After eating a delicious breakfast, Cliff returned to the infirmary to hear loud crying coming from Dusk’s and Storm’s ward. He dashed in quickly to see Ashley crying into Dusk’s fur and Dusk comforting her, stroking her scales. “I’m alright, don’t worry.” Dusk reassured her. Ashley just hugged him tighter and cried louder. Storm, who was now awake, saw Cliff enter the room and called out, “Yo Cliff.”
“Hey Storm,” Cliff replied. Dusk simply waved to Cliff as he was trying to calm Ashley down.
When Ashley had cried herself out, she simply lay down beside Dusk, sleeping. Cliff pulled up a chair from the corner of the ward and sat in between the two beds. “Hey so how are you guys feeling?” Cliff asked.
“Better definitely,” Storm replied, “It just sucks that they bound my wings to let them recover.”
“Oh come on Storm,” Dusk said, “You went through that before haven’t you?”
“I guess,” Storm replied leaning down on the bed and looking up at the ceiling.
Cliff turned to Dusk and popped a random question. “So, why did you join the royal guard?”
“Princess Celestia’s insisted for me to do so,” Dusk replied, “Of course I would join.”
“Yeah but, she took you in only after you entered the royal army, correct?” Storm said, joining in the conversation.
“Well, I guess I joined because I felt like I needed to redeem my family line.” Dusk replied, looking into space.
“What is your family line?” Cliff asked.
“I’d rather not talk about it?” Dusk replied stiffly.
Why?” Cliff inquired.
“Cliff, stop,” Storm said, trying to get Cliff off the topic.
“It’s a sensitive topic.” Dusk replied.
“But I told you about my past, which to me is a sensitive topic.” Cliff argued.
“Cliff. Stop.” Storm said, slightly louder.
“I really don’t want to talk about it.” Dusk said, his tone adopting a hint of anger.
“But I-”
“Cliff! Stop!” Storm yelled out, slamming his good hoof on the wall beside him, “I know you’re curious but stop poking at the topic!”
Cliff and Dusk were both taken aback by Storm’s sudden outburst, but they settled down quick enough. “I’m sorry Dusk,” Cliff apologised, “I was being an insensitive clod.”
“It’s okay Cliff,” Dusk replied, “I will eventually tell you guys about it, just… not now.”
“That’s fine, we can wait.” Storm replied, waving a hoof dismissively.
“By the way Storm, How did you join the castle guard?” Cliff asked, turning to the white pegasus.
“Well, I originally joined to enter the royal pegasi guard, but due to my weak physique, I was shafted to messenger service.” Storm replied, blushing out of embarrassment, “Lame story, huh?”
“It’s not that lame,” Cliff replied, “Some of the new recruits’ stories are really scraping the bottom of the barrel.”
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Dusk asked Cliff, “You said your parents passed away right?”
“Yeah,” Cliff replied, looking down at the ground and making circles with his hind hoof.
“I’m just curious to know, how did they die?” Dusk asked carefully.
“Awww c’mon Dusk!” Storm cried out exasperatedly, “Now that’s just plain morbid.”
“No, it’s fine,” Cliff replied, “If you really want to know, I’ll tell you then.”
Dusk and Storm settled down to listen to Cliff’s story. “It was a normal sunny day, me and my parents were having a picnic under the shade of a tree.” Cliff reminisced, “I still remember it like it was yesterday…”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Cliff! Come and get your sandwiches!” A yellow earth pony mare called out to a young colt in the distance.
“Coming mummy!” Cliff called back, running back to her, his brown mane blowing back out behind him. Cliff ran into his mother’s forelegs and embraced her warmly.
“Hey kid! Want a bite?” A red unicorn stallion sitting beside them asked, taking a huge bite of his sandwich.
“No thanks daddy,” Cliff replied, reaching down and picking up a sandwich, “I have my own.”
At this, both parents laughed at how cute their little bundle of joy was. Cliff’s mother put Cliff on her lap and looked out at the scenery. “I must say Sapling, You make the best sandwiches in all of Equestria.” Cliff’s father, Arcane, said, causing Cliff’s mother, Sapling, to blush.
“Awww… you’re just saying that, Arcy.” Sapling replied, playfully chucking Arcane’s shoulder and calling him by his pet name. Arcane looked at Sapling, her beautiful light brown mane pulled back into a ponytail, her tail done in a similar fashion. He leaned in toward her and kissed her.
“You’re still as beautiful as the day I fell in love with you.” He said, his pink eyes glinting in the sunlight.
Sapling was admiring the scenery when she saw a huge, blue hot air balloon come into view. “Look sweety,” She said, pointing to the balloon, “A hot air balloon.” Cliff’s orange eyes opened wide at the strange contraption in the distance. Arcane laughed at his son’s reaction.
“Don’t laugh at him like that Arcy!” Sapling said, playfully tugging at Arcane’s dark green mane.
