//------------------------------// // Know What You Know // Story: Odrsjot // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Eagle Eye’s hoofsteps made quiet clatters as he trotted into the dark interior of what remained of Props’ uncle’s shop. Beams of morning light streamed through the multiple rifts overhead, raining across the brittle floor like platinum strings. In the corner, rummaging lethargically through a collapsed locker, stood Ebon Mane. His burgundy coat made him blend with the overall dimness of the shattered place. Eagle Eye shuffled to a stop, his sword and shield rattling slightly. He gulped and murmured, “Ebon…” “Props used to let me use this locker to keep stuff in,” Ebon said. “Whenever I visited to cook her and her uncle food, she practically shared this place with me like I lived here. It meant a lot to me. She’s always been so very kind. Almost too kind.” He sighed as he glanced across the decrepit wall and its burn marks before him. “I hate to leave her like this, with so much loss. She didn’t deserve it. Neither did her uncle.” “We’ll find out how this happened, Ebon,” Eagle Eye said. “Rainbow Dash doesn’t quit for anything.” He smiled. “Nor do her friends.” “Oh, I know that. And I hope they find some answers from the ponies on the street.” Ebon gulped as he turned about with a fragile smile. “But, it doesn’t change how terrible this is.” “You really care a lot about Props, don’t you?” “I care about all of you--” Ebon’s face grimaced at the end of that. He tried smiling, but it only came as an even greater wince. “I’m… going to really miss having you guys around. Even when some of you are super annoying.” “Hey, if I got used to Josho, anypony could.” “How did you know I was talking about the old stallion?” Ebon smirked. “Are you a mind reader, EE?” “No…” Eagle Eye shook his head. “I’m not. As a matter of fact…” He lingered. He turned and gazed out the smashed front of the creaking structure, as if searching for a living piece of the blue sky. At last, he groaned and muttered, “Ebon…?” “Yeah? What’s up?” Eagle Eye gazed calmly at him. “Is there something that you’re not telling us?” Ebon simply blinked. “I… I don’t get it.” “Is there something you have to share?” Eagle Eye asked, taking a pensive step forward. “Something that’s weight on your mind? Or your heart? Or… heh… any of the squishy stuff in between?” “Wh-what?” Ebon chuckled breathily. “Are you serious?” Eagle Eye bit his lip. Ebon gestured towards the bent walls of the place. “Props’ home is blown to crap, her uncle is missing, and you’re worried about me?” “I’m not so much worried about you as I am about Rainbow Dash.” “What does Rainbow Dash have to do with this?” “She… that is… uhm…” Ebon smirked. “Now who’s got something to get off his mind?” Eagle Eye fiddled with his purple locks as he cleared his throat and murmured, “Rainbow Dash asked m-me to keep an eye on you.” “Why? She was afraid I might slip and fall off one of Gray Smoke’s platforms? I’ve got soot on me, EE. I know my way around here, even if I don’t have wings.” “No, it’s not that…” “Then what is it?” “She… she said that she knew that you were hiding something.” “Hiding something?” Eagle Eye gulped. “That’s right.” “What on earth gave her that idea?” “Not what,” Eagle Eye muttered. “Who.” Slowly, his head raised to meet his gaze. “Her immortal ruler, Princess Luna, told her that she sensed you were withholding something from the group.” Ebon Mane’s smirk left him. Eagle shifted uncomfortably, not sure what would happen next. Slowly, Ebon pivoted towards the corner. The place silent, save for the groaning of collapsed metal beams and the distant engines of zeppelins. At last, Ebon murmured, “Did the Princess tell you yourself or something?” Eagle Eye shook his head. “No. Rainbow Dash told me.” “Rainbow Dash told you to tell me?” “No. I… er… she just told me.” “But she couldn’t come to me and ask me?” “Well, it’s just that--” “She doesn’t trust me.” Eagle Eye’s face jerked. “I didn’t say that!” “But it’s true,” Ebon droned. “And, quite frankly, I don’t blame her.” Eagle Eye was silent. “She’s gone through so much length to take care of her friends. She wants what’s best for them. If there was something that she didn’t understand--she’d have every right to be cautious about it, especially if it dealt with her friends. I guess Princess Luna shares in that caution.” “Is… there something for her to be cautious about?” Eagle Eye asked. “I… d-don’t know…” Ebon’s voice wavered. “I wish I could say I did, but I don’t know.” “Then tell me all you do know, and then maybe we can figure it out together!” the ex-mercenary insisted. Ebon’s shoulders shook, then went still. Eagle Eye leaned forward. “Ebon…?” With a sigh, the stallion turned around and gazed lonesomely at the unicorn. A tear rolled down his cheek. “I… don’t have a home, EE.” Eagle simply stared at him. Ebon sniffled and shrugged. “I… never really have, to tell the truth. I’ve hopped from kitchen to kitchen here in Gray Smoke, surviving off of one job or another. Cooking appears to be my specialty. I don’t know why.” “It’s not your special talent?” The stallion pointed at the sailboat on his flank. “Do I look like I know what my talent is?!” he briefly snapped, but then shuddered with another tear rolling down his cheek. “Truth is, I’m lost. I’m a bum, through and through. I’ve wondered the streets of this city with no hope for so long. It was Props who gave me the light of day. If I hadn’t met her…” He quivered, gnashing his teeth for a few seconds. At last, his voice squeaked, “I don’t know where I would be. Really, I don’t.” Eagle swallowed a lump down his throat and quietly asked, “Does she… does she know?” “She knows as much as I tell her.” Ebon