//------------------------------// // The Royal Graveyard // Story: Dinky and Derpy's Big Adventure // by Echo 27 //------------------------------// Dinky detached herself from her mother’s chest and turned around to stare at the stone statue of the guard, peering at it curiously. She crept over to it, her big round eyes growing ever wider as she came closer. “Who is that, Mommy?” she finally asked. Derpy swallowed the lump in her throat before answering. “He was a member of the Royal Guard many years ago, Dinky,” she said tremulously. “His name was Iron Stead.” “What was his job?” Dinky inquired. “He was a sergeant major,” Derpy answered. Noticing a look of confusion on her daughter’s face, she added, “He helped lead other soldiers. He was very brave.” “Oh.” Dinky stole another look up at the guardpony. “Was he ever in any battles?” Derpy trembled as she nodded, lower lip beginning to quiver. “Yes, he was in a very fierce battle.” “OK,” Dinky replied, apparently satisfied. She trotted along down an alleyway of gravestones, staring at the marble fixtures with a mixture of curiosity and fear. “Where are we?” “This is the Royal Graveyard, Dinky,” Derpy answered softly, watching as Dinky began to look around in reverent awe. “This is where the Royal Guard buries their fallen brothers and sisters.” “Wow! I mean,” Dinky added hastily, “I remember reading about this place in school once. Miss Cheerilee told us about it during history class.” “What do you remember about that lesson?” Derpy inquired. “Miss Cheerilee told us that this is a very special place to all of Equestria, and that we should be quiet and respectful if we were to ever come here,” Dinky whispered. Derpy nodded. “That’s right, Dinky. Very brave ponies are buried here, and they gave everything they had to make sure we stayed safe. They did it for me, you, and everybody.” “They did?” Dinky echoed, awestruck. “They must have been really courageous.” “They were.” Dinky resumed her walk down the alley, this time making sure to tread lightly as she walked, her hooves gently pressing into the earth with each careful step. Derpy watched as the tiny unicorn squinted at the writing on the headstones, trying to decipher the words written upon the worn marble. “Mommy, there’s something underneath this pony’s name,” Dinky said. “I can’t read it very well, can you look for me, please?” Complyingly, Derpy knelt down beside her daughter and pretended to examine the markings on the headstone. She didn’t truly need to. She knew what was underneath by heart. “It says Feath Drang,” she stated quietly. “Where’s that, Mommy?” “It’s in a place very far away from here,” Derpy replied as she stared at the name etched into the marble. Copper Forge, it read. A Private. She had met him only once, right before the deployment. Dinky, her curiosity satisfied, had already moved on to the next headstone, and the one after that. “They all say that same weird place,” she reported. “Are all of the ponies in this graveyard from the same battle?” “Many of them are,” Derpy answered. The two of them moved along slowly through the myriad of graves, occasionally pausing whenever Dinky asked a question. Usually confusion regarding a guardspony’s rank. After all, Derpy thought to herself, most of this knowledge wouldn’t be common to a little filly, particularly in a time such as this. After a while, Dinky came to another row and began to walk down, stopping at the fourth gravestone in the line. “Mommy, what’s this one say?” A memory from long ago, hidden deep within the recesses of her mind, came rushing forth as if bidden by instinct. She knew that gravestone. She knew who lay under it, who had fought and died and come to lay there forever. She would always know. “That is Lance Corporal Crimson Beam,” she answered weakly, not even bothering to humor her daughter by looking at the words. “He fought at Feath Drang.” Dinky looked up at her mother, head cocked to the side, wondering how she knew that so effortlessly. “How did you know that, Mommy?” Derpy squeezed her eyes shut tightly, trying to hold back her tears for a little longer. She knew the time had come now. After the many years of pressing by Berry Punch, along with all the experiences on their journey, she knew this was the moment. She didn’t answer directly, instead walking over to the forest’s edge and began to nose around in the foliage, looking around. “Mommy? What are you doing?” Dinky asked. “How did you know this pony’s name?” “Dinky, have you ever made a solar wreath?” Derpy asked, not pausing to lean over her shoulders and answer her. “Umm, yes,” Dinky said. “A long time ago. Why?” “Do you remember how to make one?” “I think so.” “Then come here, we’re going to make a wreath for Crimson Beam,” Derpy said. Feeling more bewildered than before, Dinky came over obediently and aided her mother in the search for some leaves and branches. When they had found enough -that is, when Derpy said they had found enough- the little unicorn set straight to work, diligently weaving together the wreath, occasionally aided by her mother’s guidance. “Now tie the vine