The Elements of Honor

by Flanagan

Chapter 24: No Introduction Needed

“Wow…” Twilight said with a look of sheer awe of Battleaxe’s story. “That’s what happened to the three of you?”

“Yeah,” Battleaxe said. “One hell of a story, if I do say so myself.”

“I can hardly believe it…” Twilight said looking to Greatsword then Warhammer, “I’ve read nearly every book in the Canterlot library, I know about memory and inner strength spells, but this is just fascinating.”

“Out of everything I told you, you only picked up on those two points?” Battleaxe said slightly annoyed, considering he had been telling her about their lives for the past several hours.

“Oh no, of course not.” Twilight said hastily realizing she had upset Battleaxe, “What the three of you and your friends went through must have been very difficult, especially Greatsword”

“It was,” Battleaxe said looking to Twilight. “We all lost a lot of friends along the way.”

“At least now I know why Greatsword attacked Spike.” Twilight said looking to her draconic friend, “and from his point of view I can understand.”

“Did YOU see what he did to me?!” Spike yelled, pointing at his face. “How can you understand that?!”

“Spike,” Twilight said trying to him down. “You didn’t go through what he went through. He lost a lot of his friends to a dragon and that was a little over three weeks ago, you can‘t expect him to stop hating dragons so quickly.”

“But you CAN expect him not to blindly attack one coming out of a building,” Spike growled, “minding his own bucking business.”

“Spike, language!” Twilight snapped at him, “Anyway, let’s get all of you to the Town Hall, I’ve kept you all from unpacking long enough.”

Twilight, Spike and Rarity all led the other ponies and the still magically bound Greatsword to the Town Hall. When they finally arrived Battleaxe turned to the others holding Greatsword down. Making sure that they were prepared to react if Greatsword was to do something irrational, stepping forward towards his brother he began the seemingly impossible task of calming him down.

“Now, Greatsword,” he said in a calm tone, “when we let you go, promise not to attack Twilight’s FRIEND, Spike, and we won’t hold you like this all night. deal?” Greatsword just growled at the unicorns that had him held down, still glaring at Spike, who was giving him the same look. “That’s about as close to a yes as we can get with him like this,” Battleaxe finally said to Twilight and Rarity, “We can let him go.”

“I hope you’re right, Battleaxe,” Twilight said looking at Greatsword, “because he can really hurt Spike, or worse.”

The unicorns simultaneously released Greatsword, ready to bind him again if he went after Spike. Greatsword landed on his hooves and calmly walked to the unicorns. He looked at all four of them, then he turned his attention to Spike. He made his way to Spike the unicorns horns began to glow again ready to split the two apart, but Greatsword extended his hoof to Spike.

“I’m Greatsword,” he said his hoof still extended to Spike, who was ignoring the gesture, “and I’m sorry.”

Spike looked to him in surprise, then he saw that it bothered Greatsword to be doing this. Spike extended his claw to Greatsword’s hoof and shook, “I’m Spike,” he said back, “and I forgive you.”

The five ponies made their way into the Town Hall, all saying their goodbyes to one another, “I hope to see all of you again.” Twilight said as they all entered the Town Hall.

“So do I.” Battleaxe said finally walking into town hall.

“So, Battleaxe…” Lug Nut said while Battleaxe walked into the main room, “you just got here and you have your ever wandering eye on a mare already.”

“What?! No!” Battleaxe said hastily, “I don’t like Twilight, she’s Shining Armor’s little sister!”

“I never said anything about Twilight…” Lug Nut said smiling with the others, letting out a small chuckle.

“Seems that ‘wild’ part of you is getting tamed rather quickly,” Warhammer said knowingly. “You should talk to her. See if she feels the same way about you.”

“I DON’T LIKE HER!” Battleaxe shouted defensively, “Shining Armor wrote to her about me, more than likely there’s nothing good about me in it.”

“You never know until you ask, Battleaxe,” Warhammer said, “Luna was the same way with me, until she asked, and the rest is history.”

“Don’t get caught up in the ‘love’ thing, Battleaxe,” Greatsword said cutting the light mood of the others, “sure it’s great at first… then the pain comes.” Greatsword walked off to another room and locked the door behind him before anypony could stop him to ask what was wrong.

“I guess that’ll be HIS room,” Battleaxe said looking to the room Greatsword had entered, “dibs on the one to the left!” Battleaxe sprinted to the room next to Greatsword’s.

