//------------------------------// // 33 - False Hope // Story: Storm Of Secrets // by Beware The Carpenter //------------------------------// Need necessitated that, for the moment, the orphans trust Straight Hack, but Storm waited every day for the dream to turn into a nightmare, or for Straight Hack to finally demand the price for all of his 'kindness'. After the first day however, Storm had concluded that Straight Hack required healthy foals for whatever purposes he had planned for them, and so was willing to accept his luxurious hospitality until Silver was well enough to run. The foals woke late in the afternoon to Straight Hack holding a tray with a jug of juice, three cups, three plates and a heaping pile of flat bread-like pastries he called pancakes. There were strawberries, and cream, and something unbelievably sweet and just as sticky which Straight Hack told them was maple syrup. Everything seemed to be going great until Silver tried to pour another cup of juice while eating a pancake and spilled the jug all over the blankets, the mattress, and her bandages. Both the orphans froze in fear, certain that Straight Hack would be furious for them ruining his spare bed; what he did do was something neither of them could have imagined. He ran them a bath. For foals who had gotten use to washing themselves by rolling in puddles of cold rain water, a hot bath was an unfathomable luxury. Straight Hack filled the bath almost to Silver's neck and then but in a packet of something called epsom salts which he said would help their wounds heal faster. Straight Hack made sure the foals were situated and then left the foals to clean themselves with soft brushes, and something it took the foals to recognize it had been so long since they had seen one. It was a bar of soap. SOAP! Two hours later, two squeaky clean foals, smiling from ear to ear, came trotting out of the bathroom to find that Straight Hack had cleaned Silver's bed so it was like new and moved Storm's bed into what had been Silver's room so the siblings wouldn't have to be apart. But lessons born for survival die hard, and Storm still slept curled next to Silver for mutual protection and body heat. After three days Storm plucked up enough courage to ask Straight Hack about why he had a huge knife for a cutie mark. The 'sword' as Straight Hack had called it came from a time when he served in the 'Royal Guard' when he was much younger. After getting injured and being forced to retire, Straight Hack's marefriend left him when he told her that his injury had left him unable to have kids. (As morbid as it sounds, Storm was actually glad when he learned about the injury because it meant Straight Hack wasn't just waiting for the right opportunity to hurt Silver. Though if he had listened for it, Storm would have heard the damp loneliness in Straight Hack's voice when he admitted he'd never had his own family.) The moon waxed in the heavens, and as it did so too did the bellies of Storm and Silver who no longer felt like orphans, as did their trust in their new host. Nevertheless, Storm never lost sight of their need to leave as soon as Silver was well enough to travel, and from the first day he began snatching little bits of imperishable foods from whatever Straight Hack gave them, and keeping it in a stache, under the bed. Two weeks after arriving, Storm woke Silver an hour past midnight and told her that it was time to leave; the two had argued in hurried whispers until Storm finally conceded to stay two more days, and not a minute longer. Three days later Storm was growing restless. At the time it had seemed like pure coincidence, but later it became obvious that Straight Hack had guessed Storm's intentions, when he offered to teach Storm some fighting moves he'd learned in the 'Royal Guard'. Storm thought it might be a trick, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn more about such a critical life skill. The two of them began training for hours each day, with Silver on a couch in the corner, watching them closely until she was well enough to join them. Straight Hack had a way of making everything seem easy; there were so many little things that Storm had been doing wrong whenever he fought until then and it was the little things that made all the difference. Once Straight Hack showed him the right way it seemed so obvious that Storm only wondered why he'd never figured it out before. Both foals improved rapidly under Straight Hacks training, (Silver advancing even faster than Storm for a short time because she had less wrong habits she needed to unlearn), and they practiced their new found skills on the dogs who had attacked Silver until they ran out of targets. When they were nearing completion of what Straight Hack regarded 'basic training', Storm decided that he wanted to really impress Straight Hack before they left, and began sneaking outside at night to practice. When it started raining heavily Storm was glad, it covered the noise he was making, meaning less effort to remain quiet, more effort for training; then the foals spent another week with Straight Hack, waiting for Storm to get over his cold. The day Storm got his voice back, Silver was squealing with delight