//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Just Getting to Know You // Story: The Elements of Honor // by Flanagan //------------------------------// “The m-military?” a shadowy mare asked a shadowy stallion, “b-but, but that sounds really dangerous…” her soft voice shuttering a little at the thought. “I know,” the stallion said “but if no one joins the service to protect Equestria, then all we love could be easily taken from us, and I’m sure you don’t want that, do you?” “Well I guess not,” she said, “but what about us, you know, you won’t be around as much, and I don’t want to lose you…” “You won’t, trust me,” the stallion said looking right into her eyes “Tartars itself could not keep me from you.” he gave a small kiss on her forehead and walked past her. “Oh... Uh... Ok, I guess…” She responded meekly, “I just am a little worried about it that’s all …” “I’ll be fine,” the stallion said, “you do remember who you’re talking to, right?” The mare giggled at his statement, “Oh, I guess you’re right.” she said as she walked by him, purposely rubbing her body against his. “But now, you and I have an appointment that we must keep,” she said as she walked up the stairs towards her bedroom, “if you want you can wait down there while I get ready.” “Of course I’ll help you,” He replied. He had caught her hint and made his way up the stairs as well, “after all. We are on a busy schedule and we can‘t have you be late...” The grey pegasus woke just as he had before, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat yet again. He didn’t know what the dreams meant or who the soft spoken mare was from them, but he could only assume that he was the stallion and that the mare was somepony very close to him, but why could he not remember her? He thought someone of that much importance to him could not be so easily forgotten. It troubled him deeply, this mare might have the answers he was looking for, where he was from, who he knew and most importantly, who he was. It was then that he looked to his right and saw metal bars; he was in a cage, like an animal being transported to an unknown location. Then a familiar, sky blue pegasus flew towards his cage. “Well, look who finally decided to wake up.” Comet’s sarcasm was met only with a face of stoic anger, “Easy there, buddy, it’s actually me that is the reason for this, everypony else wanted to drag you through Canterlot…” “Canterlot?” the pegasus said rubbing the large bump on the back if his head, “We are in Canterlot?” he asked “Oh, Celestia no, we’re about a day’s march away,” Comet said laughing at the thought, “however, you have been out for the past four days. Your buddies have been up for a little over a day now, Celestia, that unicorn can complain, Commander Garrison almost hit him with a rock again just to shut him up, that earth pony though, he hasn’t said a damn thing, he’s just been staring at us through the cage the whole time.” “Commander Garrison?” the pegasus said still trying to completely gain his bearings, “four days?” he asked looking around. “Yup four days, the rock that hit you was a little bit bigger than the others,” Comet restated, “guess that’s why you were out so long, Commander Garrison, however,” Comet pointed toward a heavily armored unicorn, he was a very dark shade of blue, with a face of one who had seen years and years of tough military service, the ornate patterns on his armor signified his rank. “He’s the one that knocked you boys out, he’s the commanding officer of the whole equestrian special operations division. And we are his personal unit, selected among all other ponies in the military to serve with him, and don’t think he’s a ‘sit back and watch what happens’ kind of leader. He fights right alongside us. It’s actually pretty cool, having your boss in the thick of it with you. Makes you fight harder I think.” “I can see that working that way,” the pegasus said, looking towards the other ponies in Comet’s company. “So who else is in this unit?” he asked looking around to see all the other ponies. “Well, that big unicorn over by your unicorn is Tower Shield,” Comet began, pointing to his left towards a large, white unicorn, “He’s an expert in barrier and defensive spells, it comes in handy when we’re fighting tough enemies that have ranged weapons or magic.” Comet continued down the line, “Over there is Roadmap,” he said pointing towards an amber stallion in the front, “he’s the best navigator in all Equestria,” Comet then pointed up to an orange pegasus in the sky, “That pegasus up there, that’s Flare Flash, he’s one of the scouts, like me.” The pegasus looked around at all the ponies that Comet had ‘introduced’ him too, some were just a bit smaller than him and his fellow