Matthias glanced up at the sun and assessed what time it was.
“It must be around noon.” he thought after a second. “I should get going if I want to talk with Cheerilee.”
He winced inwardly at how awkward this discussion would be. He didn’t expect to be ever put in such situation. Granted, there were often orphanages within abbeys, and paladins often helped to look after those poor kids, but...
Matthias shook his head. It didn’t matter that this was an unusual and uncomfortable situation: he had to take care of Scootaloo, and informing her teacher about this was one of his newfound responsibilities.
“Okay, everypony, that’s enough for today.” he told his initiates, and all of them sighed with relief, even Guard Shield. Matthias guesses he might have pushed them a bit too fat on the first day. “Except for you, Serenity. I’m afraid you will need to practice those moves I showed you for another hour.”
“Of course, sir.” the crystal pony replied almost at once, although there was a hint of tiredness in her voice. “Do you want me to continue practicing on Tucker?”
Matthias glanced at Tucker, pondering. As he began to instruct the ponies as to how to fight, he used the unicorn as a life-training dummy, as he warned he would yesterday. Most of that part of this exercise was for Serenity’s sake, but he also had few more advanced moves for Storm and Guard.
“Oh, come on!” Tucker Out exclaimed, seeing that he was considering it. “Not even my ex-marefriends felt so exhausted from constant pounding!”
Matthias’ brow furrowed hearing that. “First of all, you have amnesia; you don’t know if you had any marefriends, and I personally doubt that, as well that you’ll ever have one to begin with.”
“That was uncalled for...” Tucker muttered nonchalantly, although didn’t sound offended; all comments like those bounced off him.
“Second of all,” Matthias continued, and glanced back at Serenity, “no, use one of the actual training dummies; they’re stashed at the back of armory. I fear to think how he might act if he gets hit in the head too many times. And third of all,” he turned back to Tucker, “a hundred squats.”
“Wha-” Tucker began, before Matthias interrupted him.
“For making that comment.”
Tucker looked at him for a second doubtfully, before he began to do squats, uttering resigned: “This is bullshit.”
Smiling with almost sadistic satisfaction at that, Matthias glanced at the others. “I need to do something in Ponyville.” he said. “Guard, make sure he makes those squats.”
“Yes, sir.” the older pony replied.
“Storm, help Serenity with that training dummy. Once you’re all done, close the armory, take a shower, eat something and rest until... four pm. After that we will have a meditation session.”
Having said that, he nodded in good-bye to them, and headed towards the Ponyville Schoolhouse, while going over today’s training. To his slight irritation, Tucker proved to be the most adept in combat, although Guard and Storm weren’t that far behind. He was able to deflect few of Matthias’ attacks, and gave him a few of his own, all while the paladin was pressing him harder than the rest. He did so because he was more curious about his abilities than others’, although undoubtedly everypony thought it was due to his personal displeasure with the colt (which was partly true).
“That room in which we found him had many marks of vicious battle. What could have trapped such skilled fighter?”
Matthias paused at the exit to speak with Sound Wave: “Remember to keep an eye on the armory in case some ponies come in for sightseeing.”
“Sure. Do you expect any today?”
“Well, the word about the Abbey being finished had undoubtedly spread already, and as a construction side it was one of the main topics of conversation past month. Also, in case Al’ar plans to stretch his wings, they might come here, concerned as to what a giant burning bird is doing flying around Ponyville. And even disregarding all of that, I expect a group of three fillies to come today.”
“Speaking off...” Sound said and hesitated. “What is it with that orange filly living here?”
“Does anything in your contract mentions about questioning who lives in the Abbey?” Matthias replied with a question, and he left, dismissing Sound Wave.
He disliked speaking like this to his men- or rather, stall-... ponies, but he gave Scootaloo a word that she could tell everypony herself, and that included even the ponies who never met her.
“I do hope that she will explain this before somebody will come up with a rumor that-” he began to think, but paused as he noticed a familiar pony approaching.
“Had a lot of fun last night?” Matthias asked Applejack smirking, who only now - at noon - was getting back to her home.
