//------------------------------//
// 11 - The Rainbow at the End 
// Story: Spring and Spanner 
// by CodenameOne 
//------------------------------//


Chapter Eleven

The Rainbow at the End






"I was a mercenary, a soldier, in another country, far across the sea. My home country went to war with a united tribe of zebras, and mercenaries like me were hired all across the fatherland to fight. For three long years. It was a war of conquest, for resources. Gold. Silver. Diamonds. We all believed in it. We wanted it. It was going to be a simple war, and life would be easy forever. Instead, it dragged on" Spanner said.

"The zebras, they fought in two different ways. On the one hoof, they would fight from the shadows. They would strike at patrols, or shipments, and then quickly slink away. On the other hoof, they would meet us in open battle, on wide fields where hundreds of our side and theirs would clash in frantic, confusing battles. We were better equipped, better trained, better organized, but the zebras were tenacious."

He showed Spring a few of the photos. He was in most of them, posing together with other ponies. All stallions. His uniform was just like the one she'd seen in the film: darkly colored, a helmet with a spike on it on his head. "The zebras had foreign help, too. We never found out from who. In several battles, they would use catapults, given to them by their ally. They would light bombs and fling them across the horizon at us." He showed her a photo of a wide field, marked with dozens of craters.

"Did you win?" she asked.

"No. We didn't lose, but we didn't win. One day, after three long years of fighting, the war just...ended. Our leaders ordered us to lay down our swords, and the zebras put theirs down as well. It was all for nothing, and we realized it had only ended because our country was about to collapse. Money quickly became worthless, and food was hard to find. Our leaders had spent all the country's money on the war, with the hope that if we won the resources we were going to steal would pay it all off."

"So...your leaders were bad ponies? They wanted to steal the zebras' stuff?" Spring asked, and Spanner nodded.

"When I went home from the battlefields, my home town had become one. A civil war was brewing. Ponies were starving, ponies couldn't find jobs, it was chaos. Police ponies tried to keep the peace, but it quickly got out of control. Ponies would attack the police, and then the police would attack back. Our leaders shifted the blame, claiming our country had been betrayed by its own citizens. Harsher and harsher laws were handed down, and the civil war exploded. That's when I left."

"You came to Equestria?" Spring asked, and Spanner nodded.

"For the past five years I've tried to put it behind me. I did, and then my old commander came to visit. Stalwart Shield. He asked me to go back, to help my old country. The newspapers that talk about other countries claim my homeland is under siege by ponies hiding in the shadows. Changelings. It isn't true. If our leaders lied to us about why we lost the war, then they're lying now. I know it" Spanner said.

Spring wasn't sure what to say, but she still had a few more questions. "The film, I saw you watching it. You hit that wood pony, and then you burned the movie. Why?"

Spanner nodded, looking ashamed. "When Stalwart left, I was just so angry, Springy. I couldn't stop. I hit the training dummy because I needed some way to burn off all that anger. It was better than just bottling it all up, but if you saw it, then... I'm sorry. I told myself I would protect you from this. From my past. You shouldn't know about this, you should enjoy your life. What I went through... No child should know about it. What you've been through is also something no child should go through, but I knew the good I could do in adopting you. I did it to change a life for the better, as opposed to the other way I used to change lives. As for the film, I burned it because I'm never going back. No matter who asks, this is my home now, and I won't leave it or you for anything."

"...You promise?" Spring asked.

Spanner nodded. "I'm sure you were afraid of me."

She wanted to tell her dad that she hadn't, but she also didn't want to lie. "I'm not afraid anymore. I just..." she trailed off, unsure of what to say. Five years ago, her dad had left his home to come to Equestria, to get away from bad ponies who lied and wanted to take things from zebras. "You're not a bad pony, I know that. Bad ponies don't do good things."

"Sometimes good ponies do bad things, though" Spanner countered, and Spring frowned.

"Only when bad ponies lie to them!" she said, and Spanner smiled.

"Only when bad ponies lie to them. Still, one's actions are one's own, but you'll learn more about that when you're older."

Five years ago, Spring's original dad died in the accident, and her mother had died giving birth to her. Sad things had happened to her, too, but she was happy now. Even at the orphanage, she had been happy, she had just wanted to be adopted really badly. If sad things had happened to her and she was happy now, then she knew that her dad could be happy again too. despite what he did and what happened to him.

"What if... What if they make you go back? What if that stallion comes back, and says you have to go back?" Spring asked, and Spanner lifted his head up, keeping his eyes firmly on Spring's.

