//------------------------------// // Chapter XII: Painful Memories // Story: The Equestria Games: First Blood // by 8_Bit //------------------------------// The rest of the day, Twilight was able to occupy herself by continuing her practice at the knife throwing range. The novelty of her abilities had soon worn off among the majority of tributes, as the crowd that had been watching her gradually dispersed. After all, there was only going to be one winner, and they weren’t doing themselves any favours in sitting there, watching Twilight nail knife after knife into the paper targets with frightening accuracy. By the time they’d been back from lunch for an hour, only Scootaloo, Clockwork Dawn, Blue Streak, and Thunderlane were still at knife throwing. Scootaloo was at the place next to Twilight, watching her closely, before mimicking her technique. Twilight had to concede, she was doing better than she had done at that age. Next to Scootaloo, Blue Streak was doing pretty much the same thing, with mixed results. More often than not, she was hitting the target, but was rarely within the ink outline. Her best shot was when she managed to slice off the ear, a move that made Scootaloo wince as she pictured it happening for real in the arena. At the end of the line, Clockwork Dawn was ignoring Twilight’s techniques, instead referring to the instructor for help. “Wanna try?” Twilight asked Thunderlane, who had been sat watching her the entire time. “Nah, I’m good,” he replied, shrugging indifferently. Twilight didn’t recall seeing him doing any weapons practice outside the compulsory exercises. He’d been quite a straight shot at archery too, and his swordplay was a damn sight better than hers. “Okay, as long as you’re sure…” “I’m very sure.” “Aren’t you gonna go try some other stuff? Shelter building maybe?” “We have a compulsory survival skill course all of tomorrow morning. I’m pretty sure shelter building is covered in that.” “Right…,” Twilight said, turning back to the range. Thunderlane was taking an unnaturally relaxed approach to the situation. “Oh for bucks sake,” came an irritated voice from along the line. Clockwork Dawn’s accuracy was failing him, and after yet another failed shot, he stormed away. Scootaloo and Blue Streak were starting to get some decent shots in, but they were still unable to match Twilight in the way she could identify body parts and target them specifically. In the morning session, Soarin’ had set the targets to move in the same way he had with the archery targets. Even when he cranked up the speed to maximum, Twilight had still managed to nail a few hundred-pointers, which had made every stallion in the room cringe. Long day behind them, Twilight was relieved when the session finally drew to a close, and she and Thunderlane were able to ride the elevator back up to their floor. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The cool night air blew gently against Twilight’s face, as she sat upon the balcony ledge, observing the city below, alone with her thoughts. Thunderlane had spent the best part of dinner praising her again, but news travelled fast, and Lightning Dust was already aware of her sharp shot. News of her abilities, supposedly, had travelled along the grapevine, to the extent where even President Discord was expressing interest in her. Never before had she felt so conflicted. She loved the way she’d shocked Rainbow Dash and her clique with her knife throwing, but the praise she’d received from ponies that she may have to kill over the coming days made her feel sick to her stomach. She heard hoofsteps on the stairs. She glanced backwards to see Thunderlane walking up the top few steps, head hung low. “Hey,” she said in a poor attempt to sound cheerful. “Oh, hey,” he responded half-heartedly, not even looking up at her. She swung her legs around, stepping back down onto the balcony as he walked over to her, sitting down on the floor next to her, leaning backwards on the wall. He looked troubled, depressed even. “What’s up?” she asked, dropping the fake cheerfulness, replacing it with a much more concerned tone. This made him give a small smile. “What’s up? You mean, besides everything that’s happened, and everything that’s going to happen?” Twilight sat on the floor next to him, unsure how to react. “A lot is up, Twilight Sparkle, as you know. I’m just thinking about home.” “I was too, while I was sat here. Well, home among other things.” “What other things?” Twilight gave a small smile. “Lots of other things.” Thunderlane edged slightly closer to her. “Pick one.” Twilight smiled again, leaning her head on his shoulder. “The look on Rainbow Dash’s face when I threw those knives today.” “Now that was a classic moment.” Twilight laughed slightly at this, still leaning on Thunderlane’s shoulder. “What else?” “My favorite place in the world.” “Oh?” Thunderlane said quietly, starting to hold Twilight close to him, enjoying the warmth her body gave him. “And where might that be?” “You wouldn’t know it, it’s in the Everfree Forest back home.” This got him laughing, much to Twilight’s surprise. “Don’t be so sure about that, I’ve been in there more than a few times.” This was news to her. He had never made himself out to be familiar with the wilderness. “You ever been to the clearing, right on the…” “Edge of the valley,” he finished for her, nodding his head. “You sure chose a good place to be your favorite in the world.” “How do you know about that place?” Thunderlane chuckled. “I’m probably going for a stab in the dark here, but I’m going to guess the marks in the old oak tree are knife marks where you practiced throwing.” Now that one left her speechless. How in the hay did he know all this? “See Twilight, I’ve been going there for years as well. My Mom, she was born in District 7. This was decades ago, way before the regulations were sharpened up, before they made moving Districts illegal. Her family weren’t the richest, so she often slept rough, you know, just making do with what they had. More often than not they slept in hoof-made shelters in the woods, so she was used to surviving in the wilderness. Then her family were killed off in a cholera outbreak when she was 19, so she moved to District 12 in hopes of a better life. She literally hopped on the first train that stopped. As long as it got her out of 