Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.
Flight From Memories Chapter Nine:
What is Left
There was a loud bang as the door slammed open. Murphy skidded into the room, eyes massive. “What the fuck was that?” he shouted.
“I have no idea,” I said, sitting down on my rump. Rainbow Dash and Star sat next to me shortly, all three of us being put into shock by the display that unfolded in front of us.
Gilda walked into the room behind Murphy. “What are you shouting about?” she asked. “I didn’t hear—” She stopped, looking around. “Where is everyone?”
“Gone,” Rainbow Dash said, shaking her head. Some part deep inside me noticed that when her hair was messy, she looked absolutely delicious. The rest of me, however, was preoccupied with the slaughter of the entire Griffon Empire government in a few short seconds that had unfolded not even a minute ago.
“What do you mean, gone?” Gilda asked. “Like, they left the room? Why did all of them leave?”
“They were murdered,” I said, staring at nothing. I didn’t like any of them, but that was incredibly brutal and mostly unwarranted. I hadn’t seen war magic used that proficiently or liberally since Starswirl turned a dragon into ribbons with its own scales during the war.
“Then where are the bodies?” Murphy asked. “There is no way that anyone could have possibly killed seven dozen griffons in under five seconds and not have left a single body.”
“Dust,” Star said, standing up. “A pony teleported in and turned them to dust, then destroyed that dust.”
“Someone had an issue with your dad’s government, Gilda,” I said, following my daughter’s example. I turned, offering a hoof to the cyan mare behind me. She took it wordlessly, her expression relaying her thanks.
“I felt a massive amount of magic being used,” the male griffon said. “More than I had felt in. . . a long time.”
“What are you talking about?” Gilda asked, turning to him. “How do you ‘feel’ magic?”
“Murphy, we’re talking,” I said. “Right here, right now. No cryptic bullshit like I know your kind are fond of, and no evasions. I want some damned answers, and I’ll get them.”
“ ‘Your kind’? What is that supposed to—” Gilda exploded, launching herself into the air to charge at me. Her assault was halted before it began as the other griffon grabbed her tail.
“Gilda, he meant no insult,” he said. “And he is right, my kind are rather fond of being cryptic. It comes from living a long damn time, we get bored.”
“Wha—” she started, being cut off again.
“About this,” he interrupted, “we won’t find a more private spot to speak for the next few days, will we?”
“No, we won’t,” I growled. “Now talk, who are you, really?”
“It is a long tale that does not take long to tell,” Murphy said. “This tale spans over a thousand years, so you might want to sit down.”
“Talk fast.”
“As you wish. My name is not Murphy, as you probably guessed. I recognized you on the fields because I had met you before. My name is Chance.” He paused, waiting for me to interrupt. When I didn’t, he continued, “After Celestia used you and your friends as a weapon against me, I knew I had to leave. Nowhere in Equestria was I safe from her.
“I fled to the Empire and told Gil everything I knew, which was more than Celestia thought I did. He offered me amnesty from her false crimes and a place to live for as long as I needed it. I accepted his gracious offer, integrating myself into griffon society. It was not unusual for a griffon to not know anyone around him so soon after the war, after all.
“Fifty years later, I was called to Gil’s side. He had discovered a plot by Celestia to kill him and plant a figurehead, thus bringing the Empire under her full control. He asked me to enchant your armor and the room where he had built your sarcophagi. When I was done with that, he shared his vision of what he thought the Empire should be with me and asked that I keep his Empire as close to it as I could. It was the least I could do after all he had done for me.
“After Gil died, he appointed my disguise as his successor, thus denying Celestia her easy entry into the Empire. I ruled for twenty years, before faking my death on the eve of my twenty-first anniversary to allow another to take over. Whenever Celestia tried to put a puppet on the throne, I took it from her for at least a decade. Easily one in six emperors were actually me, I just haven’t done the math yet.
“Fast forward to the modern day. For the last thousand years—and even when I masqueraded as emperor—I remained celibate. Being immortal has its perks, but it is more outweighed by the downsides, the main one being watching everyone you know and love die slowly while you don’t age. This life, I faked being a griffon born in the farthest reaches of Equestria and integrated myself into the military. I got close to one of the scouts, just returned from Equestria. I couldn’t let myself become attached to her, but every request for a transfer was denied. We were too good a team to break up. Just a day after the forty-second denial of my request for transfer, we ran into you.
