The Elements of Honor

by Flanagan

Chapter 13: The Prancing Pony

After several months had passed, the 1025th had completed training their first group of Lunar Stallions. Now they had to ready themselves to train the other half of Lunar Stallions, but Princess Luna was kind enough to give the 1025th two weeks of rest time before they started. On the first evening of this vacation, all the 1025th with the exception of Warhammer went out on the town to enjoy some of the Canterlot night life, which wasn’t much. They all settled in the same place they had before they were sentenced to serve Princess Luna, a bar called the Prancing Pony. After a few drinks and several laughs, the 1025th began to talk of the recent events in their lives.

“I can’t tell you enough, how proud I am of my little sis,” Comet said smiling all the while, “I mean; she IS one of the Elements of Harmony, Loyalty to top it off. That just blows my mind!”

“You know, Comet,” Battleaxe said with overwhelming sarcasm, “after hearing you talk about it for the past two and a half months, hearing you talk about it again has really killed the awe of it.”

The 1025th began to laugh, it was true, Comet had been boasting about that particular fact since his sister wrote to him about it.

“Yeah, but you aren’t going to win the best young flyers competition in a few weeks are you?” Comet said shooting just as much sarcasm back at Battleaxe, “Like my little sis will.”

“It would help if he had wings,” Lug Nut said adding his two bits into this new conversation, “I’m sure Greatsword would crush the competition.”

“But I’m not young,” Greatsword reminded Lug Nut, “Well not young enough to compete for the best young flyer title, Warhammer might qualify if he had wings though.”

“Speaking of your brother,” Camo said pointing his glass at Greatsword, “Where’s Warhammer? This is the first real time we get off in months and instead of enjoying it with us. He just stayed back at the castle, why’s that?”

“Well, he’s never been the social one,” Greatsword said looking back at Camo, “anyway, he said he had personal things that he needed to take care of in the castle.”

“Like our dear Princess Luna…” Long Shot said with a deviant grin. The rest of the 1025th snickered at his comment. The two had been seen together more often than not in the past two months.

“I doubt that, Long Shot.” Greatsword said covering his face with his hoof.

“You can’t tell me you haven’t seen those two outside of training, Greatsword,” Long Shot continued, “I’m just calling it like I see it and I see a very pleased Princess.”

“I remember what happened the last time one of us assumed something like that, Long Shot,” Greatsword said shooting at glance at Comet, “and now we are training Lunar Stallions.”

“Yeah, about that,” Comet said looking away from Greatsword, “how has Record Keeper been? Haven’t seen her in a few months.”

“Well I’m fine thank you for asking.” Record Keeper’s sudden appearance into the group nearly spooked Comet out of his chair, fortunately Patches was there to keep him balanced on it. “Oops!” she squeaked to the sudden sound of laughter, “did I scare you?”

“No!” Comet said quickly looking around at his laughing comrades, “just spooked me… you should really just make yourself known a little better.”

“I thought I was the one who scared easy, Comet,” Cannon Fodder said still laughing at the incident, “but we all get scared sometimes I guess.”

“Well, Comet, seems that you can’t be the brave type twenty four seven,” Patches said smiling at her still spooked secret lover, “but as long as you are one when it counts, I think that we‘ll be fine.”

“Anyway, back to the fun,” Battleaxe said raising his glass in the air, “I’ll take another shot of that sweet apple acres cider number seven, bartender.” the bartender nodded and sent down more shots towards the 1025th, after a few more shots ran through the. Record Keeper became inquisitive about their recent activites.

“How was training all those Lunar Stallions?” Record Keeper asked them all, “Was it difficult in any way?”

“Some of those guys may have been more stubborn than me,” Flare Flash said, “but in the end, they seemed to understand the basics of being an organized military unit.”

“They were not the best students, by far,” Patches said shaking her head thinking back on several of her first aid classes, “but they at least were willing.”

“You should have seen Greatsword and Warhammer’s recruits, though,” Tower Shield said, “those stallions didn’t have an ounce of quit in them; not sure how they did it, but damn they were something.”

“I still remember when those two pegasi went against Commander Garrison’s best in the pit,” Lug Nut said remembering that night. “Now THAT was something.”

