘reach out’ with your magic to levitate other objects? Just invert that feeling, spread it around your body, and lift. It should work then.”
“Huh.” Was all Blister could say as he held his hoof to his chin, deep in thought. “I guess that could work. But even still, your guards would follow us if we left and started flying. Wouldn’t that just ruin our fun?”
“You read my mind, which is why we’re taking the window.”
“WOOOOOHOOOO Oh my GODS! THIS IS AMAZING!”
Blister was currently levitating himself in the air as Cadence dragged him around, their hooves locked together.
His hooves could not touch any solid ground but that didn’t stop him from enjoying the flight. The wind rushing past his mane, forcefully keeping his eyes open, it was true freedom. ‘No ambitions, no worries, just me, Cadence, and the open sky. This is exhilarating!’ He thought.
Cadence smiled as Blister let out another shriek of terror and excitement. The kind of scream that wasn’t distinguishable between positive and negative, because it was both. Cadence sped up as they approached a particularly large cloud hovering above the castle, flapping her wings harder. Blister dawned a particularly horrified expression as he realized what she was doing.
‘Oh no, don’t you dare! We are NOT going through that cloud! Under no circumstances!’ He shouted through a horn message. The rushing wind past both their ears made speech too inefficient while flying this fast through the air. Cadence just looked over at him and smirked.
‘I’ll be letting go before we make contact! Consider this payback!’ She spat. Blister shrieked in terror as the clouds approached at an even faster pace now. His heart raced as blood rushed to his head. Knowing there was nothing he could do to slow down or stop the collision, he gulped and continued to scream as Cadence let go and flung him through the cloud, his momentum being maintained.
Time seemed to slow as Blister emerged out the other side of the cloud and saw the waiting hoof of the pink alicorn Princess he had spent his last hour and a half with. If you had told him just a month ago that he’d be spending time and laughing with one of his bosses that he normally despised, he would’ve called you a dumb idiot, glared at you, and walked away. But here he was, doing just that after one of the unlikeliest two weeks of his life. In this moment of clarity, Blister focused on the ground below him. Construction workers pounded away with hammers and nails, repair work going around the clock. Guards roamed almost every crevice of the streets he saw and yet, he still saw the faint silhouette of his Mom and Dad, smiling a fangy smile up at him as he recalled his own words to Cadence from earlier.
It was also in this moment of clarity that Blister blinked, and in place of his mother and father, he spotted the tell-tale green fire of a changeling somewhere in the alleyways of the Empire. ‘Uh oh.’
Time sped up again as Blister took the hoof of the waiting Princess and they continued at very high speeds. Blister sent a frantic horn message to Cadence immediately after they both stopped as hard as they could in the air. Still hovering, they continued their conversation.
“What?! What do you mean you saw a changeling?” Cadence asked frantically, panic now setting into her voice.
“I mean when I came out of the cloud I saw the green fire of a changeling transforming in one of the alleyways, I’m sure of it!” Blister said hastily, his eyes full of concern.
“We must sound the alarm then.” Cadence stated, confidence returning to her voice. “Even if you’re wrong, I’m not taking any chances.”
“Princess,” he started. “Hoping I’m wrong is what I do best.”