around the branch… No, weave it on the other side, dear… just a little further…” Dinky stepped away from the finished wreath and admired her handiwork. It was a beautifully made wreath, resplendently dressed in wildflowers and tightly woven together. It was almost as big as she was tall. “Now, grasp it at the top, very carefully,” Derpy instructed, her voice beginning to shake uncontrollably. “Now you turn and face the gravestone and go set the wreath right in front of it.” Dinky nodded slowly, her eyes slowly becoming shadowed in anxiety. Ever since they had arrived here her mother had been strange, distant, and –quite frankly- omniscient. She knew something about this place, something that had woven her way into her soul. To the little filly, it felt familiar, yet like nothing she had ever known before. She didn’t know, but her mother certainly did. She walked slowly over to the gravestone, clutching the wreath tightly in her teeth. Her steps became unsteady, her nerves working her way through her body and unsettling her. Derpy watched in agony as her daughter walked forward, tears splashing down her cheeks. After a few moments, she finally managed to choke out, “And then you say ‘Thank you, Daddy.’” Dinky went rigid. Her mouth opened wide in pure shock and the wreath fell from her grasp. Her legs wobbled underneath her and she felt her body start to sway. Nothing, nothing at all, could have ever prepared her for such an answer. She turned around and stared at her mother, as if she could scarcely believe what she had heard. “Mommy?” she whispered, her voice beginning to crack with the tears that had been summoned. “Mommy, was Crimson Beam my Daddy?” Derpy, her face now covered in salty tears, nodded. Dinky abandoned her wreath and ran straight for her mother, wrapping her legs around her as she began to sob. To her horror, she felt something begin to come between them- her own mother’s wings. Derpy detached herself from Dinky’s grasp and walked over to the gravestone, grabbing the wreath gently and placing it lovingly on the grave stone before collapsing next to it in utter grief and heartbreak. Nothing had ever prepared for this. Nothing in her life had ever prepared her to feel such agony, such loss, and to feel it every hour of every day of her life. Nopony had ever told her that there would always be a void, a hole in her heart that would remain unfilled, a piece of herself that would be taken away. She felt ripped, torn, shredded by it all, and found herself able to bear it no longer. She was completely, utterly, alone. A soft nuzzling against her cheek, a brush of fur against her own. Dinky, her own eyes streaming tears, fell next to her mother, crying for the father she had never met. Derpy folded her wings around her daughter, her only child, and the two of them wept together, wept for a past unforgotten and a future lost. Derpy didn’t know how long they lay there. For her, it was an eternity, all the grief and fear she had kept bottled up for so long having finally burst forth from her heavy heart. It wasn’t until she felt Dinky’s presence begin to shift away from her did she in fact realize that she was even still alive. “Why did you never tell me, Mommy?” Dinky asked, hiccupping. Derpy sniffed and rubbed the tears away, rising back to her feet as she tried to assemble some semblance of control. “I… I never knew how to, sweetheart,” she murmured, her eyes gazing longingly at the name written on the headstone. “How could you ever talk about something like this? You Aunt Berry Punch has been trying to get me to tell you, but- but I just didn’t know what to say.” Dinky crept back over to her mother’s side and latched herself to her. “Will you tell me now, Mommy?” she asked. Derpy nodded. “Did I ever tell you I was born in Baltimare?” When Dinky shook her head, she said, “Well, many years ago, I lived in Baltimare, on Cushion Street. I lived there with my parents, one of several families that lived on that street. When I was young, there must have been at least twenty or thirty other children on that street, and we all knew each other. Every day we’d go out and play together in the city, getting into all sorts of trouble and commotion. Sometimes we’d get punished by our parents for what we did, but we’d always go back out and do it all again the very next day! Well, one day, when I was out with my friends, we ran into a couple of bullies and they demanded our lunch money. They were a whole lot bigger than we were, even though there were only three of them to our ten, so we complied and gave them what they wanted. They kept it up for several days until one time, when I was having to walk home alone, they tried to steal my money. But I didn’t have any money that time, just a bag lunch and I told them so. They didn’t believe me, of course, and they were threatening to beat me up for it when suddenly, out of nowhere, comes a big strong unicorn and he tells those bullies to get out of there and to leave me alone. When the bullies didn’t do what he said, that big strong colt just charged straight for them and chased them off. That