When Sundance pushed open the door to the infirmary, he saw his devoted nurse playing cards with her patient. This gave him pause; Standing in the door as he was, he caused Hennessy to bump into him, and then there was a stunned gasp from the earth pony who now saw what had caused Sundance to halt. Scarcely an eyeblink later, Paradox bumped into Hennessy, who then brushed up against Sundance once more, and this caused a considerable amount of caked soot to sprinkle down to the floor like filthy snowflakes.
"Three of 'shoes?" asked Flicker as the pileup happened in the doorway.
"Go fish," Corduroy replied as she turned her head to look at the bumbling, stumbling trio. When she saw the falling filth flakes that dared to sully her floor, one eyebrow raised, her ears pricked, her jowls quivered, and there was a soft, low growl that lingered in the depths of her throat.
Before the annoyed nurse could say anything, Flicker said to the trio, "Welcome back from the war. What in the bloody blue Tartarus happened? Were the bunnies armed with the latest in anti-air defenses? Wow, you smell. You stink like burning hair. What gives? Henny, did you piss off another dragon?"
"No!" Hennessy blurted out in a rather embarrassed tone.
"Well"—rather thirsty, Sundance smacked his lips and thought about a cup of tea—"we went out in search of rabbits and had ourselves a lovely aerial tour of the barony. Which was really quite nice and—"
Here, Paradox nodded as she squeezed in past Sundance, who still blocked the door.
"—just as we were starting to enjoy ourselves, we just so happened to fly over our neighbors at Spider City. They'd established their own little barony on my land, and I just wasn't having that. No way. So we commenced our bombing run, and Paradox very nearly blew us to smithereens when she—"
"Look, I've never rained down fire, death, and destruction before, alright? It was my first time!"
"—launched a fireball that was surely visible from space—"
"I was panicked and failed to keep my emotions in check. You're very dear to me, Sundance, and I didn't want you killed… even though I was the one that almost killed you. Sorry."
"—and this fireball leveled most of a small patch of trees and very nearly blew us right out of the sky. When I say that Paradox could easily blast a small town or a village right off of the map, I am not exaggerating. I somehow managed to ride the shockwave out of the blast zone and now I feel like I have a bit of a sunburn all over. As for the spiders, most of them were exploded into hairy twitchy bits, and there were kicking legs scattered everywhere."
"Ghastly," Flicker muttered while Corduroy continued to softly growl.
"The spiders fought back and shot webs at us," Sundance said so that he might continue his story. "So we had no choice but to obliterate them, which we did, and I'm pretty sure that we killed the spider queen. I got to watch a spider as big as a wagon pop like a pimple."
"Oh, and we found some bunnies, blew up a beaver dam, botched something as simple as blowing up a beaver dam, caused a massive flood, and we might have washed several hundred thousand or so bunnies right out of a gully and flushed them a few miles downstream. The good news is, Sundance has a new river." Hennessy, mindful as always, scooted out of the way and closed the door behind him.
"Yes… I guess you could say"—a well-timed dramatic pause gave gravitas to Paradox's words—"that our harebrained schemes amounted to something."
"Get out!" Corduroy shouted as she began to wave her paws around to express her indignation. "Take your puns and your dirty selves and get out! Don't come back until you shower! Go! Get out!"
Freshly showered, Sundance had a look around as he stood near the infirmary. The crystal tree seemed different somehow, though Sundance could not say how or why, only that it was. As for the events of this day, they were instructive, at least. Educational. Still damp, he gave his wings a bit of a flap, and then immediately wished he hadn't. His sore back made him wince and he would've cried out, but he somehow hid his moment of weakness. The sunburnt sensation made his skin feel a size or two too small and he found it painful to move his ears.
Yes, there was something different about the crystal tree.
Even though it saddened him, he allowed himself to think of Cucumber. What might the old soldier think of today's events? He missed his retainer. It was Cucumber that gave him a practical lesson in nobility. The ancient old unicorn had taught him decency and simple goodness in a way that his mother and father hadn't. Sundance spent a moment trying to reconcile this; his mother and father weren't bad ponies… but the city had made them hard. Harsh. In the city, it was a matter of every pony for themselves, while out here, the barony stood together or did not stand at all.
Maybe he was wrong.
