Antecedents
By: Dusk Quill
In the warm afternoon, two ponies sat out in the lush gardens of Canterlot. The mid-September sun bathed the glistening city in bright light. It was an idyllic scene to savor—and savor it Fleethoof did. It was not often that he got such extended periods of time without being called to some call of duty. Getting to enjoy a summer day with one of his most favorite ponies in the world was one of the small blessings he cherished.
If only he had actually been looking forward to this moment.
He glanced over, his eyes meeting the rich purple irises of Cadence as she waited patiently on the pegasus. He gathered up his courage to face her completely, giving the princess a subdued smile.
“Nice day,” he remarked passively.
Cadence rolled her eyes with a smile. “You’re stalling, Fleet.”
“I know, I’m just… a little apprehensive.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m afraid.”
That was a new one to hear coming from him. Cadence was legitimately surprised to hear him utter such words. Her gentle smile never left her face as she watched the stallion curiously.
“What are you afraid of?”
It took Fleethoof a long moment before he responded. “I’m afraid that you won’t like what you find.”
“Fleet, you don’t need to be afraid of me. There’s nothing that could make me think any less of you.”
We’ll see how true that is… Fleethoof thought with a hard swallow. “If you say so…”
Cadence saw the distress on her friend’s face. “If you’re having second thoughts, we don’t have to do this…”
He shook his head adamantly. Even if she had not intended it, he could hear the touch of disappointment in her voice. He had kept too much locked away for far too long. Now was the time to let it all out.
“No, I… I want to do this. Really, I do,” he said with a genuine smile. “I’ve hidden away from you for too long.”
Cadence’s smile widened and she shifted her body to face Fleethoof. He moved in turn so both ponies now sat face to face. He could swear his pulse was quickening.
“You’ve done this before, right?” he asked, suddenly wary.
“Nope!” Cadence giggled at the way Fleethoof’s jaw dropped. “Oh, relax. It can’t be that hard. Besides, I’ve read this spell a dozen times now.”
“So I’m the guinea pig?”
“In a way. Now close your eyes and just try to relax.”
Fleethoof chewed on his lip for a moment, and then reluctantly shut his eyes. Darkness overtook him as he released his breath. His shoulders slumped, and he allowed his muscles to begin to unwind. He trusted Cadence—she hadn’t done anything to lead him astray in the past.
“Okay, ready?”
“Just do it before I start doubting myself,” he muttered.
He heard Cadence snicker softly. “Okay, here we go.”
Cadence’s horn began to glow with a pale cornflower blue aura. Her jaw tightened as she focused on maintaining the effort to hold the spell. She had dredged up the long-forgotten enchantment from the Royal Archives, and knew of only one pony to try it out on. If it worked, it would unlock every part of the affected mind.
Just before she could focus on sending the spell to him, Fleethoof asked, “Will it hurt…?”
“I don’t think so,” Cadence said, and gently tapped her horn against his forehead.
Fleethoof’s eyes instantly flew open as icy coldness seeped into his skull. He gasped and tensed up, suddenly unable to move. He could feel his mind go blank—and then all at once, a flurry of memories flew back to him. Long, repressed visions flashed before his eyes, and likewise Cadence’s.
Cadence gawked as images from Fleethoof’s life passed through her mind like a movie playing in fast forward. A cacophony of voices echoed in her ears from conversations of the past. Every so often, a voice would speak out louder than the rest, signaling some significant events in the stallion’s life. She sat still as a statue, basking in the awe of the treasure trove of memories she had unearthed.
“Mom, Dad! Look! I got my cutie mark!”
“He’s a colt after your heart, Nightingale…”
“Fleethoof… I don’t know how to say this… But… Mom’s gone…”
“If you ever touch him again, I’ll break your jaw!”
“He has no foundation—no direction in life.”
“You’ll never get anywhere with behavior like this.”
“Have you ever considered joining the Royal Guard?”
The memories changed abruptly, and Cadence could just start to make out glimpses of Canterlot now. There were ponies—a lot of ponies.
“You are the most pitiful excuse for a recruit I’ve ever seen in all my years of pushing sorry colts like you through those doors!”
“What in Equestria makes you think you’ll ever be good enough to even think about being a Royal Guard?”