The other Ponies then went to the other open rooms and set up their spaces. All ready to get some sleep, except for the three. Their minds were all on their own personal worries. The new day came the five left their rooms. A slight amount of confusion fell on them. Long Shot never came to the Town Hall like he said he would. After they searched for him around the building for a few minutes they were stopped by the Mayor of Ponyville.

“Welcome to Ponyville,” she began, “I’m sorry that we couldn’t meet yesterday, but may I ask why are the five of you are walking around the Town Hall?”

“We’re trying to find a friend of ours, Long Shot,” Lug Nut answered. “He’s a purple Pegasus, about thirty-four or thirty-five, crosshair cutie mark, have you seen him?”

“No, I haven’t seen anypony of that description, I’m sorry.” She said, “Have you all seen my town? If not I’d love to show you.”

“That’s fine, Ms. Mayor,” Greatsword said, “But Twilight Sparkle was kind enough to show us around yesterday.”

“Ah I see, she is a very helpful young mare, especially around Winter Wrap-up.” The Mayor said thinking about Twilight.

“Where exactly does she live?” Battleaxe asked, “She showed all of us where everypony else lived but she never showed us her house.”

“She didn’t show you the library?” The Mayor said surprised. “She’s so proud of that place. I’m shocked that she didn’t show you.”

“Wait…” Battleaxe said, “Twilight lives in the library?”

“Yes,” The Mayor answered, “is there something wrong with that?”

“No but, who the hell would live in a library?” Battleaxe asked the Mayor, “and where would she sleep?”

“I guess you’ll have to ask her that.” The Mayor said giving a confused look to Battleaxe.

“You talk way too much…” Long Shot said as he walked into the main room.

“Long Shot,” Patches said in relief, “where were you last night?”

“My brother was kind enough to offer me his living room couch to live on for the time I’m here,” Long Shot answered, “and since it’s been near a decade since I’ve seen any of them, I thought it would be nice if I stayed there and caught up with them.”

“Well that’s good news,” Lug Nut said. “They’re only five guest rooms.”

Just as Lug Nut finished his statement, there was a knock on the main room’s door. Battleaxe went to answer the door, when he opened it he was greeted by the one pony that he wanted to see. “Twilight,” he said with a smile, “what brings you here today?”

Twilight politely smiled back at Battleaxe, “Well I forgot to introduce you to some other ponies that I know yesterday. You know after that little incident, and I thought you might want to meet them, so I came to get you.”

“I’d love to meet your other friends,” Battleaxe said, “especially if you’re doing the introducing.”

Twilight smiled awkwardly as her cheeks turned a light red, “Please, I’m just being helpful,” she said as she looked past Battleaxe to the other ponies, “now, if you’ll follow me, I’ll introduce you to my other friends.”

Twilight led the group to the edge of town, where they saw a house floating above the ground. They were initially surprised until they realized that it was made out of clouds. Twilight looked up to the house and called to its owner. “Rainbow!” she shouted, with no results.

“Did she just say…?” Patches said to Greatsword as Twilight readied herself to call again.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called out, again there was no response.

“Yeah…” Greatsword said back to Patches. “She just said it.”

Twilight grew slightly annoyed as she called out for a third time, “Rainbow Dash, I would like you to meet some new ponies!”

“Twilight!” Rainbow called from her home. “Can’t you tell I’m napping!”

“You can get back to sleep after you meet these new ponies!” Twilight called back. “Just fly down and introduce yourself!”

“Fine, I’m coming!” Rainbow yelled back, speeding out of her home, a rainbow trail following all the way. “Hi, name’s Rainbow Dash, nice to meet-” Rainbow Dash froze mid sentience the moment she noticed two certian ponies in the back of the group.

“Rainbow?” Twilight asked concerned, “Have you met these two already?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said landing and making her way to Patches and Greatsword. “I’ve met them before…” she pointed at the two in the back.

“Well that’s excellent,” Twilight said with a smile. “I guess that-”

“He’s the one that was in charge of the mission my brother died on…” Rainbow Dash said cutting off Twilight before she could finish. “And she was his fiancée…”

Twilight lowered her head and looked to Rainbow Dash. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know…”

“That’s ok, Twilight,” Rainbow said her eyes still on the two, “it’s not YOUR fault anyway.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Patches said to her, “you know that it wasn’t Greatsword’s fault, nopony knew Smog was down there.”