“Hell yeah it was,” Flare Flash said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.” Flare Flash began to shadow box in his seat. “That fight was the most heart pounding I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing.”

“Well the stallions Flash, Cannon and I were in charge of were quite the hassle,” Battleaxe said returning to the conversation the 1025th was currently having. “I swear some of those stallions had mud and rocks for brains.”

“I can’t agree with you more, Battleaxe,” Roadmap added nodding in agreement. “When I taught them during navigation training, I remember specifically showing them how to use a compass, some of those Stallions looked like they were halfway to Los Pegasus before they remembered that the ‘N’ meant north again.” The 1025th began to laugh at Roadmap’s comment. All of them remembered that night very well, Comet and Flare Flash didn’t get much sleep that day.

“Can’t say that I had issues like that when I had them for training,” Cannon Fodder said, “but it was kind of funny when they tried to apply the right amount of explosive magic to properly clear a downed tree.” everypony except for Snowstorm chuckled at Cannon Fodder’s memory, he still was trying to grow his mane back to its original length.

“Well they weren’t that bad when it came to stealth,” Camo said, “every last one of them managed to get one of Ridge Cracker’s favorite cookies.”

“That was you?! Oh, you good ‘fer nothin’ lil- COME ‘ER!” Ridge Cracker shouted chasing Camo while the rest of the 1025th began to erupt in more laughter than any other time during the evening.

“Gentlecolts,” Greatsword said placing himself between Camo and Ridge Cracker. “We’re all stallions here, well, except for the mares who are with us.”

“You can’t forget those lovely mares. “ Roadmap said waving his hoof at Greatsword, “It’s what I live for. Being Black Ops is like being a piece of steel in a magnet factory.”

“And yet there is no history in your record of you having any kind of relationship, whether it be serious or a fickle one.” Record Keeper said with the 1025th staring at her, “Oops! I guess you never told them that, I’m sorry.”

“Who invited you?” Roadmap moped, his ego crushed to the sound of roaring laughter.

“Well, I did, Roadmap,” Greatsword said still chuckling a bit at Roadmap, “she’s just as much a part of this as the rest of us, and if not for her my brothers and I would still not know who we are.”

“Oh, I think you would have figured out who you were by now, Greatsword,” Record Keeper said waving Greatsword‘s compliment off with her hoof. “You are a smart stallion after all.”

“Nonsense,” Greatsword said taking a seat next to Record Keeper. “Even if we hadn’t found anything in the vault, you would have looked again and again until you had found something. I can see that in you.”

“You’re far too generous.” Record Keeper said slightly blushing behind her long mane.

“If you two keep at it like you are now,” Battleaxe said shooting his sarcastic gaze towards Greatsword and Record Keeper. “You’ll be married by the end of the month.”

Greatsword’s face was met with his hoof while Record Keeper turned a deeper shade of red, the rest of the 1025th laughed at their reactions.

“It seems that I can’t have close friends of the opposite gender,” Greatsword mumbled, slowly slid his hoof off his face, “I really don’t need something like that going on right now anyway.”

“Why does everypony think we’re a couple?” Record Keeper said trying to hide the embarrassment in her voice. “A mare can’t just be friendly to a stallion around these ponies without them shipping her with him?”

“I know, believe me I know,” Greatsword replied shaking his head. “They think that Warhammer, my little brother of all ponies, is keeping Princess Luna ‘busy’.”

“Wow,” Record Keeper said slightly shocked. “Is the only thing that these ponies ever think about shipping?”

“Well, we do get really board,” Battleaxe answered sarcastically. “And we rarely ever have anything much better to do with our time off.”

“I see…” Record Keeper said raising her eyebrow at Battleaxe. Their revelry continued for some time, stories and laughs were equally shared amongst all of them.

“Battleaxe,” Patches said to the drunken unicorn. “I think that eighteen sweet apple acres cider number seven shots is enough.”

“Oh alright,” Battleaxe said trying to get off his stool, “Waiter…” he said when he finally managed to do so, “check please…” and with those words, Battleaxe hit the floor, unconscious, the still standing members of the 1025th seemed to have exploded twice form the excessive amount of laughter.