because a new show had just scheduled to open in the town based off her favorite book from before mom and dad died... but seeing it meant staying two more weeks with Straight Hack. After the show it was late autumn and so Straight Hack suggested that they might as well stay the winter. After that, no one mentioned the foals leaving again; no one wanted them to. ............................................................................................................................................................ Shining Armor plodded along for mile after mile, ignoring the constant protest from his aching muscles, he forced himself to keep going. Must protect Twilight. This sector of forest was particularly familiar to him, a few years ago he had served an entire tour in this sector and the forest hadn't changed much since he had gone, except now there were a lot more hills. Must protect Twilight. He kept checking to make sure they really were on the route he thought he was, and cast revealment spells on all the landmarks he recognized to make sure terrormongers weren't leading them astray. Must protect Twilight. Shining Armor stumbled over a rock and then swerved to avoid a tree that someone had moved into his way. Once they were back in Canterlot there would be plenty of time for sleeping; until then sleeping meant dreaming of murdering Twilight, frying his nerves further and making him a beacon for the terrormongers to find them. Must protect Twilight. All his life Shining Armor had honored whatever rules were placed on him; school work was turned in on time, his room at home was kept clean, his hooves polished at every roll call when he was training to be a Royal Guard. None of that mattered now. Here he was protecting his family, and when it came to protecting family, there were no rules. Twilight was suspicious, he knew that but there was nothing he could do. What was he supposed to say? 'Hey Twilight, don't mean to upset you or anything, but it seems destiny has decided that within the next few days I'm going to brutally murder you while you beg for mercy, and then mutilate your body until it's beyond recognition. Love ya.' Why had Storm volunteered to do the body swap with him in the first place? They had never been close and hadn’t parted on good terms, but Storm still volunteered to take the pain for him. Shining Armor had originally taken it as an apology, and a token that he wanted to be friends again or maybe as thanks for saving his life; but in truth Shining Armor was surprised that Storm wanted anything to do with him. It didn’t matter; Storm had volunteered, they had swapped and now Storm was virtually incapacitated, in the deep forest, with Cadance who was totally unprepared for something like this. Unprepared? Could Shining Armor have prepared her? Warned her? Trained her? No. He couldn't have told Cadance about the forest and he remembered why. Shining Armor remembered the train ride back to Canterlot after his first tour of active duty; screams echoing through his mind, images of carpets of dead bodies stretching as far as the eye could see, the smell of decaying flesh, the feel of hot blood as it splattered on his coat. One Ranger had gone mad in the forest, and had torn out his own brother's entrails with his teeth; Shining Armor had been almost paralyzed with horror, Storm had run the wild Ranger down and decapitated him like nothing had even happened. He knew he would never be the same again. When he found Cadance, she was sobbing on a park bench. That day she had visited the hospital and met a colt who after an accident, (which was his own fault), might have to have one of his legs amputated. One colt. One leg. One colt she had never met before and had no responsibility for. One leg which if amputated, could easily be replaced by an artificial limb; (the colt wouldn't be able to play sports anymore, but at least he' be able to walk.) Shining Armor held Cadance as she sobbed into his mane, for once not caring who saw them. He wanted to be honest with her, he wanted to answer her questions; but more than that he wanted her to be happy. He wanted the world to be a nice place for her, a world of palaces and gardens and little foals playing happily in the streets. A world where the only injuries were accidents and the unfortunate few who had them would be taken care of in brightly colored hospitals, with ice cream, clowns and movie nights on Saturdays. He didn't want her to see the world of carnage and hatred that existed outside of Equestria's borders. He loved her and had sworn to protect her from anything that would hurt her; on that day he learned that the truth was one of those things. He had now failed in that promise. ............................................................................................................................................................ Cautious weeks with Straight Hack turned to joyful months, which in turn grew into blissful years. Storm took to sleeping in his own bed, and later his own room as thoughts of needing to preserve body heat and take turns keeping watch faded into memory. Straight Hack told the foals more about his life, much of it spent with a secret army Rangers, who