unicorn was your father, and that was the first day I met him. Your father saw that I’d been really frightened and he was nice enough to walk me home and talk to my parents about what had happened. Before he left, he told me that if I ever needed help with those bullies again that I should come and let him know and he’d deal with them. When he left, I watched him walk out of sight, and I started having a crush on him right from that moment.” “Did he like you back?” Dinky asked. Derpy gave a soft, watery laugh. “Hardly! At least, I don’t think so,” she answered. “Your father was three or four years older than me when I first met him, I was just a little girl. That, and my eyes were already crooked so I wasn’t very pretty.” “I think you’re pretty,” Dinky piped up, receiving a gentle hug in return. “As it turned out, your father and I went to the same school, though he a few years above me, and I always tried to say something to him every time I saw him, even just catch a glimpse of him if I could. To me, he was the biggest, strongest, bravest pony I knew. I guess when I was younger I must have been pretty embarrassing, since every Heart and Hooves Day I left him dozens of notes in his locker. As I got older, I grew up and got a little wiser, and decided to just be friends with him for a change, instead of being an awkward schoolfilly crush that followed him everywhere. For the first time since I’d met him, we actually had a relationship. We knew one another’s likes and dislikes. He liked mornings, I liked evenings. I liked cooking, and he couldn’t cook for all the tea in Canterlot! He and I were very different, but we were such good friends.” “But how did you two end up getting married?” Dinky asked. “We had known each other for so long, neither of us realized that we were beginning to spend more and more time alone, just the two of us. Sometimes he’d invite me over to his house to play games, other times he’d be with me at my house, taste-testing a new recipe I had discovered. After a year or so, right when your father was finishing school, he came and talked to me, saying that he wanted to discuss something really important with me. He said that he’d always been looking around and that he’d never be able to find a pony quite like me so would I like to settle down and marry him. I was so shocked that I couldn’t say anything- your father thought I was going to say no!” “Were you?” Dinky gasped. “I wasn’t very smart- I had barely gotten through basic schooling, and I was working in a bakery in Baltimare as a cook. I wasn’t very pretty, with my horrible cross-eyes and I still would occasionally run into things. But your father had decided that he loved me, a clumsy little girl that had loved him from the moment we had met. I practically knocked him over when I said yes. Now, his parents weren’t very pleased with the whole arrangement, as they had never really thought much of me. They’d call me “Little Miss Dim” whenever they thought I wasn’t listening (“That’s so mean!” Dinky whispered), but your father wanted to get married nonetheless. So when his father demanded to know how he’d try to support himself and a wife with no help from his family, your father stood up real straight and said, “I’ll just go join the Royal Guard!” Your father was away for two and a half months before I saw him again, a newly minted private. He was so happy to see me that he swept me off my hooves, not caring that he was still wearing his dress uniform or that he was making a fool of himself right in front of his new military buddies. He was not once ashamed of me, and I never stopped telling him how much I appreciated that. We got married three weeks later, and the two of us moved to a base near Baltimare. While we were there, your father’s little brother, Red Feathers, decided that he wanted to join the Royal Guard too, so he enlisted and came to live in Baltimare next to us, along with his wife. Do you know who that was?” Dinky shook her head. “It was your Aunt Berry Punch, sweetheart,” Derpy continued. “Whenever Red Feather and your father were away, Berry Punch and I would spend all our time together, along with the other wives who had husbands in the platoon. For three years your father and I had a wonderful life, becoming a happy military family. After a while, I even became pregnant- with you! When I told your father he nearly upended Red Feathers with excitement and Berry Punch had to remind him that since I was pregnant, he couldn’t take me dancing across the sky any which-way. Some months later, word began to go round the base about trouble overseas in the Griffon Kingdom. Ponies said that the griffons were attacking visiting ponies and that Princess Celestia was considering sending troops to stop them. I began to see less and less of your father until finally, one day, he and Red Feathers came back home and told me that they were going to be deployed- they were going to go to war against the Griffon Kingdom. In two weeks, they’d be leaving. He also mentioned that his deployment would keep him away for at least thirteen months, meaning that he wasn’t