“I know,” Rainbow said, tearing up, “but he’s gone now and all I want is to have him back.”

“Nothing can bring him back, Rainbow Dash,” Greatsword said softly, “and not a day has gone by that I didn’t wish it was me instead. He was a great pony, he was a great friend, he is and forever will be missed.”

“I-I should get back to my nap…” Rainbow dash said, wiping tears away from her eyes while flying back into her house.

Twilight made her way to the two ponies, “I’m sorry,” she said, “Battleaxe never told me those details of your story.”

“Only a few ponies knew that information anyway, Twilight,” Greatsword said looking up to Rainbow’s house, “do you have any more friends you wish to introduce to us?”

“Yes,” Twilight said looking at Rainbow’s house as well, “there is one more, but I’ll warn you, she’s very shy.”

“Well let’s not waste any more time here,” Greatsword said to Twilight, “I can still barely look at her…” he muttered under his breath as they began to head to the Everfree Forest.

Sometime later the group of ponies stood in front of a small cottage in the shape of a tree. There was a small bridge over a stream and many small animals surrounded the house. The scene reminded Greatsword of something, but he couldn’t remember exactly from where. Twilight stopped in front of the bridge and turned to the ponies following her.

“This is it,” she said looking to the house, “I hope she’s in, normally around this time she’s seeing other ponies pets.”

“She lives by herself with a lot of pets, away from everypony else and she’s very shy…” Battleaxe said. “I’m imagining a creepy looking old mare who smells funny.” the other ponies laughed, but Twilight looked at Battleaxe and rolled her eyes.

“Well she’s actually around my age…” Twilight said. “And she’s very kind and loving.”

“Sorry Twilight,” Battleaxe said quickly, “I was just kidding.”

“She’s very sensitive, Battleaxe,” Twilight said, “and she wouldn’t be able to tell if you were joking or not.”

The group of ponies made their way down the winding path to the cottage’s door. When they had arrived Twilight gave the door a small knock. There was no answer, Twilight knocked again, but only to meet the same results.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight called softly into the door, “Fluttershy, are you in there?” There was no answer from inside, Twilight turned to the ponies she was guiding, “I guess we missed her,” she said slightly apologetic, “I’m sure we’ll run into her while we head back to the Town Hall, I just wish you could meet her now.”

They began to walk away, but the moment they did. The door opened very slowly. “T-Twilight?” a meek voice called from behind the door, “Twilight, is that you?”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight said turning back to the door, “why didn’t you answer the door when I knocked?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Twilight,” Fluttershy said closing the door slightly, “but Angel Bunny is being very fussy this morning and I was trying to give him a bath, p-please don’t be mad at me.”

“I think it’s impossible to get mad at you, Fluttershy.” Twilight said smiling at the figure behind the door, “Fluttershy, I would like you to meet some ponies new to town.”

“N-new ponies?” Fluttershy’s voice trembled, “Oh I-I don’t know about that, Twilight, it’s still very early, maybe later?”

“Fluttershy…” Twilight said, placing her hoof on her face, “You can’t just come out and say ‘hi’?”

“Oh, uh… ok…” Fluttershy whimpered, “I guess…”

The door opened fully, behind it was a yellow pegasus with a very long pink mane. Every stallion in the group’s eyes widened when they saw her, even Warhammer was unable to resist looking her up and down once. Fluttershy tried to hide herself behind her mane from the sudden amount of eyes on her, but it didn’t seem to stop them from staring.

“H-hello…” Fluttershy whispered, “I’m…my name is Fluttershy…”

“I’m sorry…” Patches said politely, “What was that?”

“I’m Fluttershy…” Fluttershy repeated, but only softer.

“Uh, one more time please…” Patches said as an awkward smile grew on her face. “Didn’t quite catch that.”

“I’m Fluttershy.” She squeaked, then Twilight stepped in.

“Ok…” she said separating Fluttershy from the other ponies, “That’s everypony I know. Let’s get back to town.”

The other ponies left her with Twilight, but as they walked away they failed to realize that one of them was missing. Greatsword stayed there, staring at Fluttershy, who stared back. He had no idea why he remained, but there was something about Fluttershy, something that made him think back to another time.

Comments

[Dark Star the Crazed]

CALLED IT MUTHA BUCKA'S!!!!!

[light snow]

Sigh. Still think he should be shipped with celestia