//------------------------------//
// Chapter Fourteen 
// Story: A Squire's Tail 
// by BBkat 
//------------------------------//

	Chase looked about the common room nervously, he no idea why he’d been called there, and judging by the looks worn on everyone else’s face, neither did they.
The days since the boggart incident had passed pretty much without incident, the only thing of interest for Chase being when he found the Hall of Heroes and sat in Day Court guard duty with Trail Blazer. That itself had been a bit of an adventure, the most excitement that day having come after lunch when they ended up having to escort a lost filly back to her parents as they’d gotten separated in the crowd. She was a dainty little thing, almost trampled by the impatient ponies who couldn’t wait their turn. In the end she got to ride on Trail Blazer’s back as they sought our her parents. They were understandably relieved to see her safe and sound. Nothing much happened after that, there were a few that got rowdy and tied to start a fight, but harsh glares from the on duty guards shut them up pretty fast.
This morning however had been different; before any of them could leave to go to breakfast they were all summoned to the common room, apparently for something important. As more and more young trainees filed into the room it became clear that no one knew what was going on as they all wore looks of confusion on their faces and shrugged when asked if they knew why they’d been called.
There were a few grumblings of ‘I just want to eat man!’ and ‘why are we even here?’ from the very antsy group. 
Eventually Bronze Shield made his way into the room, clearing his throat to get their attention. “Since we’d all rather be somewhere that’s not here I’ll try to make this as brief as possible,” he said, earning a couple snickers. “The annual Hearts and Hooves Day gala is coming up in a week, and you’re all expected to be there. You may not be guards yet but you will be, hopefully, and guards are expected to come to these functions.”
“Can we bring a date?” asked a voice from the front of the room.
“Yes,” he sighed, “You may bring a plus one to the dance. It is not as fancy as the Grand Galloping Gala, but you should still look presentable and not like you just came in from training. While it’s not mandatory that you come it would make a very good impression that you do. So while I can’t force you to come, I can highly recommend that you do so.”
A wave of murmurs and chatter swept through the room, a gala, a Hearts and Hooves day gala at that, and they were all invited! The reaction were a mixed bag, some sounded quite excited, others sounded like it was the worst thing ever, and others were just neutral on the whole thing.
The only thing Chase was worried about was who was he going to bring as a plus one? Sure he didn’t need a date, but going to a gala like that without one would feel very, strange. It was Hearts and Hooves day, a day for couples, even if he didn’t have a marefriend and they only went as friends he’d be happy, because he didn’t want to go alone. The problem was, he didn’t know that many mares, let alone ones he could invite to something like that. Not to mention he had no idea what to even do at a gala, he’d never been to any before. School dances sure, but never a big gala, and certainly never at the palace. 
“Maybe you should ask that Wish mare,” said Sky Fire, smacking the back of Chase’s head with a wing to get his attention. “I bet she’d go with you.”
Chase blushed, the ends of his ears turning red in the process, “What? N-no, no way, I mean I doubt she’d want to go to a dance with me,” he said. 
Sky Fire just shook his head as he walked off, “You just keep telling yourself that.”
Chase followed the group of the room to go get something to eat; he needed to meet Trail Blazer for sword practice soon and the last thing he needed was to be distracted by these sorts of thoughts. Sure, Wish was kinda cute, he would admit that, but he was nothing special, just a plain looking white unicorn. White, even his coat was a bland colour, or rather a lack of colour, and one of the more common ones among unicorns. There was nothing special or remotely striking about him, so what reason would she have to be attracted to him?
He shook his head as he pushed the thoughts aside, he couldn’t think about that now, he needed to eat then get his flanks out to the courtyard before he was late. Hearts and Hooves day could wait till later.



