//------------------------------// // Hero // Story: August Fifteenth // by Nicknack //------------------------------// The evenings after a successful S.O.S. raid, I had my routine just like everyone else on the squad. At five o’ clock in the afternoon, we were done with our patrols; before we could leave, we had one last debriefing from our lieutenant, paperwork, one drink at the bar as a squad, and then, finally, the walk home. I didn’t know what lay in store for them after we parted ways, but when I walked through my front door, I got the same thing I got every night I returned home: A hero’s welcome. No one came to greet me in the hallway, but that wasn’t what I needed. I smelled dinner cooking, so I stepped into the kitchen. In there was my wife, Comet, caught in her usual dance of caring for a fussy Corona and a trio of bubbling pots. My wife looked up briefly from the high chair and stove, nodded at me, and smiled. “Hey you.” “Hey yourself.” I smiled back at my wife and picked up our tiny daughter—yet, I reminded myself, she was almost twelve months old now. Corona calmed down from whatever was bugging her as I gently bounced her on my shoulder. To Comet, I asked, “How’re you two doing?” “Surviving.” She mocked strain in her voice, but still lowered it before turning her full attention to our dinner. “How many weeks until school starts again?” I coddled our youngest for a moment before answering, “Eleventeen.” That made Comet to slowly look at me, hiding a chuckle in her raised eyebrow. “What?” I shrugged my non-childbearing shoulder. “You’re the one with a fancy high school degree. They never taught my class the fancy stuff like numbers, or counting…” All Comet did was shake her head and chuckle at the stove. She stirred something that looked like sauce before changing the subject: “Dinner’ll be ready in twenty, so if you want your shower…” I put Corona back in her high chair before nodding. “I do.” Deeper in the house, in our living room, my other two kids were busy playing a board game. Moonshine was facing me, so he smiled and waved first. “Hi dad!” Hailey turned around to smile at me as I walked over to their game. I wasn’t well-versed with the rules enough to know who was winning—when we played inside, I usually let my kids tell me who won and when—so I just smiled and loomed over them. “You two playing nice?” I put a hint of warning into my voice; on Tuesday, things had apparently gotten violent between them. “Yeah.” Hailey nodded. “Mmhmm.” Her brother agreed. “Come play with us!” I nodded. “I’ve got to clean up for dinner, so after we eat.” A pause, then I added: “Unless your mom’s got chores for me. Then after that.” They sounded a little disappointed at that, and I was, too, but a little disappointment built character—or at least patience. Plus, S.O.S. raid or no, I’d been out in a metal suit in a hot city for most of the day; there was a practical matter to my post-shift shower. Once I made it to the bathroom, I started the water and grinned. When it was hot enough, I climbed in the tub, closed the curtain, turned the shower on, and lay down on my back. As the warmth washed over my abdomen and carried away most of the day’s stress, I tried to remember who first gave me the idea for showering like that. It wasn’t Iron; he didn’t have a shower. My dad would’ve thought the whole thing wasteful, given how tight our budget had been growing up. It wasn’t Comet, since she couldn’t lie on her back. That left someone in the Guard, but as I inhaled the steam from my hot torrent, I found it harder and harder to care about anything in particular. For twenty minutes, I lay like that, and I was the happiest stallion in the world. I had my wife, my kids, my home… and that was something worth fighting for. Every day in the Artisan District, I potentially put my life on the line patrolling the roughest part of a rough city. I was beginning to notice that I was starting to get older, too: injuries stayed longer than they used to, and it took more and more sparring in the ring to keep my reflexes razor-sharp.   One day, I would have to admit that I couldn’t keep going; else I would die learning that lesson.   For the time being—at least for the next few years or so—I had all the motivation I needed. I was a protector of the peace and avenger of the innocent. When I came home to four of the ponies who meant the world to me, all I needed was the knowledge that I’d helped keep their city safe for them for one more day. That was my hero’s welcome. It wasn’t as dramatic as Walhall or some of the other parts of her culture that my partner talked about, but my reward was a lot more grounded in reality. Though, in her defense, it didn’t sound like she literally believed her myths and legends. However, I’d never found it in me to ask, “Do you really believe that?” Given our history, it might come off as offensive. That made me grin. Even two years after meeting Gilda, I found it weird how much I trusted a griffin, of all things. But that was part of who she was, just like I was a pegasus, and I’d honestly given up counting the times we’d saved each other’s lives. The bathroom door opened, which brought me back down from gods and philosophy. Down on earth, Comet poked her head through the shower curtain at my feet. She looked down at me, shook her head, and withdrew. Moments later, her head popped through the curtain on the other end of the tub, and she smiled down at me. Hot cascades of water matted her mane down to her head, and I slicked it back as she leaned down into a kiss. I held her there as long as I could—her presence only improved my nirvana—but she pulled up out of my loose grip before things went too far. When she spoke, her voice was quiet: “Dinner’s ready.” I nodded up at her. “Thanks.” There, in the bathroom, was probably some of our only private day time together. She knew it, too, which let her bring up some of the things we never talked about in front of our kids. “Did everyone make it out okay?” Another quick nod. “Yeah. We hit ‘em before they even set up shop; hard and fast. Never saw us coming. No deaths on either side.” Comet, as a rule, didn’t like violence. I had to admit, too, that she was right to fear that one day, I’d end up on the wrong end of it. At the same time, I was one of the few guards who could actually handle the rigors of S.O.S. I owed them what I could give, and anything less would be a shortcoming to my duty to the Guard. So while I wouldn’t say she liked the idea of me getting suited up and knocking down criminal organizations, Comet at least understood why I had to. That was what I saw in her little nod back down at me before she added, “I’m glad.” I turned the shower off with my back hoof and used my front limbs to pull myself up into a sitting position. Once I was eye-level with Comet, I grinned. “Truth be told, there isn’t any real danger with Iron’s fiancée there—” “He asked her?” Comet’s eyes lit up. I shook my head. “No, not yet, but ‘as soon as the time is right’. With him, that means he’s decided on it, but it’ll be like a week to six years before he does it.” She chuckled, so I continued, “But yeah. She broke a guy’s ribcage. So that’s gonna be in the news, despite how the guy was rushing her with a knife.” Comet stared flatly at me. “Assaulting a griffin? Do these criminals ever learn?” “I know, right?” I shrugged. “And with a knife? Who does that?” She didn’t find it as amusing as I did, which put an end to our little tub talk. Comet grabbed her towel and started drying her mane; I followed her lead and got out to start drying my coat off. When we were both presentable, Comet lingered by the door for just a moment. I walked up and turned to face her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw our fogged-up reflections in the mirror over the sink; her green blur leaned up to my blue one as I leaned down— Knocking interrupted us. “Mom, are you in there?” Hailey asked through the door. Comet failed at hiding her agitation in a stretched out, “Yep.” “Can we eat soon? I’m hungry!” “In a minute. Get your brother and set the table.” “’K.” I waited for a moment before saying something to Comet; in that time, she leaped up and gripped my neck with hers in a hug. I ran a hoof down her back, pulling her closer; she craned her head back to give me a quick peck on the lips. After she dropped back down to the floor, I offered my right foreleg to her, just like at our wedding. “Shall we?” She linked her arm in mine and nodded. “We shall.” I mouthed the door open, and the two of us walked to dinner together. It was all the hero’s welcome I could ever ask for.