“Um… I-is there something wrong sir?” Fluttershy asked Greatsword, “a-are you ok?”
Greatsword snapped out of his trance and shook his head slightly, “Wha-what?” he said answering Fluttershy’s question with another, “I-I’m fine, just… just thinking about something.”
“Oh… uh, ok…” Fluttershy said awkwardly, “I’m Fluttershy…”
“I’m Greatsword,” he said, “it was nice meeting you…” Greatsword then turned and ran off to the group of ponies who had left him, Fluttershy watching him as he ran off.
Greatsword finally caught up with the other ponies he was with earlier, they were making small talk. “I didn’t know that somepony that shy could look like THAT.” Lug Nut said
“I think she was a model about five years ago,” Long Shot said, “but it was only for a few weeks.”
“She was.” Twilight said to the group behind her, “I remember that all too well, she hated it.”
“One could assume that given how she acted meeting us.” Lug Nut said looking back towards Fluttershy’s house.
“Well, that’s how she is when she meets new ponies,” Twilight said also looking to Fluttershy’s house, “once all of you are here for a while, she’ll say ‘hello’ without having an anxiety attack.”
The ponies laughed while they continued their way back to town, all having their own personal conversations with one another. Greatsword remained quiet for the whole walk back. There was something about that mare, something different. He continued to think about it until the group returned to the Town Hall.
“Looks like we’re back,” Twilight said looking back to the group, “I hope all of you enjoy your time here in Ponyville.”
Twilight opened the door only to be blasted by confetti and streamers. The group looked at her in shock as the pieces of colorful paper floated to the ground. “Pinkie…” Twilight said with a lack of amusement.
“TWILIGHT!” Pinkie Pie yelled as she rushed to the door, shoving a kazoo into her mouth once she got to her friend’s face, “You came to the party!”
“Party?” Lung Nut asked still looking at the confetti covered Twilight.
“Well Yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed, “Remember yesterday when I saw you and is was like ‘HUH’, then I realized I didn’t know you so that meant you new. So I got my welcome wagon?”
“Uh… yeah…” Lug Nut responded, remembering the strange event.
“Well after my welcome wagon mysteriously caught on fire again, Twilight reminded me that I had a party to plan and MORE cupcakes to bake.”
“You actually had those things to do?” Lug Nut asked Pinkie.
“After I met you, of course I did!” Pinkie pie exclaimed, “And of course, what better way to welcome new ponies than with a PARTY!” The moment Pinkie yelled party more confetti and streamers exploded from behind her, this time covering the rest of the ponies. “And I invited EVERYPONY!” Pinkie yelled proudly pointing to the room now full of ponies.
All the ponies in the room cheered when they raised their glasses to the group of ponies at the door. “Well, hell yeah!” Battleaxe shouted, “I could use a party right about now!”
“That’s the spirit!” Pinkie pie exclaimed as she placed party hats on all the ponies at the door.
The party was massive: games, dancing, bob for apples, and cut-a-rug spread across the entire town hall. A few minutes after they had arrived, Greatsword was met by the hoof of a white unicorn. “Rarity…” He said looking to the mare, “sorry about yesterday.”
“Oh, that’s nothing,” she said waving her hoof passively, “Twilight explained everything to me while we had you held down and I must say your story is quite the tragic one.”
“That’s one way to put it.” Greatsword said politely smiling.
“I couldn’t possibly imagine losing all my friends the way you lost yours,” Rarity said, filling her glass with punch, “it must be so hard for you.”
“It is…” Greatsword replied, looking for a way out of the conversation, but Rarity had him verbally pinned.
“If only you had somepony to be there for you,” Rarity drew ever closer to Greatsword, “somepony to help you forget…”
“Greatsword!” Battleaxe called from across the room, “Bro you gotta see this!”
“Can’t keep him waiting,” Greatsword said rushing, past Rarity, “I’ll talk to you later.”
Greatsword made his way across the crowed room to his brother, hoping what he called him over there for was worth seeing in the first place. Once he finally arrived he saw Battleaxe in the middle of a circle of ponies, he was sitting on one side of a table and a mare was sitting opposite of him. Empty shot glasses were strewn around them both.
“Battleaxe,” Greatsword said to his brother, “thank you for getting me out of there, but what exactly did you want me to see?”
“Get out of where?” Battleaxe said intoxicated.
“I’ll tell you later…” Greatsword said placing his hoof on his face.
“Oh yeah,” Battleaxe said pointing to the mare across from him, “she is one HELL of a drinker…” Greatsword looked to the mare Battleaxe was pointing at.
“It that all?” Greatsword said unimpressed.