“Imagine my surprise when you told me that Luna knew where I was. I suspect that we have the same suspicions about her, so I’ll leave them unsaid. Within hours, I was surprised again when I felt you trying to eat the enchantment I had built onto the door nearly a thousand years ago. As soon as I had verified that it was indeed you, I broke the enchantment, allowing you to eat it. Within an hour, I had grabbed Gilda and we were waiting just outside the door for the trial to end so we could hear the results. I felt a massive amount of magic being used inside the door, and burst in. I assume I was only seconds too late to see who it was?” he ended with a question aimed at me.
“Moments. I had time to say a single sentence before you burst in,” I told him.
“Do you have any indication of who it could have been?” he asked.
“Now wait a single damn second!” Gilda burst into the conversation. She turned to Murphy/Chance. “What the hell was all that?”
“The truth, my dear Gilda,” he said with enough suave to bring entire crowds of women to their knees. Rainbow Dash and Star looked at him like he was crazy, which he honestly was by our standards—being a near-deity of chaos, and all.
GIlda, for her part, just glared at him. “You applied to be transferred forty-two times so you wouldn’t be attached? We’ve been partners for four years, Murphy!”
“Gilda, if we could continue this conversation in private?” he suggested.
“Nothing you say to me can’t be said in front of them, damn it!” she snapped. “No evasions.”
“What about that time you got drunk?” he asked.
“What time? There were a lot of times I got drunk!” Gilda exclaimed.
“The time that you threw yourself at me,” he replied.
“I wouldn’t–I wouldn’t do that!” she said, reddening.
“I distinctly remember you begging me to rut you ‘like an animal’, and that you were ‘feeling like going wild’ that night,” he said simply.
Gilda’s face was red as a tomato, and I was worried about her passing out from all the blood in her head. “I would not!”
“You even promised to get out your box of toys and use them in front of me for as long as I wanted,” he continued.
“How do you even know about—”
“And, soon before you passed out, you shoved my claw in your crotch, saying that I just didn’t know how much you wanted me,” he finished.
“Why are you saying this in front of them!” Gilda shouted, pointing mostly at Star. “There’s a twelve year old kid there!”
Star mumbled, "Twelve and a half. . . ."
“Because anything I can say to you can be said in front of them,” he replied, “so I did. Does that not make you happy?”
“We’re talking privately!” she hissed, turning and walking out of the room. When he didn’t follow her immediately, she stuck her head back into the room. “Murphy, any time now!”
He jumped at her re-entry, bolting after her. I laughed at his antics. He was an undying being of almost limitless power, and he was submissive to a regular, run-of-the-mill griffon.
Rainbow Dash looked at me, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. “I’m not sure if I should be turned on or disturbed.”
“Eww!” Star exclaimed. “Save that for when I’m not around!”
I looked over at the crippled flier, before smirking at her. “Looks like you’re both, Rainbow Dash.”
She groaned. “You’re never using a nickname, are you?”
“Nope!” I exclaimed with an impish grin. I suddenly turned serious. “We’re going to have to tell Custos that his father’s dead, aren’t we?”
“Gilda seemed to handle it well,” Star pointed out.
“She was distracted. It hasn’t settled in, yet,” I said. "Give it a few hours, a day at most."
"This won't be fun," Rainbow Dash said.
"No, but it will be necessary," I said. "We might as well get it over with."
We walked in silence through the palace. The part we were in was a thousand years old, so I sort of knew my way around. It still took nearly an hour for us to reach the emperor's quarters. When we did, though, Custos was there in his usual spot by the door.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Custos," I opened.
"I assume you were found innocent?" He snarked.
"Were that the knews I had to deliver," I said. "I'm afraid your father was murdered by an unknown assailant during the senate meeting, as were the entire senate."
He stared at me sideways. "He told me you were a liar, I just didn't realize how bad you were at it."
"He's not lying, Custos," Star said. "The entire senate and all their aides were dusted, then the dust was destroyed."
He looked at her, before turning back to me. "Your spawn has inherited your skill at lying."
"She's adopted," the cyan flier piped up.
"Look," I said, "we aren't lying. What purpose would we have to lie?"
"Get me to declare myself Emperor and facilitate my father's death."
"You don't have to worry about that, I promise you. Murphy and Gilda were right outside when it happened. Ask them."
"I think I'll do just that," he said, brushing past me. "I look forward to destroying you for your lies."
We watched him leave in a huff. I looked over at Rainbow Dash. “Angry child.”
“Very,” she agreed.
“He has issues,” I said.
“Oh yeah,” she replied.
“Want to head back to the bunk?” I asked.
“Cuddle?” she asked back.
“Sounds like a plan,” I replied, walking back down the hallway. We walked side-by-side, with Star just behind us. My daughter jumped into the room she shared with Gilda as we passed it, while Rainbow Dash and I kept going until we reached the room we bunked in.