unknown ponies, but they all looked very strong and incredibly capable, except for one. “Who’s that?” the pegasus said, pointing at the small yellow unicorn that he had rendered unconscious four days prior, “He looks like he doesn’t really belong here.” “Oh, that’s Cannon Fodder,” Comet said looking towards the direction the pegasus’s hoof was pointing, “don’t let his size fool you, he’s the best explosives expert in the entire military.” Comet proceeded with giving names to the faces that surrounded the caged pegasus, “The brown earth pony over there is Ridge Cracker, he was the strongest pony we all knew until your big friend showed up,” a small smile came across Comet’s face, “he got his tail in a tussle because we were making fun of him for getting his flank kicked by him.” Comet kept pointing at the ponies around them, “The Green earth pony by him, his name is Camo, he’s is one hell of a sneaky mother bucker, the purple pegasus over by Tower Shield is Long Shot, he’s the better with a ranged weapon than anypony I have ever seen. The tan earth pony next to Roadmap is Patches. She isn’t much in a fight, don't underestimate her, she can hold her own, but her specialty is keeping the rest of us alive and well. For the past few months, she hasn’t failed us yet. That silver unicorn over there is Lug Nut, if you break it he can fix it faster than you broke it.” “Seems that you have quite the unit, Comet” the pegasus said, actually sounding impressed with them, “but that still leaves me with the same damn questions I had four days ago…” he looked at Comet with a slight glare. “Oh… Uh… Right.” Comet snapped out of his ‘meet the boys’ state of mind, “I did do some digging around the camp before we started heading out four days ago, I couldn’t find much but I did notice that your armor did have the seal of the equestrian military on it, so you are a part of the forces, I just don’t know who, all the journals in you tent looked used but they were all blank, same with your identity tags, all we know about the three of you is that together you’re are pretty much unstoppable.” “Why did you do that?” the pegasus asked. “Those two and myself completely destroyed you and your friends, hell, I gave you your still noticeable makeover, yet you still wanted to help us, why?” “You were only defending yourselves,” Comet replied, “we were the ones who straight up attacked you, it just didn’t seem right after I had some time to think about it.” Comet placed his hoof across the bandages that covered his face, “To tell you the truth, buddy, I would’ve done the same thing.” “Comet, it’s your turn to do some flying up here!” Flare Flash called out to his counterpart, “I’ve been up here an extra fifteen minutes just so you could flirt with your new colt friend!” “Alright Flash,” Comet called back. “I’m coming, you don’t have to get all whiney like the filly you are!” Comet looked back at the pegasus, “Be back in a bit.” he said “See you then.” the pegasus said, nodding as Comet flew to the clouds and Flare Flash came to the ground. “What did you two talk about?” Flare Flash asked the pegasus, “He normally doesn’t talk that much, not even to me.” “He was just introducing me to everypony.” the pegasus said. Staring toward the mountain on the horizon, Canterlot was finally in view. “We’ll be there tomorrow around this time,” Flare Flash said looking at Canterlot, “it’s really a sight to see isn’t it?” “Yeah,” the pegasus said, “it really is…” he became lost in his thoughts for a short time, he remembered the land marks, the history of Equestria and apparently, his training. But he didn’t know a single thing about who he was or his past. This issue continued to bother him throughout the day. As their trek continued Comet fully introduced the remainder of unit to the pegasus, Cloud Seeker, Snowstorm, Javelin, Med Kit, Iron Hide and Pyro. They all had their talents and specialties, the pegasus grew impressed with some of the stories that Comet about his unit, fighting dragons, griffon and minotaur anarchist, rampaging hydras and blood thirsty manticores, stopping assignation attempts on Princess Celestia herself. The occasional scout into the badlands discovering creature’s nopony has ever seen and coming back to write about how to kill it if it was hostile. He talked about previous members of their unit and how brave they were, he talked about how he had lost a few friends over the years but it was the life he chose and he was fine with it that way. It was then that Comet asked something that was rather caulis, “So, do you have a family?” His hooves quickly covered his mouth, but it was too late. The pegasus just stared at Comet, his eyebrow raised as if to say ’are you serious?’ but he played along, “I don’t know, Comet...” he said casually but with noticeable anger and sarcasm in his voice. “I’m SO sorry, buddy,” Comet said with a frown on his face, “I-I didn’t mean to-” “What about you?” the pegasus interrupted, “Do you have a family?” he looked on towards Comet his head lowered, truly feeling terrible for what he said. “Uh, yeah, yeah I do…” he said still looking down. “Well, what are they like?” the pegasus asked trying to make Comet feel better. “Gee, let’s see.” Comet said rubbing his chin, “Mom and dad still live in Cloudsdale, dad’s a retired Wonderbolt, still one of the best fliers Equestria. They had to retire him because he got a broken wing during one of their shows, the first one I went to see actually…” “Wow” the pegasus said, “that must’ve been scary for you.” “Yeah, but he still kept the show going, like he didn’t even break his wing, he wanted to finish it, I guess just for me.” Comet continued, “Mom’s works as a snowflake maker in the weather factory, she really doesn’t need to, since dad is getting paid every month for his injury, but dad does guide a few school foals through a tour of the Wonderbolt museum on occasion.” “That’s interesting,” the pegasus said, “any brothers or sisters?” “Yeah, I got a little sis,” comet began, “she’s a little cocky, but she can back it up, after all, she did do a sonic rainboom…” “A sonic rainboom? Really?” the pegasus said clearly impressed, the pegasus knew that the sonic rainboom was a legend but he had never heard of anypony actually doing it. “Yeah I guess,” Comet said “she’s in charge of the weather patrol in one of the small towns on the Everfree boarder.” “Why didn’t she just join the Wonderbolts?” the pegasus asked. “Anypony that can do a sonic rainboom should get on the team instantly.” “Funny story, about that fact,” Comet said with a smile, “she actually got kicked out of flight camp.” “Really?” the pegasus said a bit surprised, “Why’s that?” “Too many rules and not enough nap times…” Comet said laughing to himself, “but I hear she’s doing well, nothing really ever happens near the Everfree boarder anyway.” “Huh,” the pegasus said pondering what Comet said for a moment, “What about you? What’s your story?” “Me?” Comet asked back, “Well, really isn’t that much to tell, except that I ACTUALLY passed flight camp.” Comet chuckled a little at the thought. “I wanted to see Equestria, but I didn’t want to do it as a Wonderbolt like my dad, because one of my ex’s, Spitfire, joined them and that would have just brought a lot unwanted tension. So I signed the dotted line and now I’m here talking to an unknown pegasus that could probably kill half of us before the rest of us would even know what the hell was going on.” “Well, you sure take your particular plight very seriously…” the pegasus said chuckling a bit, “but to me it seems that you have a good life and ponies that care about you. At the very least you have that.” “Yeah, you’re right,” Comet said with a smile, “anyway it’s starting to get late, you are going to need your rest, after all in about seven hours we are going to be in Canterlot. Give or take a few hours depending on conditions.” “I’ll keep that in mind.” the pegasus said as Comet flew off taking his position in the clouds. “You know I’ve never seen him like this,” the pegasus turned to see Patches walking towards his cage. “You know, Comet almost never left your side while you were out. He really seems to care about you.” her voice was soft as she looked up towards the sky blue stallion. “He’s not always like this?” the Pegasus asked kind of surprised at this revelation. “No, not at all,” Patches said “Comet cares a lot about us all, but you seem to have brought something out in him. I didn’t even know at one time he was dating Spitfire.” Patches then began to look into the bags on her sides, “Do you need anything for your pain? I’ve got plenty of supplies.” “No, Patches, but thank you for your offer.” the pegasus said trying to maintain an aura of toughness about him, though the bump on his head hurt like hell. “Ok, well if you need anything I’ll always be close by.” Patches said walking past his cage. “Could you keep quiet, wings?” the unicorn called out; “I might be in a cage, but I’m still going to Canterlot and I need my sleep so I can look my best for all the lovely mares there.” the unicorn struck a masculine pose. “Like what you see babe?” he asked Patches as she was walking by. “Well, come to think of it…” Patches said looking him up and down, “I could think of ONE thing to make you look even better.” she proceeded towards an unset tent then she threw it over his cage. “Perfect...” she said. “Oh, that’s cold…” the unicorn said to the sound of his counter parts chuckles.