//------------------------------//
// Revelation 
// Story: Farachan 
// by QTXAdsy 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 6

Revelation 


One week had passed since that eventful day both at the battle of the borders and the unexpected night attack on the city that surviving Alaccan forces from the battle had tried to make a last ditch attempt of any glory. Thankfully, the Red Hooves had crushed any hopes that the Alaccans would get any ounce of glory, though it wasn't exactly a case that the Red Hooves were going to be sitting on their laurels until the forces from the south would strike again. Because of the attack on the city that fateful night, several Red Hooves would all take turns in patrolling the city to keep an eye on any suspicious activity that might be taken place. With them wandering through the streets or flying overhead silently in their signature red armor and with a sword and dagger by their side, it all felt like they were wardens patrolling a major prison, though the city folk knew that the Red Hooves were keeping them safe.

Apart from those new rules coming into place, most of the time the Red Hooves had seemed to be all peaceful with them either training or making friendships with the locals, all except for two certain stallions known as Blue Arrow and Peppercorn Tornado, or better known simply as Shadow.

On that night, the two of them had ignored orders and dived into the fight with the thought of getting killed quite easily for being on their own never on their minds, thankfully though, they both survived, but they both knew that this would lead them into bother.

At first it would seem that the day after the battle that Blue Arrow and Shadow would be taken in to meet the commanding troops face-to-face and learn about what their punishment might be. However, that had been a week ago and still neither of them had heard of anything to meet the commanders, all the while making both of them on edge the whole time. Later on conversely, they would learn that if a Red Hoof did anything like breaking orders in front of their commander, the long absence of not seeing the officers would act like a warning to them, though if they broke it a second time, then they would be faced with punishment.

Towards the end of the week, Blue Arrow was among the pack of Red Hooves ordered on patrol at dusk, with him on the ground keeping an eye out for anything out of place. During his patrol around the city streets, he had to keep himself going as he was on the verge of sleeping like a log; Blue Arrow isn't practically an early bird pony. Was this perhaps little punishment for him breaking orders? Well he would've thought Shadow would be here, but the Manehatten stallion couldn't be seen with the others, and throughout that patrol, Blue Arrow would wonder what the rebellious stallion would do. For about five hours until it was nearly about nine o'clock, they could report nothing of any strange activity and handed over their duties to the next batch of troops.

Despite the fact of not being one to be working early in the day, the morning air had woken him up at least and decided to head over to the training gym, just to make sure he was fighting fit. As he entered, he was bemused to see other Red Hooves training like he was planning to do, just going to show that the Red Hooves had to be up for anything that might happen. The blue stallion then joined in by taking the 'gauntlet run' for his training (as what it was called by his fellow comrades.)

In spite of best efforts, it was a challenge course to even the fittest Red Hoof there and Blue Arrow failed multiplies times in trying to beat it. Finally he decided that enough was enough (especially suffering with a few bruises!) and head out back to his dorm to rest. It was on the way out was when he heard a well spoken voice calling his name.

"Blue Arrow!" Said the voice, and the red and white mane stallion turned around to see who it was, and there before him, was Dynamo.

Blue Arrow chuckled as the two of them brohoofed with one another. "Great tae see you mate!"

"Always great to see you," Dynamo replied with a smile. "I take it your heading back up to our dorm?"

"Aye," Blue Arrow replied nodding. "That bloody course over there is such a pain in the ass let me tell ye. I need a break."

The brown stallion laughed. "No complains from me dear chap, come along, let's go." And with that, the two friends headed up to their dorm room.

The two stallions walked side by side as they talked about various things from either the never-ending supply of rumors from south of the border to the various goings on with the Red Hooves. It was just as they were about to head up stairs that Blue Arrow noticed towards the end of the corridor some feet away was a group of about five stallions all laughing and joking with one another playing darts.

Then again, what caught Blue Arrow's attention was that instead of darts, it was small daggers that they were throwing and that on the dartboard was a picture of the Alaccan tyrant himself, Ares. Though the scene amused Blue Arrow as the five stallions there tried to get a bull's-eye hit (which in this case was Ares' eye), there was something about that portrait of the tyrant that did make him feel on edge.