going to be around when you’d be born. The time finally came and your father gave me a kiss goodbye and promised he’d be back. He and the rest of his company set sail to the Griffon Kingdom to go to war and stop the griffons from killing everybody. He did fine for several months, and I did my best to cope with him away. Berry Punch and I were often together, she helping me do my exercises so I’d be ready when you came along. In fact, during one of the exercises, you suddenly decided to come out, and your Aunt had me rushed to the hospital, and I suddenly found myself holding a little bundle of joy that was you. My daughter, my husband’s little filly, was here in the world, and I could hardly wait for your father to come home and see you. He’d waited for you for so long. But one day, we started hearing the name Feath Drang over and over again. Someone told us that our husbands were engaged in a serious battle there. Berry Punch and I had gone to call on a friend and when we came in, she was crying over a letter that had just been delivered by one of the executive officers. Her husband was dead. Berry Punch and I stayed with her the rest of the day, knowing full well that this could very well be us.” Derpy paused for a moment, taking gulps of air to steady herself as tears began to make fresh tracks across her face. “And then, one day, it was. I was at home when an officer came to my doorstep and handed me a letter that told me Crimson Beam- my husband, my bravest champion, had been killed in action. He was never coming back.” Tears ran silently down her face, grief consuming her ability of speech for a little while longer, her broken vision transfixed upon the gravestone that bore the name of her husband, her valiant defender for so many years. “It was like the world had just ended. First it was your Daddy, then Red Feathers was killed, on and on it went. So many of us lost husbands that day, and none of us knew what to do. Berry Punch came over to my house to check on me a few days later, and the two of us just cried and cried because we had lost the stallions we loved.” “What did you do?” Dinky asked, sniffing sadly. “After a while, Berry Punch and I lived in a tiny, miserable apartment on the outskirts of Baltimare, trying to do what we could to make a living, but it was very hard. Living in the city is very expensive, and I couldn’t work because I was taking care of you, so it was all up to Berry Punch to support herself, me, and a growing filly. We were extremely poor, and there were some days when we didn’t have enough to eat. Berry Punch and I started getting desperate. Ponies in Baltimare were unhappy with the war against the Griffon Kingdom, and the two of us had been outed as former military wives. We even received death threats from some of the other tenants in the apartment complex. To make matters worse, your father’s family began to send me warnings to make me give you up to them, or else they’d try to take you away from me by force. We were totally desperate. I was worried I was going to lose you until Berry Punch came home one day and told me she knew of a village where we could get away and start over, where we’d be able to leave Baltimare behind and begin a new life. That was the first time I’d ever heard of Ponyville. Berry Punch had already made up her mind and said that I should go with her, so I made sure you were safe and off we went. Ever since then, you and I have been living in our little house a little aways from town. Ever since Baltimare, I- I don’t like to be in areas with lots of people, even in a small town like Ponyville. I’m always afraid that someone will recognize me and hate me because of your Daddy, that they’d try to hurt you.” Derpy’s head bowed, shadowed by the constant wave of tears and the darkness of the night. “I work so hard every day and we have so little money, Dinky. All of our things are secondhand, I can barely afford to send you to school, and I’m hardly able to be the mother you need. I’m so sorry, Dinky, I just wish… I just wish your father was here. He always knew what to say, what to do. Nothing ever intimidated him, he was never afraid of any challenge. He always believed that no matter what, we’d be able to make it through.” “We’ve made it through, Mommy,” Dinky piped up hopefully. Derpy smiled at her daughter. “Yes, we certainly have,” she said. “By the skin of our teeth, we’ve made it through.” She gave a long, wistful sigh. “I wish you could have known him, Dinky. He was the best, bravest pony I’ll ever know.” “I wish I’d known him too, Mommy,” Dinky said, leaning forward to give the marble gravestone a soft kiss. “Thank you for protecting me, Daddy.” Derpy followed suit, leaving a long, lingering kiss upon the name of her husband. “Thank you for everything, my love. I’ll never forget you.” The two of them began to walk slowly away from the gravestone and out into the clearing. Derpy spread her wings, signaling for her daughter to climb aboard. The sky now clear and dotted with stars, the time was right. Ponyville was nearby, just a short distance away. It was time to go home.