Hearing his question, the mare almost jumped into the air, and began sweating as she looked around. “No! I mean- um, yes, kinda...”
“Applejack?” he asked, puzzled; he didn’t expect such weird reaction out of her. “Is something the matter?”
“Nope. Gotta go, bye, see you later!” she exclaimed as she all but run past him.
“Gee, and here I thought Rainbow was a pathetic liar with her: ‘Did... not!’ while panting.” Matthias thought in deep confusion, and pondered if he should follow Applejack and question her further, but decided against it. “I have discovered enough secrets as it is for a moment.”
Serenity - not really being into the idea of further practice - lingered at the training field, watching Sir Lightbringer leave the Abbey, wondering briefly where he was going. A gentle tap on her shoulder brought her attention back to her surroundings.
“Let’s go get that training dummy.” Storm told her, smiling, at least on the left side of his face; he kept his head in such way that his jaw blocked the view of his right side of mouth.
The crystal pony sighed and followed the pegasus. She tried to think of a way to start off a conversation. They didn’t have too much time to get to know each other too well, and Serenity was curious about her fellow initiates. Well, besides Tucker; as much as he was interesting as the colt that got trapped for thousand years in some sort of prison, she wouldn’t get much out of him other than very suggesting comments.
“So...” she started, unsure, as there was only one thing that came to her mind at the moment, “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to you jaw?”
“I hit a wall.” he replied shortly.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me...” Serenity said, her ears dropping; clearly, he didn’t want to open up.
“Hm?” the pegasus looked back at her. “Oh, no, I told you the truth; I hit a wall.” at Serenity’s confused gaze, he elaborated: “I was nine, and I was showing off like an idiot before my friends. One failed flying trick later, and bam! A jaw broken, and here I am.”
“I see...” Serenity smiled weakly at Storm’s attempt at joking. “But how come your jaw healed so badly? I mean, even back thousand years ago, Equestria’s medical care was better than Crystal Empire.”
“My family didn’t exactly had bits to spare at the moment.” Storm replied, and this time there was a hint in his voice for her to drop the issue. “So, miss ‘I remember Equestria from over a thousand years ago’,” he smirked at her, “how about now you say something about yourself?”
Serenity snorted with laughter upon hearing the odd nickname.
“Okay, class, see you tomorrow!” Miss Cheerilee said cheerfully as the bell rang, signaling the end of today’s classes.
For Scootaloo, it might’ve as well signalled the end of her life.
She trembled a bit as she packed her notebooks into her saddleback. As she rose from her seat, she wondered if she should tell Miss Cheerilee herself about everything, but she quickly dismissed such notion. Despite Matt’s assurances, Scootaloo was almost certain that her teacher would yell at her for lying and making a fool out of her.
“Hey, Scoots, what’s the holdup?” Apple Bloom asked, looking back from school’s door where she stood with Sweetie Belle.
The pegasus filly quickly hurried after the two ponies. With a pang, she realized that she needed to tell them the truth now. Without a doubt, rumors about her living in the Abbey would spread soon, and ponies would put things together. Her best friends deserved to learn about this from her.
But it didn’t mean it was going to be easy.
“So, since you said Big Mac promised to fix our clubhouse,” Sweetie Belle was telling Apple Bloom when Scootaloo joined them, “how about we get start building that float for Summer Harvest Parade?”
“Yeah, we can do that, but ‘ow about seein’ the Everfree Abbey first?” Apple Bloom suggested instead, and almost made the pegasus gasp. “Applejack said they’ve finished buildin’ it yesterday.”
“Sure, that sounds fun!” Sweetie Belle replied. “What do you think, Scootaloo?”
Before Scootaloo could answer that in any fashion, a shadow fell on them, and a familiar and kind voice said: “I, for one, think that pony in charge of that place will be pleased with your interest.”
“Oh, hi Matt!” Apple Bloom greeted him, no doubt surprised that he managed to sneak up on them. “What’chya doin’ here?”
Scootaloo gulped hearing the big stallions answer: “I need to talk with Cheerilee about something; you three go have fun. Just don’t try to wreck anything there.”
“When had we ever ‘wrecked’ anythin’?”