He couldn't quite put his hoof on it, but there was something about Ares that seemed familiar to him. It was like he had seen him before, not counting like seeing his face in any newspaper articles and such, but something did seem rather strange as all he could do was stare down at the picture from where he was.

"Are you alright?" Came the sound of Dynamo's voice from upstairs, breaking Blue Arrow out of his thoughts.

"Erm, aye!" Blue Arrow called up. "Don't worry just…was watching somethin'." And with one last look at the face of the Ares, Blue Arrow headed on upstairs to catch up with his friend.

He quickly joined up again with Dynamo as they approached their room; it was in that corridor however, which was when the brown stallion dropped a bombshell on Blue Arrow.

"Tell me," Dynamo inquired. "What is going on with you getting in trouble from the commanders?"

Blue Arrow bit his bottom lip and said nothing for a few moments. Ever since that night, his roommates had been predicting about Blue Arrow's fate, clearly, they weren't living this down on the poor stallion.

"…Well, ya see…they…didnae ask tae see me…" Blue Arrow uttered like a school colt that had gotten in trouble.

Dynamo put on a pouted expression in his surprise. "What? Nothing? Not even like a warning—"

"Nothing at all," Blue Arrow replied. "I don't know why and I don't know about Shadow too."

"Who's Shadow?" Dynamo asked tilted his head with some interest.

"Ah, you don't know" the Albian stallion said. "He was the stallion that was the one that ignored orders and that just went in fer the kill." He paused as he saw Dynamo looking back at Blue Arrow with some shock written on his face. "And Shadow's just some nickname he calls himself, his real name though is Peppercorn Tornado, but he says it's a crap name and all."

"Good heavens," Dynamo uttered as he stopped outside their room. "I was wondering who it was."

"Oh yeah?" Blue Arrow stopped to look back at his friend. "You know him?"

"No…no I don't," Dynamo uttered with a tinge of disappointment in his voice. "I mean, I nearly know all the Hooves in this building, but I can't think of anyone that is called 'Peppercorn Tornado'…will say it is a rather nice name though."

"Aye…" Blue Arrow nodded. "Don't know why he went with Shadow, it's a pretty common name."

"Three stallions in our ranks have the name 'Shadow'," Dynamo pointed out. "Oh, by the way, what does this stallion look like, it might help me try and figure out who it could be."

The Albian stallion thought for moment as he remembered some of the details of the stallion. "Well, he's from Manehatten, is black with peach colored hooves, a dark red mane and tail and dark blue eyes…ring any bells with ye?"

Dynamo rubbed his chin with his hooves as he thought about the description that Blue Arrow had laid out for him. "…Strange, don't recall any stallion like that…I know nearby from our room that Night Fall has a look like him, though there's no stallions called Shadow or Peppercorn Tornado who are like that."

"Mmm," Blue Arrow grunted to himself as he opened the door, with the two comrades heading into their dorm.

Just as they both expected both Sunstar and Macca were gone. Sunstar was with the rest of the 'specials' being taught a training exercise of some sort while Macca was out on the morning patrol with the other chosen Red Hooves around Coltfast.

It was then as Blue Arrow was taking off his red plate armor into his cupboard when a memory suddenly flashed into his head, it was something that the other two stallions in the room had been determined to know what was going on with Dynamo, and that as he was Dynamo's best friend, that he should ask what the matter was.

He remained silent as he considered asking his friend the question. He knew he couldn't say that it was for the other roommates sake, because Dynamo would've putting up his walls up quickly. But Blue Arrow was never the sort of pony to go in and ask about anypony's personal business, but Dynamo was his long standing friend he had made since he joined the Red Hooves all those years ago, and he wasn't going to let him suffer like that alone whatever it was.

So with long drawn out sigh, he decided that he was going to ask the fellow stallion what Dynamo was hiding.

As he closed the cupboard door, he could see Dynamo lying in the top bunk bed reading a letter. There was nothing there that would make one second guess about any suspicious activity, but what caught Blue Arrow off guard was seeing the smile of Dynamo's face wiped off and replace with a frown, with the brown stallion looking like he was on the verge of sobbing at any second.