“I’m Steel Shield. You and me, we’re gonna get through this together.”
“You did good, son.”
“…We are now at war with the Griffon Kingdom.”
“Welcome to war, Corporal.”
The visions suddenly shifted violently. Cadence’s ears were filled with distant gunshots and explosions mixed in with the screams and shouts of soldiers. She saw everything through Fleethoof’s eyes in fast motion as he raced through a dark, burning city with Shining Armor.
“Stores! Windows! Eyes high!”
“They’re inside!”
“I’ve got your back, remember?”
“Yeah, and I’ve got yours.”
For a brief second, the memories faded out, dulling a little. Quiet took over from the noise. Cadence watched as darkness blackened her mind, and then she heard somepony yelling.
“Sniper!”
A sharp snap broke the silence, and gunshots resumed.
“Captain! Captain Phalanx! Get up! Get up!”
“You’re in charge now, Fleethoof!”
“Open fire!”
“The name’s Shot. Sharp Shot.”
“Keep moving! Go! Go!”
“Phalanx… He saw something in you, Fleethoof… And he was willing to protect you to the death for it.”
The next part Cadence was familiar with—and surprisingly, the memories seemed to slow down and play out. Fleethoof rushed into the room, and through his eyes Cadence saw herself. She was chained to the wall, her coat and mane disheveled and dirty.
“Princess Cadence!”
She watched through Fleethoof’s eyes as he freed her from her prison, and the memories jumped again, like a record skipping in a phonograph. She was on the ship headed back for Equestria, seeing herself through Fleethoof’s eyes again. Anguish was gnawing at her insides for some reason. She realized she was feeling the same emotions he had experienced.
“Why? What good would that do you?”
“Me? Probably none. But it’s already doing you good.”
Cadence felt a burst of warmth spread across her cheeks as the memory-form of herself brushed a tear from Fleethoof’s cheek. She smiled as she recalled that moment, only now realizing just how much that had meant to him. She felt liberated and drained at the same time. She could only imagine how it must’ve felt to him back then.
Ever quiet and patient, Cadence watched as Fleethoof’s life unfolded before her eyes. She watched from his perspective as he returned to the end of the war and how he had been wounded. Luna’s voice spoke out suddenly.
“Besides, Captain, I have another offer for you.”
“What sort of offer?”
“I have been putting together a unit specialized for special operations… I want you to lead it.”
“What is the name of this team?”
“Fireteam Skyfall.”
She then watched as he chased a madpony across Canterlot, and how much joy he felt when they had been reunited in Saddle Arabia. Her smile widened again as she watched the summer gala they had attended together through his eyes. His heart was racing as they danced. It was adorable.
That was when the memories took a darker turn. Before her eyes, Cadence watched as Fleethoof’s world took a dramatic turn. Another black ops unit had been created, and was suffering miserably. Even with Fleethoof’s aid, they crumbled. She could feel the stallion’s guilt and anguish over the hopelessness of the situation. She witnessed the harsh torture of the changeling prisoner, her stomach twisting into a knot. She hadn’t even been aware Fleethoof had been involved in such acts.
The memories skipped, and Fleethoof’s team was raiding a house somewhere in the dead of winter now. They took down somepony with expert precision and finesse—and then he shifted into a changeling. A bloody battle erupted, and ended with Fleethoof and the changeling left alone in the room. Cadence could feel Fleethoof’s rage burning in his heart as darkness took his soul.
Oh, Fleet, no… Please, don’t…
But Cadence knew what was going to happen even before Fleethoof kicked the changeling onto his back. She flinched and tensed up as she observed the murder through the eyes of the killer. It was an unnerving experience to her to think of her Fleethoof as a murderer.
“P-P-Please… Forgive me… Fleethoof…”
“I can’t forgive you, Lightning Strike… What you did is beyond forgiveness…”
A single gunshot ended the memories. They blew away like a cloud of dust. But to Cadence’s surprise, they still didn’t end. The mist formed together again into the shapes of dark, gnarled branches and thick trees. Fear and dread gripped at her soul, and a loud snarl filled her ears.
“Break for the trees! Run!”