“You’re doing great, keep it up,” commended Trail Blazer as Chase took another swing at the dummy. His footwork was slowly improving as was his sword handling, though Chase would have preferred to use his magic to hold the sword. The sword connected with a satisfying ‘thump’ once again and Chase took a few steps back, chest heaving as he panted through clenched teeth.
“I have to say though, for as good as you are, you do seem a bit distracted, is everything alright?”
Chase dropped the wooden sword into the crook of his leg, freeing up his mouth to talk. “Yeah I’m fine, no need to worry.”
“If you say so, I just don’t want you distracted during practice that’s all, it’s not good for you.”
“I uh, it won’t happen again sir.”
He nodded, “Good, well why don’t we start working on defending. Swordsmanship isn’t all swinging and slashing. If someone comes at you, you need to know how to block their attack.”
“Don’t be there?” suggested Chase.
Trail Blazer laughed, “Yes, that’s always a good idea, but sometimes you can’t move out of the way. Maybe you’re hurt, maybe your opponent is to fast, or he’s right up in front of you.” He scooped up the sword from the ground in front of him and walked over to Chase, taking his place in front of him. “Now if I were to attack you right now, how would you block it?”
Chase fidgeted nervously, “Umm, I’d bring the sword between the two of us so it would catch the blow, instead of my face. Or use a shield.”
He nodded, “Good, that’s a good start, you’ve been paying attention.”
“That’s because you don’t let my mind wander anywhere,” said Chase. Anytime his mind started to wander he found himself brought right back, usually by some loud, attention getting sound such as the stamping of a hoof or a slightly raised voice.
“Then I know I’m doing my job now don’t I? Now, to give you a better idea of how to block, why don’t you come at me and I’ll show you how it’s done. For this exercise we’re going to pretend you don’t have a shield, perhaps it broke or you were disarmed. Either way your sword can work just as well.”
“You want me to attack you?” asked Chase.
“Of course, you need to learn somehow.”
Chase picked the sword up again, positioning it in his mouth as he took his place in front of Trail Blazer, who was also readying his sword. “Well, here goes,” he thought as he took a swing. Unsurprisingly it never connected, the other sword moving in the way to catch the wooden sword before it even got close. Then he felt himself being pushed back as Trail Blazer lifted the sword, the upward momentum throwing his sword off and causing him to stumble backwards.
“We’re just going to work on basic blocking skills today,” said Trail Blazer as Chase recovered from the movement and readied himself again. “So try to pay attention to how I do it so you can show me later how you do it.”
Chase nodded that he understood and waited for his next instruction.
He wasn’t sure if blocking was just that much more difficult or if he just needed a lot more practice, but by the time Trail Blazer called it quits he was panting heavily, legs shaking and threatening to collapse under him as his chest heaved and nostrils flared. He felt exhausted and sore, his muscles beginning to ache from all of the running and dodging and blocking he’d been doing. Even Trail Blazer was bit winded by the end of it.
“You’re doing very good,” he said, wiping his brow as he leaned on the punching dummy, the sword in the grass next to him, along side Chase’s. “At this rate we’ll be able to start moving you up to the heavier practice swords soon so you can get used to the weight.”
“Well I have a good teacher,” said Chase. “I’m not sure I’d be any good without one.”
“Well I’ve had plenty of practice, you’re not the first I’ve had to teach and I certainly hope you won’t be the last,” said Trail Blazer. “I don’t plan on retiring quite yet.” He clapped his hooves together suddenly, as if remembering something, “Oh, I found something you might be interested in. After you asked me about the 72nd I went looking for something to see if I still had it around. I found an old newspaper clipping with a group photo of the regiment if you’re interested. I thought perhaps if you saw Silver Sword it might help you remember why the name seemed familiar.”
Chase gaped, he had what now? “You-you really didn’t need to,” he said. “It was just something I was curious about that’s all.”
Trail Blazer waved him off, “Think nothing of it. It got me thinking about it and I figured it couldn’t hurt to look. Besides I know what curiosity is like, especially this kind. It’ll eat you up till you get an answer, not to mention it’s very distracting. I can bring it to you later if you’re still interested.”
Chase wasn’t quite sure how to respond, he didn’t want to sound overly eager but he really did want to see this picture. Eventually he just settled for a nod.
“Alright, but first, do you think you can handle a few more sets?” asked Trail Blazer, picking up the wooden sword.
“Sure, I can do that.”