“Ow ow ow, okay I’m sorry Sapling,” Arcane replied, wincing slightly.
“Mummy,” Cliff said.
“Yes sweety?” Sapling replied hugging the colt tighter.
“Why did the balloon go pop?” Cliff replied, his eyes looking out into the distance.
Sapling and Arcane both looked up and saw that the hot air balloon had indeed sprung a leak. And was crashing straight towards them. Sapling let out a cry of fear, scaring Cliff a little bit while Arcane got on his hooves and began trying to use his magic to stop the hot air balloon but to no avail. Cliff just sat there, rendered immobile out of fear. The balloon began picking up speed and just as it was about to crash into them, Arcane grabbed Cliff and hurled him out of the way. The balloon crashed into the couple, smashing the tree behind them as well. A shocked Cliff regained his senses and ran over to the crash. He began looking around for signs of life and found his mother, seriously injured and bleeding.
“Mummy!” Cliff cried, tearing streaming down his face.
“I’m… so sorry… sweetie…” Sapling managed to say, “But… mummy… doesn’t… have much… time…”
“Mummy! Hang in there! Don’t die!” Cliff screamed, his tears blurring his vision.
“Sweetie…” Sapling whispered, tears welling up in her eyes as well, “Always… remember… daddy… and I… will… always… love… you…” And with that, she passed on.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At this point, Cliff had tears in his eyes. “I’m… so sorry… for making remember something so painful.” Dusk apologised.
“It’s fine,” Cliff replied, wiping his tears away, “You guys were bound to ask sooner or later.”
“You -sob- poor thing!” Storm said between sobs as he too was crying, “I feel -sniff- so sorry -sniff- for you!”
“It’s alright,” Cliff said, “Don’t worry about it.”
Then turning to Dusk he said, “Now you know why I was scared stiff when Storm went out of control.”
“I understand completely.” Dusk said.
There was a silence in the room for a while before Cliff spoke. “So, anypony here have a special somepony?”
“Dusk does,” Storm replied nonchalantly.
“Seriously?” Cliff asked, surprised that the lieutenant of the royal guard could have found love already.
“Well, kind of,” Storm admitted.
“So what’s she like?” Cliff asked, turning to Dusk.
“Well…” Dusk said, then began explaining his short ‘romance’ between him and Twilight.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The next day, Cliff made his way up to Oak Hill, butterflies filling his stomach. As he reached the old oak tree, he saw Oracle sitting under it, reading a book with a pile next to her. “Hey Oracle.” He greeted casually, hiding his nervousness.
“Oh, hi there Cliff!” Oracle greeted, turning to him from her books, “I’m sorry I was so absorbed in my books that I didn’t see you there.”
“It’s quite alright,” Cliff replied. He sat down next to her, peering over her shoulder. “What’re you reading?”
“A book,” Oracle replied seriously. Cliff gave her a disapproving stare.
“Okay, okay, it’s a book on how to utilise magic more efficiently,” Oracle said, holding the book in front of him with her magic.
“Why would you need to read something like that?” Cliff asked, slightly surprised that it was even possible to do so.
“Well, I have to help organise Princess Celestia’s library,” Oracle explained, “As a result, it is extremely taxing to concentrate for hours in order to arrange books.”
Then she turned to Cliff, a glint in her eyes. “Furthermore, I get the privilege of borrowing as many books as I want without paying!”
“I suppose you like free things,” Cliff said cautiously. The last thing he wanted was to make her feel upset or angry.
“I guess so,” Oracle replied, returning to her book, “But honestly, what’s there not to love about free stuff?”
He had to agree with her. Anypony would love to have items free of charge. An awkward silence permeated the air as Oracle continued reading her book.
“Umm… Why did you ask me to meet you out here?” Cliff asked monotonously, getting a better hold of his emotions.
“Well, I wanted to show you this,” Oracle said, getting up. She moved around the tree and pointed at its side. The tree was obviously misshapen, flatter and broader here than anywhere else on the tree.
“I found this irregularity here,” She said, “And since I did, I cannot figure out why It is like this.”
“Er, well, you see…” Cliff said, stumbling over his words, “Um… That would be my doing…”
“Huh?” Oracle asked, puzzled.
Cliff then began to explain how he has been using the tree to train his muscles. Then he showed her how he could pound and damage the tree.
“Impressive!” Oracle commented, clapping her hooves together, “This is amazing! I’ve never seen anypony do any kind of damage to this tree in my life!”
Cliff began to blush, despite his best efforts at remaining stoic. Oracle giggled at the sight.
“You’re cute when you do that,” She remarked, causing him to blush even more. She proceeded to pick up her books with her magic.“Sorry, but I have to leave now,” She said, “Gotta go put these books back before dinner.”
“Need a hoof?” Cliff asked, offering his hoof.
Oracle smiled warmly at him. “Why thank you Cliff.”