She was running. No, Fleethoof was running through the dark forest. Images of undead ponies chasing him flashed through her mind. Never before had she seen such horrifying images. The forest gave way, and she was inside an old house. Fleethoof was with that bat pony, Midnight Dasher. They were wandering the corridors. Whispered words echoed through her head.
“Monsters…”
“Cursed…”
“Sunny Town…”
“Silence…”
Burning pain began to fill Cadence’s body, and breathing suddenly became a chore. The memories blurred like she was viewing them through fogged glass. A strong heartbeat pounded inside her mind. And then darkness overtook her sight, and the heartbeat in her head slowed to a stop.
“C-Cadence…”
Fleethoof’s strained words broke her out of her trace. Cadence blinked her eyes, holding the spell strong so as not to lose it. She gasped again when she saw Fleethoof. His entire body was trembling and his cheeks were damp with tears. His forehead had broken out in a sweat and his breathing was labored.
“Oh my gosh!” She dropped the spell immediately, and the movie in her mind disappeared. Almost instantly, Fleethoof seemed to recover. He took a few deep breaths and blinked, his eyes wide with shock and trauma.
“I didn’t… expect it to be… so intense…” he gasped out.
Cadence was instantly by his side, holding the gently quivering stallion close and rubbing his back while she supported him. He looked ready to collapse at a moment’s notice. “I’m sorry, Fleet! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know it would be so hard for you… I didn’t know, I just—”
“It’s okay, Cadence… Just… gimme a moment…”
It took a few minutes before Fleethoof got his breathing under control again. His head was pounding with a splitting headache. Cadence’s spell was much more powerful than anything he had been expecting.
“I really am sorry, Fleethoof. I didn’t know it would have those kinds of effects on you,” Cadence apologized again.
“It’s fine. I forgive you,” he said, pushing himself back up until he was sitting upright again. “I was just really not prepared for that!”
He chuckled weakly, and realized she hadn’t laughed either. He risked a glance at her. Cadence was looking at him with an expression crossed between sympathy and sorrow. He had seen that look from her so many times in his life now—the few times he had actually been around her. It almost felt like a cruel joke whenever he saw it.
“…What?”
Cadence slowly shook her head. “I never realized…”
“Never realized what?” he asked.
“Just how much you’ve been through in such a short lifetime, Fleethoof.”
Fleethoof couldn’t do anything but chuckle. “Yeah, twenty-three years of this. Heh… Poor little Fleethoof, right?”
The princess blinked and made a quiet noise of realization. “That’s right, your birthday is tomorrow.”
“Yep,” he said with a short nod. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
“Oh, Fleet. I’m sorry life’s been so rough on you…”
Cadence wrapped her hooves around his shoulders in a tight hug. Traces of a smile twitched on the pegasus’ lips. He brought his hooves up and hugged her back. Whenever he was with Cadence, the troubles of the world just seemed too far away. He knew that was an outright lie, of course. Cadence had been involved in those troubles twice before. Even his lifelines weren’t safe from himself.
“It hasn’t been all bad though,” Fleethoof said after a moment, giving her a smile. “You’ve been one of the greater goods in my life.”
Now Cadence let out a laugh—a gentle, airy sound that lifted his soul. “Me? I’ve nearly gotten you killed before. I almost shot you too!”
Fleethoof’s ears flattened against his head and he grinned sheepishly. He had forgotten about that. A nervous chuckle left him. “Almost only counts in horseshoes and hoof grenades. You have yet to kill me, which puts you head and shoulders above some others.”
Another laugh came from the princess. “Well, I’m definitely glad for that then!”
“I’m just glad I didn’t teach you to shoot before then. That would’ve been a tragedy!”
Cadence scoffed and pushed Fleethoof’s chest playfully. “You’re terrible, you know that?”
Fleethoof just grinned. “Oh, I know.”
Cadence exhaled a happy little sigh, smiling at the smiling pony seated before her in the lush grass of the garden. Summer flowers bloomed around them, creating the perfect scene, and bright sunlight seemed to bounce off his mane. It’s exactly why she had picked this spot to test her spell out.
She thought back to what she had experienced. All of Fleethoof’s life had flashed by much too fast to make heads or tails of many of the details, but she had gotten the gist of it. But there was one thing she still didn’t quite understand.