“Hey…hey, hey…” Battleaxe said looking back to Greatsword, “Berry Punch is one HELL of a drinker, she can actually keep up with me.”
“I’m just getting warmed up,” Berry Punch shouted from across the table. “Typical unicorn, can barely hold your drink.”
“Oh,” Battleaxe said giving a menacing stare to Berry Punch, “IT… IS… ON!” Battleaxe slung down another shot of alcohol into his mouth, Berry Punch mimicking his action.
Some twelve shots later, both ponies still looked like they were going strong. Until the next five shots, when Berry Punch hit the floor. The crowd gasped, Berry Punch had never been beaten in a drinking match. Battleaxe rose his drunken hoof in triumph.
“That’s how you drink ponies!” he called out, “go back to the minors before you take on the big leaguers again!” he said as a few of Berry Punch’s friends picked her up.
Greatsword shook his head at his drunken brother, hardly believing that they were related. He walked away from the table, carefully choosing his path, doing his best to avoid Rarity, wherever she may be, he finally found his way to his room and closed the door behind him. But with a shuffle of a few things from the other side of the room, he knew he was not alone. Greatsword quickly pinpointed the intruder and with a powerful leap and a quiet scream he had whoever was in his room pinned. He lit a nearby lamp to see who the pony who snuck into his room was. Realizing who it was, he jumped of the pony in shock.
“Fluttershy?!” he exclaimed at the terrified pegasus in the room with him, “what the hell are you doing in my room?!”
Fluttershy was frozen with fear, trembling as she continued to stare at Greatsword. “Fluttershy…” Greatsword began as he walked calmly back to her, “I-I… I’m…” Fluttershy backed herself into the far corner, her eyes about to unleash a torrent of tears.
“I’m sorry, I-I didn’t know it was you… please,” he said trying to find the right words, “I didn’t mean to… it’s just that… that it was dark and I‘ve been in the military for so long...” He wisely stopped a few feet from her, giving her space, or at least as much the room could provide.
“I’m sorry, Fluttershy, I’m so sorry…” Greatsword placed his face on his hoof, “can you ever forgive me?”
Fluttershy then rushed Greatsword, wrapping her hooves around him, tears cascading from her eyes. Greatsword quickly returned the embrace, trying to comfort her as best he could after what he had done. “Please…” he said as he held her, “Please forgive me…”
“I-I’m sorry…” Fluttershy whimpered into Greatsword’s chest, “I-I should have never come in here… I’m sorry…”
“I shouldn’t have attacked without knowing who was in here, Fluttershy.” Greatsword said back to her. “Why were you in here anyway?”
“Oh uh, Pinkie Pie invited me to the party,” Fluttershy said wiping away her tears, “and I didn’t want her to get mad at me… so I came.” she looked up to Greatsword’s iron colored eyes. “but there were so many ponies here, so I came to the closest empty room to wait for them all to leave.”
“Well, the party was becoming too much for me too anyway,” Greatsword said to her, “you can stay in here with me until it dies down.”
“Oh… um… I-I don’t want to impose, Greatsword,” Fluttershy said looking away from him, “I’ll find a new place to hide.”
“You’re not imposing, Fluttershy,” Greatsword said smiling at her, “it’s the least I could do after what happened.”
“Oh… well… t-thank you…” Fluttershy squeaked. The two sat there in Greatsword’s room, listening for the party to die down.
Around the same time that Greatsword snuck into his room, Battleaxe left the table that he had been sitting at to relieve himself. He made his way across the room full of partying ponies to his goal. With only feet between him and the bathroom, he was halted by a pair of mares.
“Hey!” He said almost falling over, “watch out, you almost ran into me!”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” she said while her friend started to laugh, “I didn’t see you.”
“It’s fine,” Battleaxe said, “just watch out next time.”
“Who are you anyway?” the unicorn asked, “I don’t think I’ve seen you in town before… but you’re not that bad to look at… Hey do you know the new pegasus with the scar?” she daydreamed about the pony in question, “Celestia, he’s hot…”
“W-what?” Battleaxe said shocked, “Y-you don’t know who I am? Do you read the paper?”
“Uh, yes…” she said confused, “but only for the funnies, I’m Lyra Heartstrings and the one still laughing is Bon Bon.”
“Nice to meet you. Now if you’ll excuse me.” he darted past the two ponies into the bathroom.
“If you gotta go, you gotta go.” Bon Bon said to Lyra as they watched the bathroom door slam behind Battleaxe, “Come on Lyra, let’s get back to the party.”
