//------------------------------// // The Past // Story: Trail Blazer // by MagicS //------------------------------// The trio of explorers had found a small, out of the way town in the somewhat northeastern part of Equestria that was still a good deal south of their starting point. It was the first real town they had seen since that unfriendly earth pony town on the east coast. Besides that they had only come across fellow travelers or very small startups that couldn’t really be considered towns. So now that they had arrived here they were going to take a couple days off from their trip and relax and refill on supplies. It was a plan all three of them readily agreed on. Lustrous now had found them a nice enough inn to lodge at for their stay and even nicer was that the town had already gotten a few small farms and orchards set up and had plenty of food to share. Luckily too, all the ponies of the village seemed perfectly friendly and there was a variety of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. There wouldn’t be a repeat of what happened last time, they were all thankful for that. And naturally Trail Blazer had already found the local tavern and was busy getting as drunk as possible. So Lustrous and Steel Wing were spending their time alone in their room playing cards. The both of them didn’t want to split from her like this but the mare had pretty much forced them away from her. It annoyed Lustrous but it was her decision. He wouldn’t feel sorry for her if something happened. He knew she was more capable than him in most situations but her poor decision making and vices were the bigger problem. “Gin.” “Bah!” Lustrous threw his cards into the air, seeing the game against Steel Wing as hopeless. “How do you always win?” “I’m good at cards,” The pegasus replied simply, the slightest of smirks threatening to tug at his face. “Oh, you just be as smug as you want for now,” Lustrous frowned and got up to look out the window of their room. “I’ll find some game to beat you at.” Steel Wing gathered up the strewn about cards and went to join Lustrous at the window. Like much of the area they had been through recently this was a temperate, forested area of Equestria that was perfect for living. There were likely a dozen small towns just like this one around. Out the window the two of them could spy an apple orchard that had been planted along with a few patches of lettuce, beyond that Lustrous’s eyes traveled to the forest and the rest of the landscape. It was a pretty place. So green and lush. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky today and he could see all the way to the large mountain that stood in the center of Equestria, somewhere in the forest beyond it, Princess Celestia was constructing her castle. Everything was coming along well for ponies. Even the few hiccups here and there all seemed so small in comparison when one just took the time to really look at Equestria. With a smile on his face, Lustrous retreated from the window, getting his full of things. There would be plenty of time to admire Equestria’s beauty in the future after all. Now he wanted to spend more time resting in an actual room. As far as inns in out of the way places like this go the room was rather nice, two full beds (he and Steel Wing were sharing one), and a private bathroom. Lucky them. Lustrous looked from bed to bed and then smirked at Steel Wing. “You know, something is telling me that Trail Blazer likely won’t be coming back to this room tonight. So what say we each get our own bed while we have the opportunity?” The red pegasus responded with a smile. “It would certainly be more comfortable.” For the remainder of the day the two of them played an assortment of card games. Lustrous seemed monumentally unlucky even though he was fairly familiar with cards, or perhaps Steel Wing really was just that good of a player. It would have been more fun if they had more ponies to play with but they just had to make do with each other. Gin Rummy was forbidden for the rest of the night. The next morning both stallions woke up in their own beds. Steel Wing naturally had risen with dawn and patiently exercised until Lustrous also woke up or Trail Blazer came back. Lustrous was busy enjoying a good night of rest and a comfortable bed so it wasn’t until hours after the sun rose that he finally stirred and joined Steel Wing in the waking world. “What time of day is it?” He groggily asked as he pushed his covers away. “No Trail Blazer yet?” “A few hours past dawn. And no, not yet,” Steel Wing responded. Lustrous sighed, he closed his eyes and rubbed them to try and wake himself up. “Maybe we should go try and find her. She’ll probably be upset but it’s better than losing track of her.” “We’d have to start at the tavern. I didn’t want to let her go off on her own either but she was very… pushy,” Steel Wing said. “That’s fine. I doubt it’ll be hard to find her, we just need to ask who picked up the overly flirtatious mare from out of town,” Lustrous said with an annoyed roll of his eyes. It just so happened though that after Lustrous broached his plan the two heard some quiet hoofsteps walking up the stairs of the inn and towards their room. Seemingly they were in luck and wouldn’t have to look for their wayward map pony at all. The hoofsteps came to a stop right in front of the door and with a twist of the doorknob it was opened up, Trail Blazer walking inside. “Well, it’s good to see that-” Lustrous’s sarcastic quip died on his tongue. Steel Wing’s eyes widened