"Dynamo? Somethin' wrong?" Blue Arrow asked in a gentle manner.

The brown stallion slowly looked down from his top bunk at Blue Arrow, his face still full of worry. "Please…I don't to talk about—"

"Oh buck that!" Blue Arrow snorted as he started flying in a bi-pedal style so that they could be level with each other. "Listen mate, I'm worried about ye. Look, whatever it is that is botherin' you, I swear on Celestia's ass that I won't a breath a word to anypony."

He gritted his teeth, as he felt like he'd said that more aggressive than he had wanted. However though, Dynamo's expression remained unchanged. An uneasy silence followed for a few tense moments, until the silence was broken by Dynamo letting out a sigh. "Well…I suppose you were going to find out one of these days."

And with that, the brown stallion hopped off the top bunk and headed over to a cupboard draw on the other side of the room that had a lock on it. At once, Blue Arrow's attention rose quickly, he had been wondering since he arrived in Farachan as to what was in that cupboard draw, now he would soon find as he walked over to Dynamo.

As Dynamo opened the cupboard draw, Blue Arrow was amazed to see a large pile of letters that nearly filled the draw to the brim. Now all the Red Hooves normally recive letters from home from friends and family, much like any war with any solider, but here it looked like Dynamo had kept an entire collection for himself. "Bloody hell," Blue Arrow uttered in shock. "What've you been hidin' all this time?"

Dynamo didn't say anything but instead handed over a small photo to Blue Arrow. The Albian stallion looked at the photo that he'd been handed over and on it was Dynamo, but leaning on him was a pale blue unicorn mare with a long flowing white mane and it looked like from Blue Arrow's point of view that the mare's cutie mark was that of a shooting star. What struck Blue Arrow mostly about the picture was the love in their eyes as they looked at each other in that picture.

Blue Arrow then looked up to Dynamo, whose expression didn't seem different from before. "Hang on, is that...?"

"Star Burst," Dynamo finished for Blue Arrow.

Then abruptly, Blue Arrow's widened in realization. "Hang on...I remember...it's that old friend of yours, isn't it!"

The blue stallion was well aware that since he first became friends with Dynamo years ago, and when they ever met up with some of Dynamo's close friends, he had notice the well-spoken stallion looking quite strangely flustered when he was around that certain mare. What history the two ponies may have had together was unclear to Blue Arrow, other than the fact that the two were old school friends.

It wasn't until near the eve of when Dynamo was giving his orders to join the first of the Red Hooves to go out to Farachan was that when Dynamo had confessed to Blue Arrow that he had feelings for the pretty unicorn. From then on, Blue Arrow was left in the dark about what happened and until this point had very nearly forgotten about the mare.

He looked back again at the brown stallion with a small smile as he seemed to understand what was going on. "Let me guess…you two are in a long distance relationship?"

"Y-yes," Dynamo stuttered and looked away awkwardly.

Blue Arrow on the other hand let out a hearty chuckle and slapped Dynamo on the back. "Ah well done lad! I will admit, you are lucky tae have her, she's a wee gem—"

"Please," Dynamo interrupted coldly, causing the smile on Blue Arrow's face to drop.

"W-what's the matter?" Blue Arrow asked with some worry. "Did something happen? You broke up? She cheated on—"

"Please!" Dynamo snapped irately, causing Blue Arrow to be silent. "Look…sorry, it's just…well…it's complicated…"

Once again, Dynamo headed over to the pile of letters, scavenging through the many letters in that draw. Not long later, Dynamo found the letter he was looking for and, this time, in a rather shameful manner, handed over the letter to Blue Arrow.

Having no idea what was going on, he quickly opened the letter and read what was on it.

My dearest Dynamo,

I do hope that everything for you out there is fine, but as a write this; I do have a confession to make.

If you will remember our night of passion before you left to join the other Red Hooves, I adored that night, but from it, I bring some news that I'm not so sure how I can break it easy to you.

The truth of the matter is, from that night, it is that…I'm pregnant.

