//------------------------------// // Chapter Nineteen - Silence // Story: Ice Fall // by Bluespectre //------------------------------// CHAPTER NINETEEN   SILENCE   Cove trotted up the garden path, Fair Breeze beside him muttering to herself and fussing with her hair. She was proud of her mane, and rightly so, a pony should take care of their appearance. In fact, the orange unicorn mare had insisted on him taking a bath when he first appeared on her doorstep that evening. It was such a large one too, with wonderful herbal scents and the life giving heat…the way it soaked the weariness from his bones… He smiled at the memory of how she’d boldly slid in beside him to ‘better wash his coat’ as she put it.   “Ah, hog farts!”   The Lieutenant rolled his eyes,   “What’s up, love?”    Fair was fussing with her pannier now,   “I think I left my purse in the house! Do you remember what I did with it? Bloody thing, I could have sworn I…”   Cove lay a hoof on the orange mare’s shoulder and gave her a nuzzle,   “Fair, don’t worry, we’ll find it later when we get home. I’ll look for it with you, okay love?”   “Mmm” she muttered, “Fine, but make sure you do, that was young a gift from my grandfoal and I don’t want to lose it.”   Chuckling, Cove trotted up the path towards the farm house front door and stopped dead in his tracks. The door being ajar wasn’t that unusual, but there was immediately a sense of ‘wrongness’ about it, a feeling of trepidation emanating from the hallway beyond. Cove’s hackles went up as he listened for any sound that might indicate what was happening, his ears swivelling, trying to pick up any movement. Damn it, he hadn’t brought his bloody sword either…   “…and those apples were a bloody rip off! I’m going to have words with…Oof!” Fair Breeze bumped into Cove’s rump making her jump in surprise, “What the heck did you stop for? I…”   Cove put a hoof up to her mouth, his blue eyes conveying his meaning more than words ever could. Fair immediately fell silent, moving behind him out of the way. For a moment, he wondered about sending her home, but if something was here, if it went after her, she’d be alone. Better she were with him, here he could protect her. First though, he had to find a weapon. A quick scout revealed a sickle by the side of the door and a slightly rusted, but heavy bladed knife used for thatching. He passed the sickle to Fair who stared at it with wide eyes. For a moment he thought she was going to argue with him, but instead, she merely took the makeshift weapon and nodded to him. He risked a quick peck on her nose before pushing open the front door.   Inside, it was bitterly cold. The wind had blown pictures askew and loose items including paper and other odds and ends were scattered throughout the house. Lieutenant Cove kept to the rug, avoiding the bare wooden parts of the floor. Keeping noise to a minimum would help them surprise anything, or anypony, that was…what? This was his friend’s house wasn’t it? But…where was he? There was no sign of him, no sign of anypony for that matter.   Cove checked the rest of the downstairs, leaving the doors open in case they had to get out of there fast. Now, there was only the upstairs to check. He didn’t like it, the possibility of being trapped up here in an unfamiliar house made him feel uncomfortable to the extreme, and having Fair with him was making him second guess his decision to bring her with him. Taking a steadying breath, he approached the master bedroom and froze.   “Covey…” Fair whispered behind him.   “Stay here, Fair.” The Lieutenant said quietly, “For the goddesses’ sake, don’t go in.”   She stared up at him, her eyes wide, “Why…?”   The white stallion looked back at her and shook his head. Fair’s eyes seemed to glaze over, her face taking on a look of such intense sadness that he felt a wave of guilt for making her feel this way. But there would be time to comfort her later…much later. Cove pushed the door open enough to let himself in and quietly walked over to the foot of the bed.   Colonel Dray was sat on his haunches, reaching across the covers and stroking the mane of his little foal, Polo. Beside the tiny figure lay his sister, Dawn Dew, her eyes closed, and curled up as if sound asleep inside the warm bed covers.   Dray’s voice was hollow, frighteningly distant, as though he were speaking from another world,   “I wasn’t here…” he murmured, “I wasn’t here…” Tears rolled down his scarred cheeks, dropping onto the embroidered bed spread while he leaned forward and kissed his foals goodnight, “Sleep well little ones…” he whispered, “May the herd protect you, forever.” He stood and nuzzled them tenderly one by one before he walked around to the other side of the bed and tucked in the still form of his beloved wife.   Cove could only watch; his heart felt as if it had stopped, his blood frozen in his veins. He wanted to comfort his friend, to ask what had happened, to be told what he could do to help, to somehow put this right…but what, what could he do? He felt like a ghoul, silently witnessing the end of somepony’s life and coldly standing by, doing nothing more than impassively observing them as the life went out in their eyes.   