//------------------------------//
// Ballads In the Back Seat 
// Story: Utaan 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	He plucked at the guitar strings with effortless skill, utilizing a random assortment of fetlocks and wingtips.  Bard cradled the instrument in his limbs as he lay back—lazily reclined in the back of the wagon that Logan was dragging downhill across the rocky eastward slopes of the Twilight Lands.

The Desperado hummed and hummed, ultimately opening his stubbled muzzle to produce:


And never say never to a broken home
Your heart is whole in love alone
Don't need no ceiling nor walls of stone
Just a name in a sigh to call your own

Rainbow Dash sat across from him, perched beside a sleeping Ariel.  Her ears twitched to the sound of the breathy lyrics.  "Snazzy," she muttered.  "An old tune of yours?"

Bard inhaled... exhaled.  "Just thought it up, actually," he muttered, still strumming at the strings.

Rainbow smiled at him.  "You're lying."

"Says who?" Bard snorted.  "Applejack?"

"Doesn't take a mind-reader," Rainbow muttered.  Ariel—in her sleep—leaned against her, and the mare gently shrugged her aside.  "Just how long have you kept... y'know...?"

"Hmmm?"

Rainbow gulped.  "All that tragic stuff with Amber... and Melody."  Her brow furrowed.  "It must have weighed on you super hard."

"You should know a thang or two about carryin' the weight of the dead."

"At least mine are still living," Rainbow said.  Ariel leaned on her, and she shrugged the sleeping pegasus yet again.  "Well... kinda sorta."

"Hmmmm..."  Bard strummed and plinked at the strings.  "Reckon I should whip up a chorus 'bout that too."

"Musicians always come second, Bard," Rainbow Dash said.  "First place belongs to heroes."

"Hmmm..."  Bard smirked.  "Don't I know it."

"Don't you?"  Rainbow cocked her head to the side.  "At the first fivelight we arrived on Blue's Ranch you could have just told everypony everything then and maybe... just maybe... all of that craziness wouldn't have unraveled the way it did."

"Dun be ridiculous," Bard huffed, hitting one or two notes off-key.  "Blue would have just been as flankholish and stubborn as ever.  Plus... had we have gotten thangs over with sooner and left early, then my foster family would likely have been caught by the windigoes with their britches down."  His ears drooped slightly.  "For all I know... they're still dead popsicles come next stampede."

"I think now—more than ever—they're more than prepared to do the smart thing and move on."

"Ohhhhhh darlin'..."  Bard looked up, his eyes dull and hopeless.  "Yer givin' them all too much credit."  He slowly shook his head.  "Dun you get it?  They was doomed from the start.  That whole family..."  His nostrils flared.  "No sense in hopin' for the impossible."

"Come on, Bard.  Don't discredit yourself either," Rainbow muttered.  A slumbering Ariel slumped against her again.  Rainbow finally sighed and just allowed room for the dozing Heraldite to get comfortable.  "I watched their faces as you gave that crazy-ass speech in the bottom of the cellar.  I'm pretty sure that you got through to a lot of them.  Even if Blue won't come around, I'm sure the others will.  Maybe even Tim and Marie."

"I appreciate the notion, Rainbow.  But this whole event just proves how right you was."

Rainbow gulped.  "How right I was about what?" she asked, as if it was a legitimate question.

"About Frostknife, what else?"  Bard huffed.  "About 'murderin' Verlax' and remainin' the 'monstrous Rainbow Rogue' and all that bullshiet."  He sighed, finally releasing his grip of his guitar.  "Most of the time... the truth dun matter to nopony."  He gulped.  "Nopony but yerself."

Rainbow Dash stared at him.

Eventually, Bard resumed as the wagon rocked them and Ariel.  "For so long... I was the only one who knew the truth about Amber and Melody.  Well..."  He smirked slightly.  "Besides Dubya, of course.  Reckon I risked an awful lot sharin' the knowledge with a dayum chatterbox like that mofo..."

Rainbow smiled gently.  "I think he kept it pretty decently to himself."

"Yup.  Good friend is good."  Bard tilted his hat back, staring off into the endlessly gleaming horizon.  "And for a long-ass time... the truth sustained us.  Me bein' a widower... he bein' a former Talon flank-kicker.  The secrets legitimized us... both the pride and the pain of it all.  It laid the tracks out for a rip-roarin' train that had no gumption for stoppin'... not for nothin' in this whole dayum world."  Bard bit his lip.  "Meetin' you and learnin' all 'bout this Austraeoh nonsense?  I must admit... a huge part of me hoped that other ponies in this world besides the Herald could open their eyes and make a difference for themselves.  But t'ain't the way things work, isn't it?  No... truth?  Truth is only a foundation for those who first find it.  Take Verlax, for an example.  She found it... made it... and everythang else couldn't even pretend to catch up."