Yes, you are reading this correctly; I'm pregnant with your foal. I'm not so sure what the foal will be, it is early days yes, but I haven't told anyone from my family about this, I do dread to think what they might say, but all I'm asking for is please…don't die out there, when the war is over, please come home soon and be by my side, I love you so much. I will try and send out more letters in the coming weeks and months.

All my love,

Star Burst

Blue Arrow was speechless as he finished reading that letter, never in all his days did he think that Dynamo would do something like this. With his upper class manners and well-spoken voice, he could've quite easily been part of the Canterlot elite. It just didn't felt right in the slightest.

He looked up to Dynamo and saw that his head was lowered in shame, no doubt regretting his actions that had caused that mare to end up like that. It was all no wonder why Dynamo had not wanted this bit of information being leaked out, but the fact that he had kept it secret for over a year now since he arrived on Farachan was nothing sort of wonder. Nevertheless, despite what Blue Arrow had read, he truly felt sorry for his friend.

"Oh lad," Blue Arrow expressed softly. "I…I don't know where to begin…"

"And that's just the start of it," Dynamo corrected after letting out a long sigh. "That was over a year ago, and the letters you see behind me were mostly from her parents, all of those from them were mostly made up from them wanting my head and cursing me to get killed out there…When your young and in love, you can perhaps do anything crazy..."

Blue Arrow was silent, the atmosphere in that room feeling really heavy from what Dynamo was confessing to Blue Arrow. Most of those letters over there in that pile from Star Burst's parents wanting Dynamo's head, he was only scratching the surface at what Dynamo must've been going through this whole time, and he didn't want to even know what was written on those letters for a start. "…But wait…that was sometime ago, what happened with the foal? Was it a colt or a filly?"

"Twins," Dynamo answered with some regret looking up to Blue Arrow.

"…T-twins?!" Blue Arrow spluttered in shock, this was just getting more stranger by the second, then again, as the old saying went, the truth was always more stranger. "Bloody hell…I didn't know you had it in ye."

Dynamo rubbed the back of his head looking uneasy. "Well…it's not something that I would like to brag about." He paused, then headed back over to the draw and looked through the pile again for something.

All Blue Arrow could do was sit down on his bed and try and process this revelation that had transpired. He didn't know how long he must've been staring into space for as Dynamo placed a fore hoof on his shoulder to get his attention.

"Here," Dynamo muttered as he handed over another photograph, this time, Blue Arrow saw that there on a hospital bed was Star Burst, looking tired, worn out but triumphant, with two little unicorn foal fillies wrapped up in white in their mother's fore hooves. One of the twins had its mother's pale blue coat color with Dynamo's dark blue mane, and the other was vice-versa with the color schemes, with a brown coat and a white mane. On the picture, what seemed like the names had been written on just below the foals. The blue one was named 'Water Heart' and the brown one was simply named 'Ash'.

No need for Dynamo to say anything about the foal's names.

Blue Arrow couldn't help but smile at the picture, and then he looked over to Dynamo, now sitting alongside him on the bed and still looking uncomfortable. "I will say, they look like a bonny wee pair, you and her did well to have them."

For the first time in ages, Dynamo raised a small smile on his lips. "Thanks but…I still feel like such a fool for this. And I love them dearly, it's just…" The brown stallion stopped and his head lowered and found itself in his fore hooves.

Blue Arrow pattered his long time friend on the back. "Don't worry mate…Like I said before, I won't breath a word anyone to anypony, I swear it on Celestia's will that I won't say anything. I mean the whole thing seems to crazy for me to say it to all."

Dynamo looked up at the dark blue stallion. "You…you promise?"

Blue Arrow smiled and gave him a nod.

"Oh thank heavens," Dynamo sighed in relive. "You won't believe how much of a weight is off my back."

Blue Arrow placed his fore hoof along Dynamo's shoulder. "Only tryin' to help a friend. But let's not get to sappy now, we're in the middle of a war, let's just focus on that for the time being, alright?"

Dynamo nodded then firmly shook Blue Arrow's other fore hoof. "For Equestria."

"And Alba," Blue Arrow added with a wink.

Neither of them knew what was to go on in the following months ahead of them, but whatever might happen out there, As long as the old friends kept fighting like they did always, they knew that they would be coming home one day…

…One day…