as well and both stallions stared in shock at Trail Blazer’s face. Or more accurately the bruised and swelling black right eye she had. “What happened?!” “Are you alright?!” They both ran up to her to see if she was okay. Trail Blazer for her part just frowned and pushed the two away from her. “Relax, I’m fine,” She said. “Who? Who did this to you?!” Steel Wing asked, getting right up in her face and practically pushing Lustrous out of the way. His wings were splayed in anger, his natural protectiveness coming out in full force. Trail Blazer though wasn’t keen on speaking to him about it. “Forget it you two. It’s not a big deal. Got in an argument and things got a little heated. It wasn’t even a real fight and I gave it back to the guy just as good.” “I will absolutely not forget it!” Steel Wing angrily exclaimed. “Not only are you my ward but I can’t abide anyone who would hit a mare like this, please tell me who it was so I can sort them out.” “No,” She narrowed her eyes at him. “We came here to relax for a couple days and that’s what you should be doing. Not only that but if you go out trying to pick a fight with some guy the rest of this town might not like that. They’re friendly right now, let’s not do anything to ruin that. I’m just going to wash up.” “But-” “No buts!” She scowled at him and started walking on past to the bathroom. Lustrous however was also annoyed. For a different reason now though. “You know this is really your own fault.” He told her, frowning. Trail Blazer acted like she didn’t hear him and kept walking on by so he continued. “The way you act and what you do, it’s a wonder something worse hasn’t happened to you already. And I don’t just mean you getting hurt either. What would you do if you wound up pregnant one of these days?” Trail Blazer paused mid-step. It was so sudden that both Lustrous and Steel Wing nervously glanced at each other. “Trail Blazer?” Steel Wing spoke to her. Slowly she turned her head to them, her eyes were wide and glassy with shock and her mouth hung half open, lip trembling. “Pregnant?” She repeated. Her eyes slowly turned down towards the floor. “Yeah… what if? What if I did get pregnant?” Lustrous noticed her breathing start to get ragged again and tears were welling up in her eyes, he reached out a hoof to her shoulder to steady her. “Trail Blazer, what’s wrong?” “N-Nothing...” The mare was barely able to reply, shaking her head. “Nothing’s wrong, I just… I-I...” She couldn’t hold on any longer and loud, powerful sobs started to rack her body, tears falling freely onto the floor. With a last, agonized wail she threw off Lustrous’s hoof and bolted for the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. Both stallions could hear her collapse onto the floor, continuing to sob and wheeze incoherently. With a shocked and confused expression on his face, Lustrous turned to Steel Wing. “What did I say?” “Obviously something that upset her quite a bit,” Steel Wing awkwardly answered. The pegasus was running a hoof back and forth through his mane. “And… I still can’t just let slide whoever did this to her. I am going out to find them. Do you think you can… handle things here?” Lustrous looked at the bathroom door and the sobbing sounds coming from behind it. “I’ll try my best.” With a nod Steel Wing left the room and went off to find whichever pony it was that hurt Trail Blazer. Leaving Lustrous alone there to fidget about uncomfortably while the mare cried in a way he never thought possible for her. It was so much worse than what had happened with her in the forest. He had no idea how to comfort her or if he should do anything at all. Maybe it was just best for him to wait until she calmed down. He wasn’t sure how long he spent pacing back and forth in front of that bathroom door, wishing he could ignore Trail Blazer’s sobbing but still listening to it the whole way through. Finally the sobs quieted down and only a few weak sniffles escaped from behind the door. Lustrous stood there patiently, at least she seemed to be coming down. He only hoped she was okay. This whole event was… unsettling to him. For a moment there wasn’t any sound coming from the bathroom, making it apparent to Lustrous just how hard his heart was beating. “Lustrous? Are you still there?” He finally heard her voice squeak out, low and despondent. “Yes, I’m here, Trail Blazer,” The unicorn walked up close to the door. He heard movement from behind it, the sound of a pony getting up and slowly walking his way. Trail Blazer pushed the bathroom door open and walked out. In addition to the shiner her eyes were red and bloodshot now, her mane even more of a mess than normal and she looked more miserable than he could ever remember seeing her. “Thank you, I need to sleep...” She tried walking past him towards one of the beds. “Hold on!” He grasped her foreleg and looked deep into her eyes. “No. I am not letting you just act like that didn’t happen. Not this time. Please, tell me what’s wrong.” The map mare averted her gaze from his, staring at the bed and wishing he would just let her go. But she was too tired to argue now. Too tired to do anything. “Fine. What’s it matter anyways?” The mare shook off his hoof and turned to face him. Her face showing a pony just too tired of the whole world. “You want to know what just happened? Hay, wanna know why I do everything I do? The drinking, the sleeping around, the sudden attacks like this...” Lustrous did want to know. Not just for curiosity’s sake but because he was truly worried about