Battleaxe went to the sink and began to splash himself with cold water on his face. “Those ponies didn’t know who I was…” he said to himself as he stared into the mirror, “The Shadow can’t be right… HE CAN’T!”
“Like you’ve been forgotten all over again.” the shadow’s voice echoed in the bathroom while Battleaxe spun around looking for him, but he wasn’t there. The shadow’s laugh echoed until it could not be heard anymore.
“Bastard…” Battleaxe said to himself as he turned to the door to leave, “Ponies know me… it was only those two didn’t…” he stepped out of the bathroom, the party was still going strong, but his mood had fallen from cloud nine to the pits. Only one pony in the crowd noticed that he was acting different.
“Battleaxe?” Twilight said while making her way to him, “is something bothering you?”
“I’m fine, Twilight…” Battleaxe said with his head still hung low, “I’m just thinking about something…”
“Well,” Twilight said, “what are you thinking about?”
“What?” Battleaxe said, looking to Twilight.
“What are you thinking about?” Twilight repeated, “I don’t mean to sound pushy, but I feel like I should get to know you more.” She looked away from him for one second, then back to him. “Because you’re going to be here for a while, of course.”
Battleaxe looked at Twilight in a slight bit of confusion, nopony had ever asked him something like that with the exception of his brothers. “Sure,” Battleaxe said raising an eyebrow, “I’ll talk to you, but not here, perhaps outside?”
“Outside it is then,” Twilight said with a smile, “it’s getting stuffy in here anyway.” the tow stepped outside of the Town hall leaving all the ravel and drinking to the ponies still inside.
“Now,” Twilight asked Battleaxe while looking to the moon, “what exactly is on your mind?”
“Ponies…” Battleaxe responded, “and what they hold dear.”
“Care to explain?” Twilight asked turning her gaze to Battleaxe.
“Well, in case you didn’t know,” Battleaxe began, “I received the Celestial Medal of Honor about a week ago.”
“I know, I read about that in the paper the other day.” Twilight said, “You and your friends are heroes.”
“Well, that makes one,” Battleaxe said smiling, “but I ran into a few ponies that didn’t even know who I was.”
“You can’t expect everypony to know about that, Battleaxe,” Twilight said reassuringly, “I’m sure that a few ponies still don’t know that my friends and I stopped Nightmare Moon, Discord and Queen Crystalis… Spike even saved the Crystal Empire a few years ago.”
“That was YOU?!” Battleaxe exclaimed in shock. “Well Twilight, you just keep getting more impressive as the day goes on.”
“Thank you… I guess.” Twilight said awkwardly, “but you just proved my point, not everypony knows about these things.”
“But you were never completely forgotten Twilight,” Battleaxe said casting his gaze towards the ground, “that was the most terrifying thing I ever went through,” he looked back to Twilight, “and I’ve been through a lot.”
“It is good to see you talk about what you fear, brother,” the two unicorns spun around to see Warhammer walking towards them, “because you must not let your fear take hold of your heart.” He looked up toward the moon and let out a heavy sigh, “for fear leads to anger, and anger leads to hate, and hate is the true root of evil.”
“He seems very wise for his age,” Twilight said to Battleaxe, “he doesn’t look much older than me.”
“I’m still wondering how he was able to sneak up on us.” Battleaxe said back to Twilight, “he’s bucking huge.”
Twilight giggled slightly at Battleaxe’s joke then she turned her attention to Warhammer. “Why is he looking at the moon like that?” she asked, “he almost seems sad.”
“The moon is a constant reminder of the one he loves,” Battleaxe said softly, “this assignment took him away from her.”
“Oh,” Twilight said as she walked towards Warhammer, “what’s her name?” she asked him.
“Luna…” Warhammer said, to Twilight’s shock. “It looks as if she has made the moon bigger in hopes that I see it better at night, she misses me just as much as I miss her.”
“You’re with Princess-” Twilight began, but was quickly stopped by the light touch of Battleaxe’s hoof.
“You don’t understand Twilight,” Battleaxe said. “The circumstances of their relationship is a rather touchy subject.”
“But he’s just-”
“Just an earth pony soldier…” Warhammer said turning to Twilight, “Love doesn’t work logically, Twilight, you should know this given that you care for Spike.” He stood before her, his shadow engulfing her whole body. “All that’s needed is a bond. Luna and I have that bond, and perhaps one day, you will let your logic go and allow the bond to grow in you.” he walked into the Town Hall again, leaving the two ponies to think about what he had just said.
“Well that was a good talk,” Battleaxe said, “shall we go back inside?”
“Yeah,” Twilight said, slightly ashamed, “let’s try to enjoy the rest of our evening.”