fight a hidden war to keep Equestria safe, and after the first winter, the foals were ready to open up about their own past. They told him about their parents and their lives before becoming orphans; growing up in a small mining town located somewhere between oblivion and nowhere. Their family had been poor, but happy, until the day when the mine collapsed, burying both their parents along with half the adults in the town. They joined the rest of the town in digging for survivors and for the first few days they were hopeful, certain that at any moment mom and dad would walk from the rubble and then they would all go home. But as the days wore on they began feeling anxious, then desperate as their parents remained nowhere to be seen, and those survivors who were pulled from the rubble became fewer and each less alive then the last. When at last, after a week of broken spades and broken hearts, they finally found their parents, crushed side by side under a tsunami of earth, there was nothing they could do except rebury them; with a wilted desert flower for each of them and two rivers of tears. The company went bankrupt. Rumors abounded that the company had been merely a front for a much larger corporation, created to absolve some distant and unreachable collection of millionaires of any legal responsibility for the workers or their families, now that the mine was no longer profitable. Whether the rumors were true or not, mattered absolutely nothing to Storm or Silver; their parents were dead, their home was destroyed and no one was coming to help them. They stayed in the town longer than most of the other survivors, cradling each other in the remains of their broken home, hoping vainly that something would somehow change, but nothing did. When the last of the food in their pantry ran out, they were left with no choice but to leave the town, along with everything they’d ever known. Some of their friends who left town before them, had gone to an orphanage in Trottingham and had sent back a letter saying it was nice there and that Storm and Silver should join them. They went to the orphanage, but when they arrived, the director had insisted that their friends had never been there, but seemed so eager for new wards that Storm was afraid she would pounce on them. The foals scampered off into the night, began running and didn’t stop for nearly three years. Spurred on by every dark rumor they heard of orphanages and foster care, they chose the cold hunger of homelessness, rather than consigning to letting themselves simply disappear like their friends. After their first week without shelter and with little food, the foals began stealing to support themselves. Their first attempts were met with delicious success leading Storm to become bolder which lead to him being beaten to within an inch of his life. After that, Storm forbade Silver from stealing and only stole himself when one of their lives depended on it, which in winter became far more often than he had first imagined possible. They learned to stowaway on trains, and found snug, warm little compartments in them, that few ponies knew about, where they could sleep. They learned what words were most likely to earn tangible pity from strangers and what sorts of restaurants threw out the best food. They learned warning signs on what sort of ponies might seem friendly to cover up ulterior motives and to recognize what parts of towns wouldn't be safe after nightfall. They learned funerals tended to have a lot of food at them, and if they showed up before the eulogy, they could invent a cover story about how they knew the deceased and the chances of getting a good meal were high. Overall; they learned to survive. Storm told Straight Hack about getting his cutie mark; how when passing through Stalliongrand they'd learned there was a five hundred bit reward for information regarding a recent murder, and decided it couldn't hurt to try some amateur detective work. Their investigation hit a serious snag when it became apparent that if someone did know something, and wouldn't tell the police for five hundred bits, they weren’t going to tell a couple of kids, because they had asked nicely. The escapade ended with the foals running for their lives through the backstreets of Baltimare chased by several, large, shouting ponies. They had almost been caught when the foals managed to link their magic, giving Storm enough energy to perform a duel teleport, hiding them behind a pile of crates. Their pursuers passed them, and were out of earshot within a minute, but the foals still stayed hidden for hours, emerging only after night had fallen. As they wandered the streets on their way back to the train station, a passing streetlamp told them their investigation hadn't been entirely in vain. Most of the time they thought only about how they were going to eat and stay warm that day, or get medicine when one of them was sick; but sometimes in summer when it was warm and food was more common, or after a lucky hit stealing they would have more then they needed for that day, but these weren’t necessarily their happiest times. It gave them time to think, really think about how their parents died, to contemplate with ever