The large grey stallion took a brush and began running it through the mane of the mare in the bed. Each stroke, each pass, conveying the love the old soldier held in his heart for the one he’d loved more than anything else in this world. Dray placed the brush down on the bedside table and nuzzled Honeysuckle, murmuring something to her which Cove couldn’t hear. He didn’t want to, it was a private moment between a husband and wife, the final parting of the ways…to say farewell. His friends eyes were squeezed shut against unimaginable suffering, the sheer torment he was experiencing beyond anything he could imagine. Cove bowed his head and said a silent prayer for the departed souls of the three he’d only recently met, the family of his friend. Movement made him look up.   Drays eyes looked into his and he felt his heart skip a beat. He’d never seen eyes like those before, they were…cold…dead. Dear Celestia…how could this happen…   “Lieutenant.” Dray said quietly, “Go home.”   “Sir” Cove shook his head, “No. With respect Colonel, no.”   Dray stared at him a moment and then pushed past him onto the landing,   “Do as you please.”   “Dray?” Fair had to dodge out of the way as the Colonel walked past her and headed downstairs. She watched him go, her eyes wide in shock, “Covey? Are…are they?”   The Lieutenant lifted a hoof and placed it on the door of the bedroom. Closing it felt like closing a book once the final page had been read. He hung his head and nodded silently.   “Dear sweet goddesses” Fair whispered, “How?”   In answer, Cove rushed down the stairs after Dray, finding him in a back room opening a large wooden door into what looked like a study. It was full of books, hundreds of them, piled floor to ceiling. Large paintings and maps adorned the walls as well as a large variety of swords, polearms and the assorted gear of a soldier’s trade. Dray was like a pony in a trance. He picked up a selection of equipment, stowing gear into panniers, taking down various swords, daggers and spears until he had just what he wanted. Lieutenant Cove stared in amazement. It was all so surreal, as if it were some strange dream that he could simply wake up from at any moment, and yet, he was here, Dray was here. He gave himself a shake,   “Colonel, what are you doing?”   Dray said nothing, walking out of the room into the kitchen where he began packing bags with food and filling water bottles. Cove stepped in front of the Colonel,   “For Celestia’s sake, Colonel! Speak to me!”   Yellow eyes, devoid of any form of compassion or empathy, bore into Cove’s. For a tense moment, he stood rigid, staring into his eyes before he spoke. Dear goddesses, even his voice…   “Lieutenant, my final order to you is this: Take Fair and go home. Live your life with her, and never leave her side. Cherish what you have.”   “You want me to what?” Cove blinked in astonishment, “No! Bloody hell, Colonel…”   Dray shook his head slowly and then walked out the back of the house towards the barn. Cove and Fair hurried out after him,   “Colonel! Please, what are you going to do? Where are you going?”   The grey stallion took down a large sheath of straw,   “Where am I going Lieutenant? I’ll tell you.” He turned to face the young white stallion, “I’m going to find the ponies who did this to my family…and I am going to kill them.” He took a breath, “I will kill them, but before I do, I will kill their families, their foals, and I will make them watch so I can see the light of hope die within them before I send them to the underworld.”   Cove’s voice rose in alarm, “Colonel, for the goddesses sake, you’re not thinking this through! This isn’t like you!”   Dray span round and grabbed the Lieutenant, ramming him up against the wall. The sheer strength in the earth pony was incredible; years of hard life had made him into a powerful machine of muscle and sinew. The scarred face drew close to the young stallions,   “You…don’t…know…me.” He hissed, “I will find them, I will kill them, and I will send their souls screaming to the next world. If it damns me to Tartarus then I will enter its gates willingly, and I will take anypony with me who tries to stand in my way.”   Dray released the Lieutenant and stepped back, collecting his gear. Cove desperately lifted a hoof,   “Dray, how do you know who did this?” he asked anxiously, “Why? It could have been thestrals or one of their…”   “I know who it was…” Dray jabbed his hoof at Cove, nodding, “I know…” He turned to Fair Breeze, “Breezy, take him back to your place, and I don’t care what you have to do to him,” He cinched the girth strap around his midriff before collecting a bundle of straw, “but don’t let him go off to fight. Promise me.”   The orange mare glanced nervously at Cove, “Dray, I…”   “Promise me!” The Colonel snapped.   “I…I promise!”   Dray nodded to himself, “Good…” he turned away from his friends, “good.”   Fair Breeze looked distraught and kept glancing back at the house. Gently, Cove gave her neck a nuzzle, “Love? Go and wait for me by the gate, please. I want to speak to Dray before…before he leaves.”   She nodded, giving the Lieutenant a nervous glance before she trotted up to the gate where she sat staring up at the house. Cove hung his head a moment, the emotional impact of it all pulling at his heart in a way he’d never experienced before. His friend, the one who had, in his own way, opened the door for him to a new life, a happy life, with Fair Breeze…was leaving. He couldn’t, wouldn’t let it end like this.   “Colonel Dray, if you will sir, I’d like to speak with you before you leave.”   Letting out a sigh, Dray stopped what he was doing and furrowed his brow, “Very well, Lieutenant, what do you want to say.”   The white stallion took a deep breath, “I know you made Fair Breeze promise, but…”   “-you’re not coming with me, Lieutenant and that is final.” There was no room of argument in Drays tone of voice. He meant every word.   Cove nodded, “I know. I knew you’d say that, I just hoped…” he gave his mane a shake, gathering his thoughts, “Colonel, how do you know these weren’t Nightmare Moon’s forces? You are, forgive me, ‘were’ a high ranking officer in Celestia’s armed forces. Could they not have been after you all along?”   The big grey stallion reached into his pannier and pulled out a stained piece of paper. He passed it to Cove who lifted it up to the light. There was only one word,   THIEF   The letters were written in a strange brown/red ink, like…   “Blood” Cove murmured. He tried not to think who’s blood it was, “What does that mean though? ‘Thief’? It makes no sense!”   Dray waved his hoof, “Maybe if you turned it over.”   Flicking it to the other side, Cove noticed the small red seal, the letters E.R.G embossed into the wax. They were the initials of the Equestrian Royal Guard, the same guard that Dray had ‘arranged’ to back up their forces during the near disastrous campaign at River Valley. Lord Ochre had deliberately kept those troops and his own personal guard, safe at the castle for his own protection. Dray had had other plans. Cove stared at the paper in disbelief, he simply couldn’t believe that this, all of this had been…he closed his eyes, trying to will away the images. The happy smiling faces of his friend’s family, of Honeysuckle, Polo, Dawn Dew, all of them…   Dray snorted, “Now do you see?”   “But Dray, why? Why would Ochre do this? He’d already exiled you, what would...” Cove swallowed, trying to say the words, “murdering your family accomplish?”   “I intend to ask him” the Colonel replied calmly, “eventually.”   Cove reached out a hoof and grabbed him suddenly, “No! Colonel Dray, you made Fair promise to keep me from fighting and she will honour that, as I will. For you though, for Honeysuckle and the foals, I want you to promise me something in return.”   Dray’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded, waiting for Cove to continue.   “If you must kill Ochre, then fine, do it. But Dray, I’m asking you as your friend; please, don’t turn into the monster he has become. Don’t take the lives of others simply to cause him to suffer as you are.”   Seconds passed as Cove stood staring out across the fields, the wind catching his mane and tail as it whispered around the inside of the barn. His voice came as if from far away, so devoid of hope it made Cove’s voice cry out in sympathy,   “Very well, Lieutenant.” He returned to the piles of straw, “Now go, you have somepony waiting for you.” Under his breath, the Colonel words were little more than a whisper, “…Never forget that.”   Cove trotted to the barn door, turning back one last time and saluted,   “Goodbye my friend, may fortune favour you.”   *********************************   Fair Breeze shook with the wracking sobs that hadn’t stopped since they’d left that terrible place. Her eyes were red and swollen, her fur and mane matted with sweat and tears. She snuggled into her white coated stallion for comfort, his warmth and the sound of his beating heart, the only thing that she felt she could cling on to. It was too much, it all felt so unreal, how could they be just…gone? And she was so frightened! Why did they do such an evil thing? How could they? Weren’t they supposed to be fighting a war against the forces of darkness? If so, then how could their own people do something like this? Cove had barely said two words since they’d got home, his near silence an indication of the pain he felt inside. She pushed her muzzle into his neck,   “Love?”   Cove reached over and stroked her mane, “Mmm?”   “Could you light the lanterns? I…I don’t want to sleep in the dark tonight. Please?”   He kissed her tenderly on the forehead,   “Of course.”   The bed creaked as he rolled off and walked over to the drawer where the matches were kept. The oil lanterns seemed a bit of a peculiarity in a house with a unicorn; after all, they had magic didn’t they? But then, Fair was a bit of a traditionalist and oil lamps had a particular magic about them all their own. He pressed down on the lever, lifting the glass globe. The wick holder squeaked slightly as he raised it and took a match out of the box. He went to strike it. Why he looked out of the window right at that moment, he could never say. But there, in the distance, he caught the faint glow of yellow flame. As he watched, sparks began to rise into the night sky, the fire rapidly taking hold. He closed his eyes and hung his head.   “Is everything alright?” Fair asked anxiously.   “Yes love,” Cove pulled the curtains shut before lighting the lamp and adjusting the wick, “It’s nothing.”   **********************   Dray sat watching the flames licking up the side of his home, the timbers cracking and splintering as the fire quickly spread. Yellow and orange light reflected in the windows before they burst outward with a loud crash, sending shards of glass into the garden below. The house would be gone soon, the memories of the love he’d shared with his wife, the sounds of their foals playing, they would only live on now inside him. And living…living was something that didn’t seem so appealing any more.   