“Well, I better get him home,” Greatsword said rolling his eyes at the limp unicorn on the floor. “And the rest of us should do the same. I don’t think that any of us wants to spend this time off in a coma.”

The 1025th all let out a small chuckle, but they knew that Greatsword had a point. They paid for their drinks and left the Prancing Pony without any incident. Greatsword carried Battleaxe across his body as he walked Record Keeper back to her apartment on the other side of Canterlot.

“Tonight was kind of fun, don’t you think?” Record Keeper asked Greatsword while they made their way across the royal city.

“You could say that,” Greatsword said adjusting his nearly comatose brother to a more comfortable position. “But you don’t have to carry another pony the same size as you across Canterlot, then back past were you started, and up seven flights of stairs and down a long as hell hallway to your room, I think that would kill all the fun you were having.”

“Well, it was fun for me at least.” Record Keeper said laughing a little at Greatsword’s rare sense of humor. “Battleaxe looks like he had a lot of fun too, shame that he won’t remember any of it.”

“I believe I’ll remember it enough for the both of us.” Greatsword said while his brother started to mumble incoherent babble.

“I think he’ll be fine with that,” Record Keeper said still smiling, “anyway, what about Warhammer? I haven’t seen him since we actually found your identities.”

Greatsword looked at Record Keeper; the look in her eyes could only mean one thing, she was concerned. It was true, Warhammer never came by her apartment to say hi, at least not like he and his brother did, but he always had his own agenda that he had to attend to. He never really thought this much into the matter until now however, maybe he should ask Warhammer to stop by once during this break, just to ease his friend’s mind.

“Greatsword?” Record Keeper’s voice broke him from his thought.

“Oh right, huh, I’ll see if I can’t get him to stop in during this little break that we are having in between recruits, I’m sure he won’t mind.” Greatsword said to quell the worry in Record Keeper’s eyes.

“Ok, it’s not that I think that something bad happened to him, I just don’t see him as much as you and I’m sure he has a lot on his mind that I might be able to help him with.” Record Keeper said as the two sober ponies arrived at her apartment building. “We’re here,” she said smiling, “again thanks for inviting me, next time I’ll actually walk there instead of teleporting into your crowd.”

“No problem,” Greatsword said adjusting his brother again. “But if I may ask, why do you teleport to where you want to go but always walk back to your home?”

“Well, I guess I do that because were I’ve gone doesn’t really matter to me much, but were I came from does.” Record Keeper said happily trotting up the staircase to her apartment.

Record Keeper’s words hit Greatsword like a hoof to the throat. He and his brothers still had no clue where they were from, but he shrugged it off as best he could as not to upset her as he left. After nearly two hours of walking, seven flights of stairs and a very long walk down the castle hallway, Greatsword and his still intoxicated brother had arrived at their room. Greatsword was exhausted, carrying his brother through Canterlot with not a single taxi wanting to stop for him, but he was just happy that he finally was going to get to sleep.

“You’re lucky that we’re related.” he said under his breath, smiling as he opened the door with his free hoof.

Greatsword pushed the door open, but he couldn’t help but notice something moving rather quickly towards him from inside the room. Unfortunately for him whatever it was moving with too much speed for him to properly react. THUD! Greatsword and whatever was trying to exit the room collided; Battleaxe was tossed into the air only to land hard on the floor. Greatsword and the thing rolled over each other several times due to the momentum that they had. By the time the two finally stopped rolling, Greatsword managed to move himself into a position to pin whatever it was that tackled him, but when he realized what he had pinned, it gave him the shock of his life.

“Princess Luna?!” Greatsword said in disbelief, looking down on the sweaty alicorn under him, “what the HELL are YOU doing here?”

“We must be off!” Princess Luna yelled hastily with her horn glowing a deep sapphire color, with a flash she had teleported to somewhere else in Equestria.

“What the buck was that all about?” Battleaxe said rubbing his head, “Did I have too much to drink again?”

“Yes, but that’s beyond the point now,” Greatsword said looking into the room. “Why in the word was Princess Luna in here?” The two looked at each other, trying to figure out why she would even be near this part of the castle. Then the realization came upon both of them.

“Warhammer…” they said to each other simultaneously.

Comments

[NoLongerSober]

Warhammer be hittin' that.