//------------------------------// // 10~Bridging the Gap // Story: What Could've Been // by Centurion Pike-Wall //------------------------------// "Afterward, I stopped getting letters from my worlds Miss Pie, and things progressed relatively smoothly from there", the Praetor said, setting down her mug and interlocking her metal fingers. "And there you have it. Why I don't talk to my version of... you." The others all looked at her, their faces all showing a single expression: Stunned sadness. Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack, in particular, looked uncomfortable, shifting around in their seats around the central dining room of the Crystal Castle. It took whole minutes for one of them to come up with what to say. The one who did, Luster Dawn, asked, "So, you've... given up on friendship?" "Gods no", the Praetor said. "I still recognize its potency. I do have friends; plenty of them, in fact. I've just cut my ties with them." "What about our parents?", Rainbow asked. The Praetor sighed, taking a quick sip of the cider in front of her. "I'm still in contact with them. Not as much as I'd like; but I don't want to deal with the Traitors. If I could spend more time with them without the risk of running into them, then trust me, I would." "I'd... I'd just like to say, on their behalf, anyway", Fluttershy said. "We're sorry." "Oh, I know", the Praetor said. "They tried. Pitifully. I simply didn't accept." "You didn't?", Spike asked. The Praetor snorted. "Of course not. That's not something that you can just up and forgive. Actions speak louder than words, and their actions were sorely lacking." "B-but they didn't do anything to-", Pinkie said, only to be cut off by the Praetor raising a talon. "You don't need to push someone off a cliff to be guilty in a killing", the Praetor said. "You can still be convicted as an accomplice to the act if you don't do anything to pull them up." Silence once again fell across the group, while the Praetor polished off her mug of cider. "So. If that is all, I'd like to get something to eat, and get some sleep. Is that an issue, Princeps?" "No, of course not", Twilight said. "You may leave." The Praetor stood up and grabbed her helmet, sliding it on and tightening the strap. She pushed open the blinds and jumped out the window, spreading her wings and soaring off towards Sweet Apple Acres. The others simply sat around the dining table, either staring into their own drinks or simply not knowing what to say. +++++~+++++ The Praetor sailed over the rows and rows of trees of Sweet Apple Acres. The sun had just begun to rise, just the day after her conversation with the others the previous night. Her swords dangled almost limply in her talons, adding a small amount of drag to her movement. Not that she cared; it wasn't like she was doing anything major. She scanned the ground, her eyes picking up a small, pink shape amid the trees. She angled her wings to the side, going around for another pass. During said, pass, she recognized the familiar yellow mane of the pink unicorn. She performed a spiraling descent, landing nearby Luster Dawn. "Oh, hello", Luster said, looking over at her. "Salve", the Praetor said. "What are you doing here? I thought you lived in the Princeps old castle." "Oh, I do", she said. "But, well, this is a nice spot." She pointed out ahead of her. As the Praetor followed the direction of the point, she saw the rising sun begin to crest over a hill, highlighted by the edge of the Whitetail woods on the Northern edge of the property. "It might seem a bit on the nose, but I like just sitting here and watching the sun rise. It helps calm me down." "Aye, I know what you mean", the Praetor said, sheathing her swords and sitting down against one of the trees. "I've got my own little spot like this. Outcropping on the cliffs over the entrance of the Strait of Beccus. You can see for kilometers, especially on a clear day. Like I'm one of the Gods themselves." "Sounds nice", Luster said, before considering the book in front of her. No, not a book; as the Praetor leaned up a bit, she realized that it was a journal. "What'cha writing?", the Praetor asked. Luster looked up from her book, the pen she was levitating dipping down towards, yet not touching, the page. "Oh. I'm, uh... I'm writing about you. Well, not you specifically. I mean, about I guess what you... represent? Is that the right word?" "Depends on the context", the Praetor said, pulling out her knife and grabbing a small branch from the tree. "I guess... you're the kind of thing that can happen if friends abandon one another. A-and what can happen to creatures if they don't try and-" "Kid, that first one is the only lesson you really need to learn from me", the Praetor said, starting to widdle down the branch. "I mean, on that kind of thing. I can teach you all sorts of other things, but in the Equestrian school of friendship? That's basically it." "Right", Luster said, scribbling along the pages. "C-can I ask you something?" "Sure", the Praetor said, continuing to carve down the branch. By then, most of the bark had been removed, and a basic shape had begun to take shape. "How did you stand it?", Luster asked. "I mean, being around your fri-... former friends?" The Praetor scrapped a small groove along the branch with her knife, saying softly"I reasoned that they weren't my friends. They just looked the same, acted the same, had the same interests... basically them, but without their... taint." "Taint?", Luster questioned. The Praetor sighed, before she stabbed in and began twisting her knife. "Of their betrayal. I'll admit... it was nice." "Being around them?", Luster questioned, to which the Praetor nodded. She seemed to consider what the Praetor had said, before her eyes dilated slightly. "You... even after all of that, you miss them?" The Praetor let out a barking laugh, causing Luster to jump slightly. "Of fucking course. Might just be the nostalgia talking, but I miss the good ole days back in Ponyville. Before everything changed." She stapped her knife into the tree, raising up her carving to examine it: a small, crude carving of a butterfly. "Wouldn't change a thing about my life, in that regard. But... you can still miss something like that." "But, you still don't want to reconcile?", Luster asked. The Praetor said, "Yeah. They did way too much for me to ever trust them again, let alone have things go back to how they used to be. But... well, I guess it's just a personal thing."