"We caught up," Rainbow Dash said.  "Doesn't that count for something?"

"Maybe for just us, Rainbow," Bard said.  "But now... I think I've got it all figured out.  Heroes or bards... the song is in how you choose to sing it.  I fear that no matter what I might come up with, the music will never be as good as any of us ever meant it to be."  He looked at the mare.  "We can only hope that the ones we leave behind make a decent enough harmony."

"You make it sound so bleak."

"Ain't it, though?"  Bard sighed.  "We can't expect more to come out of Frostknife than what we put in.  There'll always be idiot composers like Verlax and Blue... just messin' with the medleys."  He gulped, gazing off.  "That's why I've always found it easy bein' a Desperado.  You'll find nothin' but deaf morons at the station.  Best that the train just keep on movin' on..."

Rainbow Dash took a shuddering breath.  "I'm sorry, Bard," she said.  "I'm sorry for what happened to your home... and to your family."

"Hmmmm... I'm only sorry that I left them when I did," Bard muttered.  "Instead of stickin' out for them when it truly mattered.  I just... let the pain of my loss fester inside me.  Ain't nothin' heroic about that."  He shook his head, then slowly tilted his gaze up.  "But you?  Reckon you, Dubya, and the rest of the gang gave me a second chance."

"At what?  Being a hero?"

"I suppose.  That and... havin' somepony to share the truth with."  Bard smiled slightly.  "A regular dang chorus... at long last."

Rainbow looked over Ariel's shoulder.  In the distance—between Remna and Logan—Echo and Nicole trotted side by side.  "Seems like you're not the only pony to get a second chance," Rainbow said.

Bard sighed.  "I can't help but fear that she's only gotten herself in hotter water."

"Even hotter than staying at Blue's ranch?"

"Heh... well put..."  Bard folded his forelimbs.  "Still... not sure what I'm gonna do with her.  This ain't exactly the nurturin' environment for two siblings to get reacquainted with one another."

"Does it matter?"

Bard huffed.  "No, I suppose not.  Reckon it's... mighty lovely havin' somepony as sweet as lil' Nicole stickin' around... believing in me..."

"Sharing the truth, you mean?"  Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.  "Part of the chorus?"

Bard said nothing.

"Bard, maybe... you're wondering why I didn't urge Remna and the rest of us forward when we were stuck at Blue's ranch for so long."

"Hrmmmff..."  Bard snorted.  "The thought did occur to me."

"Well, let's just say I was looking for a hopeful sign as well."  Rainbow sighed.  "I wanted to know if there was a way to avoid the sort of decision I made back at Frostknife."  Her ears drooped as she went on.  "Instead, all I got was further confirmation that... truth only goes so far."

"Uh huh..."

"And yet... something came out of it.  It might not seem like much now, but Nicole's gotten a new lease on life.  Tomorrow—sometime in the distant future, perhaps—that tiny sliver of clarity is going to work a crapton of wonders compared to the liberal buckets of ignorance being dished out by the likes of Blue, Tim, and Marie."

Bard's gaze met her.

Rainbow stared back.  "In a big world full of big circumstances... it's the little things that'll snowball into awesomeness in the end.  That's why you gotta keep carrying the truth on your shoulders."  Her eyes narrowed.  "That's why you can't hop off the straight train you're on..."

Bard blinked.  "After all this time... have we both finally gotten on the same page?"

"Maybe... maybe not," Rainbow said.  She readjusted Ariel's weight so that the sleeping pony was more comfortable.  "But perhaps... I'm finally starting to get how and why you've forgiven me for the Quade."

Bard looked at her.  "How could I not forgive you?"  He smiled.  "You... Dubya... the Job Squad and the Herald?  Y'all are family... my real family."

Rainbow gulped.  "I think Amber would be proud of you for finding one."

"Mmmmm... reckon so..."  Bard tilted the brim of his hat forward, covering his eyes.  "So long as Melody ain't jealous none..."

Thwoooosh!  A wyvern touched down beside them.

"A most fabulous sentiment, frriends," Kepler said, adjusting his spectacles.  "And it brrings up something that I have been contemplating quite deeply as of late."

"Look out, Bard," Rainbow droned.  "It's raining winged walruses."

Bard squinted at the monk.  "Just what do you have cookin' up in that noggin' of yers, Kepler?"

"Namely one thing, goodly Barrd!"  Kepler winked.  "If you have indeed found a family, then perrhaps therre is a way we can help you stay trrue to such a poetic affirrmation..."

"Mrrmfff... guh..."  Ariel waked up, yawning and rubbing her eyes.  "Hmmm?  What?  Something about... walruses...?"