After they finished up some more sets, combinations of back and forth blocks and strikes, Chase was tasked with clean up. The dummy was too heavy for him to put back alone, even with his magic, so he was left to gather up everything else they’d been using, which wasn’t just the swords. Sometimes, to test his balance, Trail Blazer would set a beanbag or two on Chase’s back to see how steady he could remain even when fighting. Sometimes he just used them to test how much Chase was paying attention by lobbing them at him if he thought he wasn’t focusing once again. Sometimes they’d hit him, sometimes he’d manage to jump out of the way before they made contact and at least once knocked one away with his sword.
He wasn’t really sure what all it was supposed to accomplish, but Trail Blazer seemed to think it was helping. 
Chase scooped up the swords in one hoof and gathered the beanbags in and aura of magic before making his way over to the shed, which was left unlocked during the day. Not that there was much need to lock it as it was. Its location made it so that the only ones who’d even have access to it would have to already be inside the palace, and since it contained nothing but training equipment he doubted anyone inside would want to steal anything, and certainly no one would want to break in to the palace to break in there to steal anything. It would be too much effort with very little reward and too much risk.
In the daylight it became clear how it was that, despite it’s frequent use, no one had noticed the cache of stolen items being stored in it. The shed was full of stuff. Had it not been useful stuff Chase would have called it a shed full of junk. It was packed quite full with everything from swords and shields to fighting dummies to targets for shooting at. He couldn’t even see the back wall, let alone the dark corner on the ground.
He tossed the beanbags into a pail with the rest of them and set the wooden swords on one of the many cluttered shelves. He scrunched his nose as he walked out, trying not to sneeze. Not only was it full of stuff, but it was full of dust and cobwebs as well. He kicked the door shut with a back leg, turning his head away as the sneeze finally made itself known. How he’d managed not to sneeze last night he wasn’t sure, but he really didn’t want to have to go back in.
He didn’t have long to wait for Trail Blazer, sitting by the dummy for only a couple of minutes when the earth pony can trotting back, still dressed in his armour. Chase wondered if he’d gone all the way home like that.
“It’s a bit and faded in area but you can still see the photo just fine,” he said as he pulled out a small, yellowing folded up piece of paper.
The photo itself was smack dab in the middle of the article and was captioned only with ‘The 72nd Regiment before heading out’. He wasn’t surprised that it didn’t list all the names, that had to be a good hundred or more soldiers in the photo, there wouldn’t have been any room for all the names if the plaques on the wall were any indication. They all seemed so happy, crowded together into one large group for the shot, leaning on one another or on the wall behind them, some sat with shields others with nothing.
“This one’s Silver Sword,” said Trail Blazer, pointing to a proud looking unicorn on the left. He wore a band with several bars on it around his left foreleg and had one hoof resting on a shield with a sun emblazoned across the front. He wasn’t wearing any armour, none of them were, but he was dressed in a uniform with his mane neatly trimmed. The yellowed paper made it difficult to see his original colouring, but compared to many of the others in the group he looked fairly light coloured with a darker streaked mane. 
As he looked him over he felt that same feeling of familiarity, he’d seen that unicorn before. The it hit him like an on coming train, this stallion looked like a younger version of his father. But that wasn’t possible; his father would only have been a colt at time, younger than Chase was now. And his mane was all wrong; while his father did keep his short it was very dark, darker than this stallion’s mane.
“Is something wrong?” asked Trail Blazer. 
“I know it sounds crazy but, I know I’ve seen this stallion somewhere before, like in a picture or something but I can’t place it,” said Chase, wracking his brains to try and think where he’d have seen him before.