Maybe he was wrong and the prospect terrified him.
What made a pony good?
He shook some water out of his wings, unaware that others watched him, and wondered what constituted goodness. Today, he'd done what he felt was necessary, even though mistakes were made. The consequences of his actions—good or bad—he would face. Yes, he would own up to what he'd done. But did that make him good? As his unsettled thoughts paraded through his consciousness, he thought of the unpleasant parts of himself that surfaced earlier. When he'd gone into the cellar in search of Amber Dawn, he'd encountered a somewhat darker aspect of himself—a shadow waiting in the wings. While in the cellar, the shadow had lurked. But today, like a terrible leviathan that dwelt in the tenebrous depths, it had surfaced.
Did this shadow make him bad?
Or just complete as a pony?
Without the darker aspect, would his light shine as bright?
What was day without night, and vice-versa?
Was it inner struggle that made a pony good?
The knowledge that one could do great wrong but chose to do great good instead?
Was he more of a whole pony now that he was aware of the shadow within?
With no easy answers to be found, he decided that he was ready to face Corduroy once more.
This time when he opened up the door, Corduroy seemed far more welcoming. She nodded as he entered, and gestured him closer with her paw. The cards were put away and Flicker lay on his side, unmoving. He tried to think of what to mention first, or if he should apologize for dirtying the floor, but his mind was far too unsettled to sort these things out. As the door shut behind him, Corduroy held up a little yellow paper envelope.
"You got a telegram while you were out," she said.
"I did?" He paused, surprised. "Somepony flew all the way out here to deliver this?"
"They did," Corduroy replied. "I signed for it."
"Well, what's it say?"
"I haven't the slightest idea, you dirty bird." The stern nurse almost seemed offended. "For reasons of common decency, I make it a point to avoid reading the private missives of others."
"Oh."
"Oh, indeed. Now read this and tell me what it says, I'm dying to know." Paw extended, she held out the yellow paper envelope.
"My wings are still damp," he said to his nurse. "Would you mind opening it up for me and holding it for me to read?"
In response, she said nothing. After a quiet moment, she stuck out her thumb, slipped her claw beneath the lip of the envelope, and with a flick of her wrist, she cut a clean line through the paper. Inside was a whitish-yellow piece of paper, which she pulled out, unfolded, smoothed out, and then held up for Sundance to read. He moved closer, curious, and peering down his nose, he had himself a good look at his telegram.
SUNNY -(STOP)- YOU NEED TO FLY TO CANTERLOT RIGHT AWAY -(STOP)- GRANDMOTHER DIED -(STOP)- BODY SENT TO CANTERLOT -(STOP)- OBEY HER FINAL WISH -(STOP)- DETAILS IN CANTERLOT -(STOP)- CITY MORGUE -(STOP)- OFFICER MOM
A soft sigh escaped Sundance as he stood there and stared at the paper.
"What's it say?" asked Corduroy.
Still struggling to come to terms with what he'd read, it took him a moment to find his voice so that he might reply, "My grandmother died."
The paw holding the paper trembled for but a moment and then went still. Sundance blinked—he did not want to believe his eyes—and then he had no idea what to do. He had no luxury of falling apart, and with his mouth hung open, he made a valiant attempt to recover his senses. His grandmother… Noonfire Shimmer. The scariest, nicest mare he'd ever known. Kind but stern. Gentle, but also harsh. The mare who took him to movies and rewarded him for good grades, much to Officer Mom's consternation. Officer Mom was a firm believer in getting good grades for the sake of good grades, and not for a reward.
It was an odd thing to recollect at this moment.
Noonfire had set him on his path.
Her stories brought him here to where he was now.
It was her unwavering belief in him that got him through school, the time of his life where he had no acceptance and he didn't understand himself. She celebrated him as a pony during those desperate years when he could not. Noonfire had given him bits and told him to buy mare-mags—a fact that his mother had no knowledge of.
She had shaped almost every aspect of his life… and now she was gone.
"I have to go," he somehow managed to say as the first shudders wracked his body.
"Sundance, wait—"
"I have to go," he said again, repeating himself. He backed away, his knees wobbling with every step, and it seemed as though his strength might fail him at any moment. "I have to go."
"Sundance—"
"I have to go!"
And so he left.