As soon as the door closed behind us, I started shaking. I sunk slowly to the ground, letting out a shaky breath. Rainbow Dash looked at me in worry. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Holy shit,” I replied. “Holy shit.”
“Streak,” she said, walking to my side, “you need to calm down.”
“Calm down? Rainbow, you almost died!” I exclaimed. Neither of us noticed until later the lack of her full name.
“I understand that you’re freaking out, I’m freaking out too. You almost died, you have an excuse to freak out,” she tried to soothe me.
“I don’t give a damn if I die,” I said. “I’ve died twice already and crawled back from them with relative ease. What I’m worried about is you and Star. Dying sucks, and there is no guarantee that you two could come back from it.”
She sighed, laying down next to me. “Just don’t think about it. Talk to me, what are your plans?”
I latched onto the opportunity for a distraction. “We can’t stay in the Empire. Custos won’t be happy with us, and Luna has a bead on us.”
“Then what do we do?” she asked me. “We can’t go back to Equestria.”
“There are three places left for us that I know of. The minotaur clans, the dragon lands, and the Everfree Forest,” I said. “In order of preference.”
“Why is the Everfree Forest at the bottom of that list?” she asked me, draping her uninjured wing across my back. “Wouldn’t it be less dangerous than the dragon lands?”
“Proximity to Canterlot,” I explained. “If we’re less than a day’s travel from the capital of Equestria, that’s no good.”
“You do have a point,” she said before standing up. “Hey, let’s move to the bed, it’s much more comfortable.”
I nodded dumbly, standing up with her. We climbed onto the bed, lying down next to one another. She gave me a nudge, saying, “Hey, I left something out yesterday.”
“Hmm?” I asked.
“This isn’t the kind of thing I’d normally tell you, but you deserve to know. I want you to keep this to yourself, alright?” she said.
“Alright,” I replied.
“Promise me,” she said. “This is the kind of thing I want to tell by myself.”
“I promise,” I said. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
She gave me a face. “ ‘Hope to die’?” she asked. “That’s not how it goes.”
I cocked my head slightly to the right. “Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye if I lie.”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she corrected, doing some strange ritual involving pantomiming sticking a cupcake into your eye. “It’s a Pinkie Promise. You don’t break those.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because losing a friend’s trust is the best way to lose that friend,” she said in a voice that suggested that she was quoting a phrase oft-said by another.
“FOREVER!” Pinkie shouted with an exaggerated angry face, popping out of the drawer on the bedside table closest to us. She looked over at me and her face morphed into a smile. “Oh, Hi Streak! We miss you!” With that, she dropped swiftly back into the drawer. Right as she was no longer visible, it slammed closed.
I scratched my head, opening the drawer. I was half expecting to see a flat pink party pony, but instead all I got was an empty drawer. “Wha—”
“Don’t try to understand Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash cautioned. “She’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
“But—” I tried again.
“Twilight tried to understand one facet of her craziness and nearly got eaten by a hydra,” she deadpanned.
“I guess that I’ll. . . just leave that alone,” I said slowly, closing the drawer. I looked back to her. “You were saying?” I prompted.
“Right, I want you to Pinkie Promise that you won’t tell anyone,” she said completely serious.
“You’re kidding, right?” I asked. She just stared right into where my eyes would be if they were visible. I saw no trace of jest in her gaze. Sighing, I said, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
“You have to do the motions,” she said.
I rolled my eyes, saying it again with the motions attached.
She smiled as I finished, before bursting out laughing. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you actually did it!” she roared in laughter. “Oh, my sides!”
I deadpanned at her as she rolled around on the bed. "Are you about done?" I asked.
"Oh, man. I needed that before moving on," she said, suddenly sobering up. "Remember how I said my dad showed me the papers telling me that my kid was adopted in Ponyville?"
"You mentioned them," I said.
"Well, they were faked. My daughter was never in Ponyville."
"Are you sure?" I asked. "It's possible that she was and you just didn't run into each other."
"I lived in Ponyville for nearly a decade, Streak," she said. "It's a small town, small enough that Pinkie knows the names, faces, birthdays, and anniversaries of every single resident."
"Then how are you so certain?" I asked. "How do you know they didn't move before you got there?"
“Because I found my kid,” she said looking down.
"That's great news!" I said.
"Yeah," she mumbled. "Excellent news."
"There's something you aren't telling me," I said, looking directly at her. "What are you leaving out?"
"I found her days ago in a hotel room after being broken out of jail," she said, tearing up. "Streak, Star is my daughter."