Silver Sword, a white unicorn with a two-toned silver-blue mane, where could he possibly have seen it? His train of thought stopped there, a silver blue mane, the yellowing paper made it hard to make out any colours but he knew upon looking the colour of mane as a colour image formed in his mind. He just about dropped the paper as the old, long forgotten memory resurfaced. Something he’d seen back when he was a foal, long before he’d even gotten his cutie mark. A photo sitting on the dining room table that his father never talked about, a photo with a colt version of his father and a larger unicorn stallion behind him. A white unicorn with a two-toned silver-blue mane and tail and a pair of crossed swords adorning his flank. Of a large grey stone with the name Silver Sword etched into it, surrounded by grass and flowers and many other similar stones. But there was no way, he couldn’t be.
“Sun Chaser?”
Chase looked up, pulled out of his mind. “Hmm?”
“You’re staring off into space, everything alright?”
“Y-yes, thank you for bringing the photo it was helpful. I um, I have something I need to go check, if it alright if I leave?”
Trail Blazer gave him a curious look as Chase handed back the photo but nodded, “Yes, it’s quite alright, you could use the break anyways.”
Chase gave a polite nod before excusing himself and trotting off, there was something he needed to check, and he knew just where to look, the cemetery.
He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of this sooner, but he needed to see to find out if he was right, to make sense of his foal hood memories. 
There had always been a picture on the dining room table, but at some point his father had replaced it for a family photo with the three of them, a squirmy Chase in his mother’s forelegs with his father standing beside the pair, one hoof resting on her shoulder. He never asked about the other photo because he thought he’d just been imagining it, the family picture was all that had ever been there.
Now he was beginning to doubt that, there had been a photo, a different one a long time ago. One his father refused to talk about.
He trotted through the streets; the cemetery was in a different section of the city, closer to the edge of it. He’d only been there a couple times before, but he didn’t remember them very much, he’d been small, and the one time he did remember he’d slept through most of it. A funeral he didn’t want to sit through, torn between crying his eyes out and curling up to sleep, the only two things a 10 year old colt wants to do at a funeral for his grandmother.
He came to a stop outside the large iron gates, chest heaving with each breath as he stopped to catch it before he passed out. Here it was, the Canterlot cemetery, now if he could remember his way through he would be golden. Taking a deep breath Chase pushed the gate open and stepped inside. Unlike the graveyards in the ghosts stories he liked to read, this one didn’t feel frightening at all. In fact it felt very serene and peaceful, almost welcoming in a way. There was a sadness in the air to be sure, but it was a cemetery after all, were loved ones were lain to rest.
He wracked his brain trying to remember where he’d seen the gravestone; something about a large tree came to mind. Unfortunately there were a lot of trees in the cemetery and many of them sheltered graves.
Pink blossoms and white lilies, that was what he kept remembering, pink spring blossoms and bouquets with white lilies.
His hooves carried him over the stone path and through the cemetery at a lofty gait. He hoped it wasn’t too hard to find, the last thing he wanted was to get lost there.
Swan Song, that was the other name he remembered, the one whose funeral he’d gone too. In life they said she’d had a beautiful singing voice, especially as a young mare. He couldn’t remember, he didn’t know if he’d ever heard her sing. His mother sang sometimes, and sometimes she hummed. She used to sing him to sleep or sing to calm him down if he was upset or scared. 
He finally came to a stop near a large tree, green but devoid of any full blossoms, not surprising given the season. It never bloomed till summer. In the shade of the tree lay two plots, the first read;


Lieutenant Silver Sword
Beloved son, devoted father and husband.
May he watch over them forever more.
25


Underneath was emblazoned the crest of the guards, a sun upon a shield. Chase turned and looked to the next one.


Swan Song
Beloved wife and mother
May her voice sing on the winds with the birds.
65


She had died young for a unicorn, they usually lived up into their hundreds, then again if Chase remembered rightly, her health hadn’t been all great as she got on. 
He gave a weak laugh as he sat down, his rump hitting the grass with a soft thump. So that was it, right under his nose the entire time. He touched the grave marker gingerly, reading the names over. Silver Sword, the name should have been a giveaway. After all, his father’s name was Steel Sword. Silver Sword, married to Swan Song, parents to Steel Sword.
“So, you’re my grandfather.”