sniffed, then suffered through a brief chuckle as he dried his cheeks with a forelimb. “The mare kind of has tunnel vision, you know. I could easily hang out with her without having to expose too much about myself.” “And what would you be exposing, exactly?” Ebon’s lips quivered. He gave Eagle a helpless look. “That… I-I don’t know what’s there to share? I… I don’t… have memories, Eagle Eye.” “Memories?” Eagle leaned his head aside. “Memories of what?” Ebon fought back a sob. “Everything.” He avoided Eagle’s gaze. “My family. My home. Where I was born.” “You… seriously don’t remember any of that about yourself?” Ebon asked. “You h-have to understand…” Ebon sighed as he held a forelimb over his moist face. “I’ve… never told anypony this… th-this much. I never wanted to come across as helpless. But you guys have been so… so warm and welcoming and inviting and… I-I felt like I fitted in, y’know? I felt like I paid my dues. Because, seriously, as bad as it was that Jasper and Props got kidnapped by Nightshade’s cronies, being imprisoned in Blue Nova was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.” Eagle Eye raised an eyebrow. “Really?” “Yeah. I had a place to sleep, ponies to feed, and friends to talk to on a regular basis. What’s more, everypony was too busy worrying about the situation to bother asking about me or where I came from…” “Props trusts you,” Eagle Eye said. “Tunnel vision or not, I don’t think she would place her faith in you unless she felt it was deserved.” “That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” Ebon murmured as he looked up at him. “Deserve it. Only, I didn’t want to come across like I was trying too hard. I just…” He fought back another sob. “You guys have some really, really serious stuff to get done in this world. I would only be a burden if I… if I…” “What, tagged along?” Ebon Mane clamped his mouth shut. Eagle Eye smiled. “Ebon, you wouldn’t be a burden! Are you kidding? You think any of us can cook nearly as awesomely as you? There are times when everypony on board the Jury is either bored out of their skulls or wants to murder the others. You and your culinary voodoo is what keeps the whole darn ship afloat!” “But think about it!” Ebon frowned. “Would you really want my hooves digging around in the kitchen, preparing your food?” “Why not?” “I’m a pony who doesn’t remember his past!” Ebon stamped his hoof for emphasis. “Doesn’t that freak you out in the least?” Eagle Eye blinked. “Floydien’s a space elk with a telekinetic squirrel. Josho’s hunted down Xonans and Franzington rogues in cold blood. Roarke’s a flipping bounty hunter. Rainbow Dash has to carry a necklace around her head that keeps her from going into a terminal chaos state. You really think you’re that much scarier than the rest of them?” Ebon merely hung his head. Eagle Eye fidgeted before taking a pensive step forward. “You… uh… really don’t remember anything?” “No,” Ebon said bitterly. “I don’t.” Eagle winced slightly at that. But then Ebon spoke, “No.” He sighed. “That’s a lie. I remember one thing.” “Oh?” Eagle Eye looked at him. “What’s that?” “I…” Ebon’s brow furrowed as he navigated the clouds of confusion. “I remember my mother. At least… I remember her kindness… and her love for me.” He gulped. “I know that she’s still alive somewhere. I don’t know how and I don’t know where, but something happened that separated us. She’s far away, and I’m here. I’m alone. But… but I get this sense that some way, some how, I’m going to return to her…” Eagle Eye smiled. “I think we’re all looking for our families in some way or another, Ebon.” Ebon squinted at him. “Even those of us who are flying away from them?” Eagle twitched slightly. He cleared his throat and glanced down. “Yes, well…” “I try not to think too hard about it,” Ebon remarked. “Because when I do, I get scared. And I don’t want to share that fear with others. If I share my feelings too much, I’m afraid that--” He froze, his eyes briefly widening in terror. Eagle Eye saw it. “What? Afraid of what, Ebon?” Ebon shuddered. “You’re all good ponies. I just don’t want to c-complicate things with you guys, is all.” “Ebon…” “I can find a place to live here. I’m sure of it. The rest of you can go searching for Prowse and some home east of here--” Eagle closed the distance and placed two hooves on the stallion’s shoulders. “You’re coming with us, ya hear? You need a home and we don’t need to starve.” “But… but…” Ebon sniffled. “Rainbow Dash! She doesn’t trust me…” “Something tells me that she’s about to,” Eagle Eye said with a friendly wink. “You let me worry about Rainbow Dash and the others. In the meantime, just concern yourself with… well… yourself.” “H-how do you mean?” “I think the most important pony whose trust you have to earn is your own.” Eagle’s gaze hardened as he spoke firmly. “You’ve been alone for far too long, punishing yourself for stuff you can’t be blamed for.” “But… that’s just the thing! What if I did deserve what happened to me?” Ebon’s eyes teared again. “What if this is for something I did and I don’t even know about it?” “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” “But Eagle--” “You’re a good pony, Ebon,” Eagle Eye said with a bright smile. “That’s what matters. And a good pony is what we need on board the Jury.” Ebon blinked, then smiled back. The tears had become overwhelming at this point and his legs buckled. Eagle leaned in and gave him a shoulder to lean over. He gently patted his back as the stallion let loose a few shuddering breaths, followed by a quiet murmur. “Thank you…” “Hey… Thank yourself…” Eagle Eye chuckled. “Once a Jurist, always a Jurist, right?” “Heh… sure…” “We work best when we’re unanimous, y’know.” “Heheheh… yeah… yeah okay…”