“I could swear I heard something about a cannon and your clubhouse being repaired.” Matt replied with amusement.
“Okay, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea...” Sweetie Belle mumbled, recalling their latest attempt at getting her cutie mark.
Scootaloo felt even worse, since it was mostly her idea. And the side effects (namely a giant hole in the roof of their clubhouse) made her return to her old sleeping place under the bridge, where was she was found out by Matt, who practically turned her life upside down. While she felt odd warmth inside when he made her sleep in his Abbey, and was reminded how comfortable beds were, she would have preferred for things to stay as they were.
“Don’t feel bad. Part of being young is making not very good ideas.” Matt replied, smiling at the trio. “Light knows how many bad ideas I had when I was your age or older. Anyway, have fun.”
“Sure. Bye, Matt!” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom replied as the stallion passed them, but all that Scootaloo managed to do was to look at him uncertainly.
Matt glanced back and winked at her sympathetically and reassuringly.
“Hey Scootaloo, is everything alright?” Sweetie Belle asked once the stallion was out of earshot. “You seem kind of distracted all day.”
“Well...” Scootaloo said, unsure what to tell them; or rather, how to tell them. “Can we go someplace more private? I... need to tell you something.”
“I cannot believe this.” Cheerilee said.
Matthias could only nod as he took a sip of the tea Cheerilee made for him. He’d just finished telling her about last night’s events, and she reacted as he told Scootaloo.
“How could I not figure this out?” she asked nopony in particular. Both of them were alone in the classroom, and the only other soul on the school grounds was a filly that went to do something in the basement. “What kind of teacher am I?”
“It’s not your fault.” Matthias tried to calm her. “She kept this from everypony, including her two best friends.”
“But-” Cheerilee said, trying again to blame herself, but Matthias wasn’t about to let her do that.
“Cheerilee, you’re a wonderful teacher; all of your students love you, and everypony in town is glad that it is you who teaches their foals.” pausing for a moment (and registering that the mare blushed slightly hearing his compliments), the paladin decided to tell her something else. “When I told Scootaloo that I would tell you about this, and she herself would need to explain the truth to others eventually, her first question was if you would be angry.”
“Oh, heavens forbid it!” the teacher replied, almost horrified. “How could I be angry at her? The poor little thing...”
Matthias nodded and took another sip of the tea.
“So, are you adopting her?”
And like that, the contents of his mouth were spitted out into the air.
“Well, no.” Matthias replied, looking at Cheerilee apologetically for his reaction. “I am her legal guardian, and that’s it. I doubt she would’ve agreed to that, anyway.”
“I guess you’re right at that one.” the fuchsia pony replied, and he noticed a spark of amusement in her eyes. “Knowing Scootaloo, I’m amazed you’ve managed to convince her to all of that anyway. But is this Abbey a proper place for a filly to live in? I mean, you are supposed to train ponies to fight there, and there are all those weapons...”
“There’s more to that, but you are right; it’s not exactly an ideal place for here. However, it’s still better than sending her back to Cloudsdale.”
“I cannot believe they never searched for her.” the school teacher replied, disgust clear in her voice.
“I will ask Princess Luna to have her night guard check this orphanage.” Matthias replied with a shrug. “But enough about that, let’s return to Scootaloo.”
“Right. So in the future, I should contact you about matters concerning her?”
“Exactly, although I will, sadly, not always be available. I plan to have my four initiates became full-fledged paladins soon, and do some ‘work in the field’.”
“What about Scootaloo?”
“I will leave those two royal guards here, so there’s no worry about her starving. Or, I could ask one of her friend’s families to take her in for a few days.”
As Cheerilee nodded, a movement outside of the window caught his eye. The filly that stayed back at school for something was now standing by another, older one. She was vaguely familiar to him; her name was Derpy Hooves, a local mailmare, easily recognisable by her crossed-eyes. Judging by how the filly - a pale purple unicorn with blonde mane - was hugging her in the greeting, Matthias assumed those two were sisters, as strange as it was for a pegasus and a unicorn pair. Then again, Cake’s babies were an even odder case.