imaginative horror what had happened to their friends from the orphanage, to rankle over how horrid the world was, and wonder with increasing despair what was going to become of them. It was times like this that their situation seemed most hopeless, and it was times like those that Storm’s short temper often caused unnecessary grief for both of them. They survived mostly on food left outside or in dumpsters; though sometimes they would find little odd jobs and could buy food without risking stealing, but they never stayed any one place for long. If they stayed somewhere, then ponies would get to know them and anyone looking to take advantage of them would realize how vulnerable they really were. But if they only stayed for a few days, they could pass themselves off as having gotten lost from their parents for a few days on a cross country trip to a doctor for whichever one of them pretended to be sick, (though often they weren’t pretending), and just needed a meal while they waited for their parents to find them. That was usually enough to get something; but they never tried to get more than their story justified and any invitations to a house for a meal or to wait for their parents sent them running. They refined the story over the seasons, and tailored it to their audience, but the ideas were always the same; they sincerely needed help, but if something happened to them, someone would be coming to look for them soon. That last bit was important; it added protection against predators and… it felt good to say. If they said it often enough they could almost believe that it was true; tomorrow good people were coming to help them, tomorrow their problems would all be over, tomorrow they’d have a family and a home, always tomorrow, never today. They moved constantly; most nights sleeping in the bowls of a train, driven on by Storm’s constant fear that someone was looking for them. They tried as much as possible never to visit the same town twice partially least someone recognize them and see through their story, but also because they didn’t like revisiting places with bad memories. In those two years they traveled further and visited more places than many ponies saw to their lifetime; yet never found themselves living outside of fear, or very far from death. Those days were over now however, and both foals truly believed that their nightmares were past, now that Straight Hack had found them. Storm grew into a young stallion and watched Silver mature into a young mare; but before that happened they had the opportunity to be kids again. For Storm's fourteenth birthday, Straight Hack took them on a train to the beach. It was the first time the foals had ever seen the ocean and having grown up in a desert, the sight of so much water in one place was mind boggling. Storm ran wildly through the waves in a vain attempt to keep the tide coming in while Silver scurried up and down the beach collecting every sea shell she saw, occupied or not. The best thing happened at dinner when Straight Hack gave Storm his present. At first Storm was disappointed when all he got was a piece of paper with some writing on it, but when Straight Hack explained how this represented a collage fund in his name he couldn't thank him enough for it. Straight Hack had promised that Silver would get one too for her fourteenth birthday, but when he learned the foals had agreed to share Storm's collage fund in the meantime he caved in and gave Silver hers just a few months later on her eleventh birthday, (after a return trip to the ocean of course). The foals were ecstatic; Silver wanted to and learn more about sea creatures (or marine biology as Straight Hack called it), Storm... Storm wasn't sure what he wanted to study, but the idea of going to collage was still exciting. They lived too far out of Balitmare to visit on a regular basis, or for the foals to attend school and so aside from Silver's ferocious letter writing campaign to find a pen pal who lived on a houseboat so she could visit, they led fairly solitary lives. Morning would see them all up at the crack of dawn, practicing with their hooves, magic or weapons from Straight Hack's collection of knives and swords (except for the antiques). After that they would tend to their vegetable garden where they grew more food than they ever needed and Straight Hack would do what he could to further their education. Evenings they would all relax around the fireplace; Storm would lounge on a bean bag close to the fire and would let Straight Hack sit Silver on his lap as he read them a story. One of Storm's most treasured memories was the look on Straight Hack's face, the first time Silver ever called him 'dad'. The spring after they had arrived, the three of them had been in the garden together and it just came out. Straight Hack froze for almost a full minute, tears brimming in his eyes before he softly asked her to say it again... and again. Soon both foals were cheering the magic word over and over 'dad, dad!' as they tackled the weak kneed stallion to the garden floor, the three of them, rolling and laughing together. Straight Hack knew that he had found his family; Silent Storm and Silver Thorn knew that they had found their home.