//------------------------------// // Home // Story: Home // by The Boss //------------------------------// The small town of Ponyville bustled as usual, ponies went about their daily lives as they did everyday. They managed their stalls and purchased their goods, fillies and colts played in the school yard. They screamed and shouted at each other, enjoying the games that only they knew. In the fields, farmers moved about harvesting their various crops and preparing them for storage over the winter. It was to this backdrop that he arrived, looking tired and hungry he trotted towards the town. His light brown fur was covered in dust, as was his greying mane. His back was strong, an olive green duffle bag sat upon it. His left, lonely green eye scanned the road ahead, while the socket that had held the other was covered by a leather patch. As he walked, he looked at the playing foals. They were happy, and innocent. In the end that was all that mattered, they hadn’t seen what the stallion had seen, or known what the stallion had known. He smiled faintly before continuing to walk, hoping to find his sister in this cheery town. It had been seven years since he had last seen her face, for all he knew she could have moved on. If that was the case, he would find a place to rest for the night and continue on to Canterlot. Hopefully they would be more accepting of him here than in Applewood, his blood boiled as he thought of the city. “Bucking maggots.” He growled, the thoughts were shaken from his head as he tripped on a root and stumbled a bit. From that point on he paid attention to the road, occasionally looking at the scenery or hearing the birds chirp. His hooves made contact with the cobble stones that made up the towns streets, he was getting closer. The ponies of the town glanced at him every now and then, it wasn’t everyday they had a visitor looking like him visit the town. He paid them no mind, until he realised he needed directions. His eye wandered around until they fell on a stall selling apples, he slowly made his way over. Selling the apples was an orange mare and a stallion that was slightly bigger than he was, they looked like decent ponies. The orange mare looked up and saw him, she didn’t even bat an eyelash at his missing eye. “Howdy! Interested in buying an apple family apple?” She asked, the stallion looked at the apples and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I think I would. I’ll take a red and delicious if that would be alright?” He asked, the mare nodded. “Okay, that’ll be two bits.” He lowered his bag off of his back, when he turned the mare got a good look at his cutie mark. It was a battered looking shield with two spears crossed behind it. “Quite an intrestin’ mark you have there mister…” “Shield.” He replied, he shoved something in his bag trying to get at his wallet and a grey steel helmet fell from it. “Sorry.” He picked it up and put it back in the bag before finally finding his wallet. The orange mare must have seen the large dent on the right where his eye used to be, he pretended she hadn't and pushed the two bits towards her. She looked at him for a moment before taking the bits and handing him his apple. “Thank you, could you perhaps give me some directions?” “Uh, sure, ah guess.” She replied, shaking off her initial shock at seeing the size of the dent. “Thank you, ma’am. I’m trying to find a pony named Rainbow Dash.” Shield said, the mare raised an eyebrow. “What do y’all need to see ‘er about?” “I’m an old friend, I heard she lived here but… that was a few years ago.” The mare scowled, in actuality he was her brother. He doubted she had told anyone about him, probably because he wasn’t her real brother, just adopted. She probably thought he was dead, it had been years since he had written to her. “I know where she is, but I can tell y’all is fibbin’.” The big red stallion looked at Shield now, glaring. Shield didn’t wilt though, he had seen worse from the hipsters in Applewood. “What’s yer business with her?” “My business with her is my own, if you don’t want to show me fine. I’ll find her myself.” Shield took the apple and put his bag back over his back. The orange mare watched him, she could hear him grumbling something. “Bucking maggots.” He trotted away, ponies got out of his path as he did. Not wishing to anger whoever he was further. Shield took deep breaths, calming his nerves. He had hoped this town would have been more helpful, but wasn’t surprised that he had been proven wrong. Not many ponies were accepting of others, despite what Sunny kept saying. At least he knew Rainbow Dash was here in Ponyville, and barring any radical personality changes, it would be easy to spot her home. Shield continued onwards until he came upon the town library, it had been retrofitted into some strange castle/public library hybrid. He knew this to be the home of Princess Sparkle, when she was coronated he had been overseas. He’d never seen an actual picture of her, all he heard was that she was an Element of Harmony. Whatever those were, they were supposed to be the best of the best. He didn’t really pay attention to news like that, he didn’t even know the names of the other element bearers, that type of news was what his old commissioned officers would care about. Stallions like him only cared about news that pertained to supplies and casualties, not many ponies knew it but the perfect world they lived in was often only inches away from destruction. Shield shook himself from his thoughts, the less time he spent thinking about what was and wasn’t