Radiated heat from the fire singed his fur as he watched his life burning down, gradually turning into ashes. He owed it to them to stay and watch, to witness their passing to the herd. Of course, he knew they’d already gone; they’d be there now with their uncles, aunts, grandparents and even their parents. What was important was that they were safe, and nothing else in this cruel and unforgiving cess pit of a world could hurt them. Dray stared up at the sky and took a shuddering breath. He wanted to be with them, he wanted to go…home. He closed his eyes, a single tear rolling down his cheek. Revenge…he snorted, what was the point? There were plenty of ponies out there who could have rid Equestria of that murdering filth Ochre, he had the blood of more ponies on his hooves than he could ever possibly imagine. Besides, what would killing him actually achieve? There was always another parasite waiting to leap on the dogs back and suck its blood. Dray took a breath and carefully drew his sword. It was an old one, his fathers. The edge was a little dull perhaps but it would do the job well enough. Father wouldn’t be pleased of course, but he’d just have to deal with it.   Dray chuckled to himself, an odd sound at such a sombre and terrible time, but it seemed right. He’d made up his mind. He lifted his blade and with his hoof, found the gap between his ribs with his heart beyond. The point was still good, all it needed was one decent shove, a little pain and then he’d be with Honey, Polo and Dawn Dew, as he was meant to be. Ironically, once upon a time he would have called a pony a coward for doing this, but now, now it seemed the right thing to do. He took a deep breath and lifted the hilt to just the right angle to pierce his heart.   The Colonel closed his eyes. Should he say something? Say a prayer?   “Nopony’s listening” he laughed, “Nopony ever was.”   “Perhaps they were, Colonel Dray, did you never consider that?”   The sword clattered to the ground, Dray’s head whipping round,   “Who?”   “Oh, a friend is all” the cloaked figure said sitting down beside him.   The pony’s face was hidden by the cloaks cowl, but was quite clearly female. Dray looked away,   “A friend…” He snorted, picking up his sword, “Then you should know I want to be alone…friend.”   A golden furred leg stretched out, the elegant hoof touching his foreleg that held the sword,   “Do you think that this is the way?” the mare asked, “It is not what they want for you. It is not your time.”   “And what the hell would you know?” Dray spat, “I don’t know who you are or what you are, just…look, just bugger off and leave me alone.”   “Very well” the cloaked figure said, rising to her hooves, “if that is what you wish…”   Dray’s hoof stopped her, “Wait…” he took a breath, “You said, ‘they’?”   “Why, Honeysuckle, Polo and Dawn Dew of course.” The mare’s voice was as smooth as velvet, “They are safe, Colonel Dray, safe within the love of the eternal herd.”   “Will I see them again?” Dray murmured, his heart feeling like it could burst at any moment.   “Yes.” The mare replied, “But then really, that is up to you, and whichever path you choose to tread.” She sighed gently, a sound as soft as the morning breeze, “As indeed it is for anypony.”   The Colonel nodded, “If I live, I will kill Ochre. I may have to kill others.”   “Fate has already decided her course” the cloaked mare replied cryptically, “But the decisions you make with your life are still yours and yours alone.”   “What do you want from me?” Dray asked quietly, “I don’t even know who you are.”   The mare watched the flames rising ever higher into the night sky before replying. Her voice was soft, with an oddly ethereal, echoing quality that made the hairs prickle along Drays neck,   “There is a forest to the east of River Valley.” She said, “Atop its highest point, in a small clearing at the next full moon,” She turned to him, a pair of ice blue eyes glinting in the depths of the cowel, “There you will find what you seek.”   Dray blinked, “What I seek?”   “Yes” the mare said quietly, “What all ponies seek…” She reached out a hoof and tenderly touched his foreleg, “Hope.”   Silence fell. Dray shook his head slowly, lifting his sword up to the light of the fire blazing before him. Along the blade, the firelight flickered and danced as if alive. Soon, a different sort of light would be dancing across the cold steel surface: the light of life taken from another living, breathing, creature. His eyes lingered for while on the flames until finally, with snort, he rammed the sword home and adjusted his pack. In a soldiers heart there was no place for sentimentality, no room…for love. The old warrior closed his eyes and stretched his legs, gazing for the last time at his home, his beautiful home and the last resting place of his beloved family. He looked up into the sky,   “Farewell my little ones,” he whispered, “Daddy will be home soon.”   With a last swish of his tail, the Colonel turned and headed for the bridge. He didn’t bother to look for the cloaked pony. He knew who she was, and in a way, he’d always known. But now…now it was time to head out.