"I won't let them."

Spring looked down and nodded, but she didn't like the way that sounded. Spanner stood and trotted over to her. He leaned down and hugged her, and Spring hugged him back. "I'm sorry, Spring, I... I didn't mean to scare you. You've made me so much happier, brought so much joy to my life, I never want to lose you. I won't ever lose you, I promise you that" her dad said, his voice sounding like he was about to cry.

Spring just hugged him tighter. "I never want to lose you either, dad. I..." she paused and mustered the courage to finally say what she had wanted to for so long. "I love you, dad."

"I love you too, Springy. Daddy loves you..."

They sat like that for a while, the two of them just hugging. Spring felt so bad for her dad, and she knew that she'd have to be there for him. To help make him happy again. She reminded herself to make sure that she write a letter to Morning Glisten, and maybe ask her if she could ask her mothers for help.

After a time her dad released her and he wiped his face. "Could you come with me to the backyard, Spring? There's something I need to do."

She nodded and got out of her chair, and followed her dad to the back door. The two of them stepped outside into the afternoon sun, and he trotted into the shed. He came back out carrying a shovel, and trotted over towards the woods. He stopped by a small stone near the edge of the forest, and stuck the shovel into the ground.





Twenty minutes later Spanner had stopped digging, a big pile of dirt next to him, and he crouched down next to the hole. Spring watched him set the shovel down and he gestured for her to come over, and she approached the hole. There was a chest inside the hole, the lid had the symbol of the eagle on it, and it was made out of a beautiful red wood. Her dad opened the lid, and Spring looked inside.

Inside she saw the uniform she'd seen her dad wearing in the pictures, a tunic of gray wool lined with red. It had brass buttons and a bunch of medals on it. On the right side of the chest were a bunch of things, like a compass and a few cans. Her dad stepped aside and let Spring continue to look.

"This is all your old army stuff?" she asked, and he nodded.

"These are things I held onto, even when I left home for Equestria. Things I should've left behind. Things I never wanted to see again, but couldn't let go of. This will be the last time, though" Spanner said.

"What's in the cans?"

"Dirt. Weird, I know, but each new place I went to I took a few hooffuls of dirt and put them in an empty food can. At the time I thought it'd be nice to one day, when the war was over, think back on what I accomplished and all the places I'd been to. Once I left, though, I realized I wanted to forget it all" Spanner said. Spring looked for a bit before she backed away from the chest. She hadn't even realized Spanner had trotted away until she heard him come back over, carrying a red can.

He reached into the chest and pulled out a stick with two metal orbs, one on each end. Spring thought they looked like little green pineapples. "I won't burn this" he said. He put the stick aside and poured the fluid in the can into the chest. He only poured about half of it out before he set the can aside and pulled out a match. "The only way to move on is to let it all go. Ready?"

Spring nodded, excited and nervous. Morning had told her that meant she was 'nervouscited.' She said it was a Pinkie thing, whatever that meant. Spanner tossed the match into the chest and it erupted into a massive ball of fire, and he sat down on the lawn next to her, close enough for their bodies to be touching.

"What happened to your sword?" Spring asked, and Spanner nodded.

"Tossed it, long before I left home. I never wanted to see it again" he said.

"Did you ever...use it?" she asked, afraid of the answer. Spanner fixed her with a look. One that looked as though she had caught him doing something he shouldn't have been.

"Yes."

Spring looked down, a little afraid. "What about the photos?"

Spanner looked down at the pile of them, and seemed to think about it for a moment. "They were all good ponies, just misguided, like I once was. They were friends, brothers... Some of them I saved. Some of them saved me." He picked the photos up and tossed them into the fire, and he lied down on the grass. Spring lied down next to him and together they watched the flames lick at the air. "I'll never forget their faces."

An hour later the fire had burned out, leaving the chest nothing but smoldering ashes. Her dad poured out a can of water into the hole to put out the last of the embers, and then he tossed the stick with the metal balls on it back into the hole. He buried the ashes and the stick with it, and put the shovel away.

"There's a bookstore in town, and it's started to carry films. Let's say we go over there and try to find something to watch on the projector together?" Spanner said.

Spring grinned and nodded, and she rushed back into the house. She waited by the door for Spanner to catch up, and they went back outside. Spring knew that it wasn't over yet. Not really. But she hoped that her dad felt better now. She knew she had been right when she'd first seen him; he was a good pony, and she wouldn't give him up for anything in the world.

She knew he felt the same way, too.