7, she didn’t care where it took her. A week after she moved, she met my Dad. Flash forward a year, they’re married, and Mom is around three months pregnant with me. Dad died in a mining accident two weeks before I was born, so I never met him. But to hear Mom talk about him, you’d think he was Prince Charming.” “I’m sorry,” Twilight interjected. “I didn’t know about your Dad.” Thunderlane just shrugged it off. “Like I said, I never met the guy. Anyway, Mom was left alone to raise me. We had almost no money, so she made do how her family made do when she was young.” Twilight put the pieces together for herself. “You grew up in the Everfree Forest?” “Well, sort of. We didn’t sleep there, because Dad managed to buy a small house before the accident. We stayed there at nights, but all day, every day, we were in the Everfree Forest. Well, until I started school obviously. Mom was very secretive about it too, she made me swear not to tell anypony at school. She taught me everything I know, what foods are safe to eat, how to avoid predators, how to purify water, everything. She was amazing whenever I got hurt, too. One time, I ate these poisonous berries, ones strong enough to kill a fully grown stallion in ten minutes. She just plucked some leaves from this tree, soaked them in water, and made me chew them. And here I am today, alive and well.” “So everything in the wilderness survival course…” “I will probably have already done twenty times over.” Thunderlane said, once again finishing Twilight’s sentence. The pair sat in silence, Twilight feeling unusually comfortable with her head on his shoulder, him holding her tight. His thin but muscular body was beautifully warm, and she felt a familiar feeling as he held her. She felt safe. “So, what about the clearing?” Twilight asked, wondering when he’d stumbled across the small spot that still seemed to good to be real. To her surprise, the gin that had appeared on his face as he reminisced about better times vanished, leaving a cold, emotionless expression in its place. “You didn’t stick around District 12 during the war, did you?” Twilight shook her head. “My whole family was summoned to District 13 during the first couple of days. The orders came from straight from Celestia and Luna.” This caught Thunderlane’s attention, and he looked at her in disbelief. “Celestia and Luna? Your family was summoned to District 13 by Celestia and Luna? What for?” “Dunno,” Twilight lied, knowing she could never tell him the whole truth. “Something to do with my Dad, I never got to find out. Anyway, the clearing?” “Right, yes. You did hear what happened in District 12 though?” Twilight nodded sadly. “The stallions went to fight, leaving the District itself as neutral ground. Then Capitol forces locked it down, making it basically a prison camp.” “That’s the short story, yes. Anyway, the living conditions were horrific, and most of the population had no food at all. So Mom hatches this idea to make a break for it, escape into the Everfree Forest. A few ponies joined us, and we tried for it after the sunset. Me and Mom made it through the fence, and we were helping the other ponies get through when we were spotted, and they started shooting. Mom made me run while she tried to get the others through, but she was too late. So she catches up to me, and we just keep running. We would have flown, but the Capitol ponies had the same repression spell on us that they've got on us now, so nopony in the District could fly or magic themselves out. So after a few minutes of running, we think we've lost them, but we keep going just to be sure. That’s when we came to the clearing.” Twilight sat up straight, and held Thunderlane’s hoof as she noticed tears forming in his eyes. “So, we go over to the edge, and we can tell it’s too high to jump, and there was no way to climb down. And that’s when the Peacekeepers found us. They surrounded us, so there was no way we could escape. Mom stood next to me, holding my hoof, and she tried to reason with them. She said they could do whatever they want to her, she just asked that they don’t harm me.” Thunderlane tightened his grip on Twilight’s hoof as the tears began to flow freely. “Then… they shot her. I didn’t know what to do, I just stood there paralyzed. It took four of them to get me to let go of her hoof. They dragged me away kicking and screaming as they threw her body over the ledge.” Twilight didn’t know what to say as he broke down crying. In the last year since the treaty signing, he’d given no indication that his war experience was so traumatic. He’d been quieter at school than before the war, but then again, so had everyone. It was only few months later that he was back to his arrogant jock act. “That’s why I don’t intend to walk away from this,” Thunderlane added, the flow of tears beginning to cease. “I’ve got nothing left to live for.” “You can’t think like that, Thunderlane. Would your mom want you to give up so easily? There’s always something worth fighting for, always a reason to keep living.” He almost laughed at this. “Oh, the brutal, brutal irony. There’s only one thing that ever made me feel like life is still worth living.” “There you go, that’s the spirit. What is that one thing?” “Well, it’s not a something. It’s a somepony,” he replied, looking deep into Twilight’s eyes. “But unfortunately, she’s being forced into the same arena as me.” Twilight was stunned. This wasn’t the act she was suspecting for the last few days, this was him being completely sincere with her. She could barely even respond. “I…” “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time. That’s why I can’t walk out of that arena. Because somepony came along who made me feel like life was worth living again, and I can’t let her die in there.” Twilight jumped as she glanced upwards, seeing Lightning Dust hovering above them. She landed next to them as soon as she was spotted, looking a little bit embarrassed to be caught snooping. “Err, hey guys,” she said in her most upbeat tone as Thunderlane quickly wiped the tears away from his eyes. He didn’t seem annoyed at the intrusion. In fact he seemed almost relieved to have been able to get the story off his back to somepony other than Twilight. “How long have you been up there?” asked Twilight. “Long enough, kid,” she responded, smiling gently. “Long enough.”