right the more time he had to look for Rainbow Dash’s house. Would she even recognise him? Seven years is a long time to be away from one another, would she even care? He hadn’t said goodbye the night he left, he hadn’t hugged her or kissed her or told her he would miss her. Would she hate him for that? He had been called to duty, he had no choice, but still he could have done something. If only he had been a better brother. Shield looked around the town, none of the ponies wanted anything to do with him. He sighed and turned down a random street, trying to find the home of his sister. As Shield trotted along he came upon a bridge that went over a river, he stopped on the bridge and looked into the water below. The fish within were trout and other normal fish, how odd it seemed to him. In his travels he had seen coy fish the size of foals, and yet he knew the names of these common fish better than any other. His eye watched the fish for a few moments before a new reflextion joined his in the water. He looked at it’s owner and sighed, not the pony he was looking for. “Oh hello…” The white unicorn mare said, he nodded and looked back at the fish. A feeling of nostalgia washed over him, it seemed so similar to how it had been when he was younger. Before the time when he had been taken in, or needed taking in. When his true mother and father would take him out on a picnic, and his dad would teach him the names of different fish. “I’m sorry if I intrude, but may I ask you a question?” “You just did, ma’am. But go ahead.” He said, not taking his eye off of the fish. “Why do you where that patch over your eye?” Shield looked at her then and sighed, he brought his hoof up and flipped the patch up. The place his eye had been was now sewed up, it still was still a grizly sight. “O-Oh, I see. Sorry. I thought it was a fashion statement of some sort.” “Not your fault, ma’am.” Shield replied, looking back at the water. A serenity seemed to fill him as he did. “Glad it happened.” “Why?” “You don’t want the details, and I don’t feel like opening that can of worms again.” Shield stated, the mare nodded. “I’m Shield Dasher, by the way. Most ponies call me Shield.” “Rarity.” Replied the mare, Shield nodded to the name. “Well, that’s for sure. Not many other ponies talk to me so openly.” said shield, taking in the moving tails of the fish. “Not since Sunny called us back.” He looked up at the castle on the side of the mountain. “Sunny?” “No one important, to me anyway.” Shield said the last part coldly, Rarity could see something in his face was different from any other pony she had seen. “Well, been nice chatting with you Rarity. I gotta go, there’s someone I need to talk to. An old friend.” “Of course.” Rarity didn’t feel compelled to pry into his life as she normally did, another odd thing about him she noticed. He walked the rest of the way over the bridge and towards the center of town, his bag clinking and clanking on his back every so often. If he was going to find the prismatic pegasus, he would start from the center and make his way to the outer circles of town. The first few minutes were fruitless, but he knew he’d find her eventually. He had to. Every step he took was another step towards his goal, he would go to the ends of the earth if he had to. He swore he could hear her voice, so much older and more intelligent. “So when you want to go higher you tilt your wings like this…” He looked up, he could see her. He hadn’t been paying attention and he had found her, with her was a small orange filly he had seen running about on the playground hours before. Was she her filly? No, Dash would never get herself into trouble like that. “When you want to go lower, you tilt them like this…” She was teaching the filly how to fly. Dash, a flight instructor? Faust help the poor foal who was assigned to her. Shield watched her and the orange filly for a few more minutes, not realising the time going by. (Play this now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5qhNRmMilI) “Rainbow Dash?” Asked the orange filly. “Yeah squirt?” “Who’s that?” The filly pointed at Shield, Rainbow Dash turned to see where she was pointing. Her eyes widened as they landed on him. “Scoots, call it a day? I just remembered I need to talk to someone very important.” “Okay!” The Orange filly took off, leaving Rainbow Dash to stare at Shield. She trotted forwards and poked him with her hoof. “Shield?” She asked, poking him again. “Is it really...really you?” A smile crossed Shield’s lip, the same smile he had had when he would play with her and she would do something absolutely adorable. “Hey Dashie.” Was all he could say in reply, no other words came to mind. Rainbow Dash, for all her boasting and self promoting, the mare who controlled her emotions so well, grabbed Shield in a massive hug. Shield dropped his bag and returned the gesture, feeling wetness run down his neck. He could tell she was crying, and he was close to following her. He had thought she would be angry, bitter, that she would hate him. “You’re alive…” She repeated the phrase over and over again, as if stopping would cause him to up and die. “Shh shh shh, it’s okay Dashie. I’m home now.” It didn’t matter that it was in public, or that photos were being snapped, all that mattered was making up for all the lost time. All the missed birthdays and hearths warming eves. “I’m home, and I’m not going away again.” Shield felt himself begin to break, seven years, seven long, lonely years. Shield began to cry, realising the gravity of his own words. “I’m home, for good.”