“I didn’t know Derpy had a sister.” he told Cheerilee while still looking at them.
Cheerilee, following his case, replied: “Oh, that’s not her sister, but daughter, Dinky.”
Matthias turned to her, shocked. “What?! But she’s... just a few years older than you! How can she have a daughter this old?!”
“Well...” Cheerilee said uncomfortably. “I’m not one for gossip, but from what I heard, she was, ugh... got pregnant back at this dance in Cloudsdale Academy, a year before she graduated.”
“It must have been hard for her.” Matthias said, feeling sympathy for the mare that he barely spoke with. “I don’t believe I had the pleasure of meeting her husband.”
“Um, she doesn’t have one.”
Matthias only blinked in confusion.
“Again, I’m not one for gossip...” the school teacher repeated, although by now the stallion had his doubts about the truth behind that statement. “But... I heard that this was... a one night stand kind of thing.”
“And she never told the father?”
“Judging by how she shrieks whenever somepony tries to ask...” she trailed off, as this was enough of an explanation.
“What a pitiful excuse of a male!” Matthias growled quietly. “If I’d ever got my hooves on him...”
He too, trailed off, as he had enough hard time getting over his yesterday’s outburst. It was unthinkable to him, that a stallion would knowingly abandon mare that carried his foal.
“I must agree that such a scumbag would deserve whatever you would do to him.” Cheerilee said with an uncharacteristic for her grimace. “But alas, since Derpy never mentions him, his identity will remain a secret.”
“Soo... that’s it.” Scootaloo finished telling them her biggest secret.
They were sitting in her new room that Matt had given her without any second thoughts. All the way from school she was avoiding explaining why exactly she was now staying here, until they were safe within those four walls.
Safe... It seemed strange for Scootaloo, to feel that. She didn’t feel truly safe ever since her parents’ death, except maybe when she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders were having a sleepover, or when they were staying at that beach house at Altomare. But now, here she was, in a completely new to her place that was supposed to serve as sleeping place for soldiers, feeling safe.
Now when the cat was out of the bag (and on the bed, as Spottedleaf seemed content with spending time with her instead of her master), her friends were looking at her with jaws low and teary eyes.
“Why didn’tja tell us?!” Apple Bloom was first to break the silence. “We’re yar friends, we would’ve helped ya!”
“I know, I wanted to tell you, just...” Scootaloo trailed off and looked on the ground, unable to meet their gaze. “By the time we’ve became friends, I was living this lie for so long that... it felt strangely to me. To just come out and say the truth... and the longer I waited, the more was I afraid that you would be mad at me for-”
“For what?” Sweetie Belle interrupted her. She jumped closer to her, nearly tackling her off her bed, and hugged her. “Scootaloo, you should be mad at us! We been hanging out for almost every day past those two years, and we’ve never realized that you were all alone!” the unicorn sniffled as she began crying. “You were so sad, and we-”
“Aaaand that’s another reason.” Scootaloo tried to reply lightly, which wasn’t easy, as she herself was also on a verge of tears. Pointing as Sweetie Belle, she continued: “You know I hate all this sappy stuff, and you-”
“Oh, hush!” Apple Bloom cut her off as she hugged her from the other side. “We’re gonna give you a sappy hug, and you’ll love it!”
“So... were still friends?” Scootaloo asked to be sure, smiling at her friend’s comment.
“Of course, ya silly pony!”
“Crusaders until the end!”
The pegasus filly smiled, overcome with emotion, and put her hooves around the other two.
“Can you do me one favor?” she asked them.
“Name it!” both of her friends immediately answered.
“Please don’t start singing.”
If anypony was strolling through the corridor at this moment, he or she would get startled by a sudden burst of laughter of the three friends.
Matthias kicked a pebble on the road angrily as he made his way back to the Abbey.
“How could anypony still call himself a stallion after doing something like this?!” he once again though, still unable to understand that. Granted, on Azeroth, he witnesses (and unfortunately, caused much more) many horrific acts; but here, in Equestria... of course, he was aware of ponies that were nothing more than a bunch of low-lives, but still...