this pony in front of him. He didn’t know how to put it into words so he only nodded at her. Trail Blazer briefly closed her eyes and wiped away the remnants of her tears before opening them again. She took a single deep, calming breath. “In my family, I was the second of seven children,” She told him. Lustrous grimaced a bit, thinking of how chaotic that would be for a family that probably didn’t come from a wealthy background like his. “That seems like quite a loud household.” “I loved it,” A surprisingly warm and honest smile had broken out on her face, but it was tempered by the sadness in her eyes. “I’m… surprised,” Lustrous raised an eyebrow at her statement. She kept smiling as she continued. “You see, my family operated a large farm and my parents were interested in having as many children as possible to run it and marry off to other families to make connections. Normal enough. My one older sibling was my brother, he was being brought up to one day take over the farm, so I being the oldest girl was made to help my mom raise the rest of my siblings while they were still young.” The earth pony gave a wistful sigh as she reminisced. “It was the best time of my life. I can’t even tell you how much I loved my little brothers and sisters, how warm I felt inside helping to raise them. Even when I was just a kid I knew I wanted that too. To become a mother just like my mom.” She looked at Lustrous. “I don’t seem the type, do I?” He grimaced a bit, averting his eyes in embarrassment. “Er, honestly no.” “That’s because of how much I’ve changed. When I was older my family got together with another family of farmers, I met their eldest son. It was decided then and there that the two of us would marry to unite our families.” The smile didn’t leave her face as she talked about her marriage. “But I was lucky too, because we both fell in love with each other. Young love and all that… our families couldn’t be happier. So the days and months of our marriage went by and, well, the two of us were getting pretty busy right from the start if you know what I mean?” “I can imagine.” He coughed and blushed slightly. “Yeah, well that’s what we were doing… having kids was important to both of us, for a lot of reasons.” Trail Blazer had stopped smiling, a blank expression was left on her face, her eyes staring directly ahead but not focused on anything. “Only as much as we tried I never got pregnant. No matter how long or how much we tried to.” Trail Blazer took a wavering breath and closed her eyes again, a few tears again starting to well up in the corners. “So we went to the medicine pony to see if he could figure out why. A-And he did.” Her speech had become more choked, she raised a hoof to rub some of the tears out of her eyes while she continued. “He, he said there’s something wrong with me—with my body—and that no… no matter what I do I can never have kids.” She was crying freely now. “That wasn’t even the end of it. I was still in shock, I had no idea how to react to that. What am I supposed to do when someone tells me that the only thing I’ve ever really wanted is just… gone? I can’t even remember how many nights I cried. B-But I still thought that maybe it was something I could get through, I had my husband, and my family.” “I was wrong,” She sadly shook her head. “My husband told his family that I couldn’t have children. Our marriage was annulled and they found another mare his age from a different family to marry him off to. I thought we loved each other. But just like that it was all gone.” Lustrous didn’t know if he should try and comfort her. She might react poorly so he let her continue her story for now. “And then when I returned home to my own family… I saw it in their eyes when I came back. How disappointed they were, how much they blamed me for everything. Even my little brothers and sisters who I used to rock to sleep as babies didn’t want anything to do with me.” She reached down and grasped herself around the belly. “I think they were ashamed of me, ashamed that someone broken like me was in their family and what I had cost them.” “So they shunned me for the most part. And word spread so no one else was coming around with marriage offers either,” She sniffled. “That’s when I started having my attacks, which just bothered my family even more. Eventually they made it apparent that I wasn’t wanted around the farm anymore. And they weren’t giving me a choice about it.” “That’s when I started drinking, and going from place to place, just drifting on by and throwing myself into my maps or into the beds of other ponies. Because I didn’t have anything left,” She paused and reached a hoof up to her black eye. “It’s still buzzing. The drinking helps me forget and the sex is the only thing that makes me feel wanted.” She shook her head. “I could never try and start a real relationship again, not after what happened.” Her tears started to overflow and the sobbing returned to the mare. “I-I still don’t have anything. All I ever wanted… the only thing… was to have a family of my own. That’s all I ever asked for!” Trail Blazer fell to her knees and held her head in her hooves. Lustrous finally went down to comfort her, hugging the poor, crying mare. “I-It’s okay...” Was the only cliched response he could think of. “Why? Why am I like this?” She hugged him back. “It’s not fair...” The two of them sat there, hugging each other, and Lustrous rubbed her back while she cried. The unicorn didn’t know what else to do so he comforted her as best his unworldly self could.