“When I was watching your memories, you were in this large house in the Everfree Forest…” Cadence started, catching Fleethoof’s attention from the landscape. “The memories just… stopped. It was all black for a while.”
She watched as Fleethoof’s expression dropped from a happy smile to a scowl of dread.
“What happened, Fleet? Does this have to do with the Everfree Incident?”
Fleethoof licked his lips as he pondered what to tell her. His gaze dropped to the grass, and then swept wide out over the garden. Cadence saw some dark truth smoldering in his eyes. She watched the gentle breeze tousle his mane for a little while before he gave a deep sigh and yielded.
“I died.”
Neither of them spoke for a moment. Cadence had the hardest time trying to decipher what he meant by that. Fleethoof often spoke in cryptic riddles and metaphors. But for her life, she couldn’t unravel his message.
“What do you mean?” she asked. Fleethoof gave a short, hard laugh.
“I mean I died,” he said again, finally looking at her with an unreadable expression. “My life ended. I stopped being alive. I died.”
Cadence did not know how to respond to that. He… died…? she thought over and over again, trying to wrap her mind around the thought of her captain actually ceasing to exist for any period of time. So many questions buzzed around in her head. Only one immediately leapt to her tongue.
“But how are you alive?”
Despite her fear, Fleethoof didn’t scowl or look away. A roguish smirk spread across his lips. “Midnight and her old team used some powerful magic to bring me back. It was… interesting.”
Cadence felt like a foal in school, dire to learn more. “What was it like?”
Fleethoof was a little taken aback by Cadence’s interest in the subject of death. He never would have pegged her for one to enjoy this topic—until he remembered a crucial fact about her. She was immortal. She would never experience death unless it was by the sword. Strangely enough, that thought bothered him a little, though he had no idea why.
“It hurt a lot at first, but I think that was the poison destroying my body. Otherwise, it was just like going to sleep. My body got really weak and heavy, and then everything just sort of stopped,” he began, pausing to take a breath and gather his thoughts. “And then there was just blackness. I don’t know how long it lasted, but it gave way to a bright light, and all I could feel was warmth. And then there it was…”
A gentle smile touched his lips as he met Cadence’s enthralled gaze. “I was on the shore of Elysium. Oh, it was beautiful, Cadence. The beach and ocean stretched as far as the eye could see. The grass was so green and lush it felt like walking on the finest blankets. The sun was bright and warm, and waterfalls flowed into crystal clear streams. Flowers of all kinds bloomed everywhere, and off in the distance, beyond a marble bridge, I could see hundreds of ponies playing and frolicking amongst the trees.
“I saw the palace of the Great Alicorn off in the distance. Its ivory towers stretched higher than anything I had ever seen before. Although I was sad that my time was up, I couldn’t bring myself to feel any regret. I just felt… peaceful. I would’ve seen more, but two ponies approached me then and wouldn’t let me proceed.”
Cadence found that she had been unconsciously leaning forwards, closer towards Fleethoof as he spoke. She was enraptured with his story. Elysium sounded as beautiful as all the stories had told.
“Who were they?” she asked eagerly.
“One was Phalanx, my role model and former leader from the war…” He paused, and Cadence noticed a tear forming in the corner of his eye, despite his wide smile. “The other was my mother…”
Princess Cadence’s eyes went wide as she gasped. Joy welled up inside her for Fleethoof. He had finally gotten to see his mother after all those years. The emotions were so strong, she couldn’t keep the smile off of her face at his fortune.
“And then what happened?”
Fleethoof laughed softly and tapped on his forehead. “Wanna see for yourself? You can see my whole past, after all.”
Despite his bravado, Cadence remained skeptical. “Are you sure, Fleet? I don’t want to hurt you again.”
“I know what to expect this time. Just go a little easier on the spell, and I should be okay.”
Cadence nodded, and took a deep breath. She cast the spell again and gently tapped her glowing horn against the stallion’s forehead again. A brief chill ran through his body as she unlocked his memories again. This time, however, they came out in slow progression, playing more like a movie than a flipbook being turned too fast. It was much easier to handle.
“Where are we starting?” he asked, keeping his eyes closed to allow her access to his mind.
A small smile touched the princess’ lips. “How about the beginning?”