“If only I’d get my hooves on whoever it is...” Matthias thought, trying to imagine what fate he could cook up for a pony that used Derpy and then refused to help her raise thei- her foal. He didn’t deserve any claim to Dinky. From what Cheerilee had told him, she was very intelligent and sweet filly, although a bit shy when it came to playing with others, and sometimes smart-mouthed when talking to adults. And Derpy herself didn’t deserve what she had to endure while raising her daughter. Matthias spoke to her only few times, but he knew that she was a kind mare, not stupid as some ponies would assume at the first glance of her and not really that klutzy (although, Twilight told him that she once accidentally dropped a piano on her, as bizarre as it sounded). Whoever abandoned her, deserved a... “Oh, crap!” Matthias thought as the realization struck him. “The best I could do would be putting him on trial! I’m a paladin; I can’t inflict harm on others.”
He sighed, knowing that this would be what he would do, even if every fiber of his being told him to put that sorry excuse of a stallion through an unimaginable pain. It was almost funny, really: he, who once committed unspeakable atrocities upon thousands of souls of noble beings, now practically couldn’t do anything to one that by standards of nearly every sentient race and civilization deserved it.
“Ugh, why does life have to be so ironic?!” he exclaimed in rage as he was approaching the Abbey’s limits.
“Ditto on that question.” sounded a familiar voice from above him, and the next second Rainbow Dash landed beside him.
“Hi.” Matthias greeted her and pushed his earlier thoughts away, confused at her statement. “What did you mean?”
“Well...” Dash began, but stuttered uncomfortably, in a fashion that reminded him of somepony else he saw today.
“Would it have anything to do with the sleepover?”
“Kinda... how did you know?”
“Well, when I asked Applejack about it earlier, she practically started blabbering and run... away...” Matthias trailed off as he put the two together. “You two kissed again, haven’t you?”
“If only...” Rainbow muttered, heat in her cheek, and seeing Matthias’ surprised gaze, she sighed. “You see...”
“Wait!”
Both ponies looked at each other hearing the distant shout, and then at the direction of the Abbey, from where it came from. The very next second, however, a sound of teleportation spell came from their side, and Tucker appeared, panting slightly from jumping such distance.
“Go on.” he said, waving at Rainbow.
“How did you even hear that?!” both of them asked, shocked beyond belief.
“Pfft, I know when I’m needed.” Tucker replied, then again turned to Rainbow. “Well, go on.”
“You must have hit something with your head repeatedly.” Dash replied, glaring at him threateningly.
“Oh, come on baby, you can’t tell me but you can tell that dude?”
“That ‘dude’ happens to be your commanding officer.” Matthias reminded the unicorn, growing anger with every heartbeat. “And you could spend your time more productively by reading your libram.”
“Eh, I already read it.” Tucker replied, shrugging.
“Oh, really?” Matthias said, not believing him even for a second. “What’s the Order’s motto?”
“‘When in doubt, rub one out.”
Matthias’ facial expression remained unchanged, although he would have very much liked to release his anger on this colt. “In which second of this conversation you had thought this would work?”
“I hoped to wing it.”
“Go read that libram, now, or I will throw you into a dungeon with nothing else but that book!” he told him, looking at him so sternly that the unicorn finally took a step back, nodded, and (with a last quick glance at Rainbow’s flank, for which he got struck in a head by a stone) he trotted towards the Abbey.
“Tch, freak.” Dash muttered. “What is the Order’s motto, anyway?”
“Oh, there isn’t one.” Matthias replied nonchalantly, earning a chuckle from her. “But, more importantly; what were you saying?”
“You have an imagination, use it.” Rainbow told him poking his head, again blushing. “But maybe...” she added in sultry tone, “if you could wait until tonight, I could...” Dash paused as she put her hooves around his neck, “give you all... details?”
Even the strongest will can crumble at times.
“I think I would like to know those details.” Matthias murmured as their noses touched.
Just as he was expecting her to kiss him, she pulled back, and sprung into the air.
“See you tonight, then.” she smirked as and flew for Ponyville.
Matthias shook his head to regain his senses, unable to believe that he let her get him like this.