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Chapter 3- Empty

I'm standing in a dark room; the only source of light is a candle sitting alone in the corner of the room. I glance around in confusion as I wonder how I ended up in the strange place. Slowly and cautiously, I lift up my hoof and take a step forward. The floorboard beneath me creaks at the weight I put upon it. My hoof snaps back to where it was before, as if it had been shocked with an electric current.

The room is silent; all that can be heard is my heavy breathing as the fear begins to bubble up inside of me. Finally the sound of another pony's hoofsteps fills the room as they walk closer and closer to me. I hold my breath as I beg Celestia to let me get through this, to let me survive.

Then, he speaks. His voice is so familiar yet so distant and so lost. His voice soothes me without me even realising it.

"Hello, son... I came to apologise, I promised to be there for all your shows but now I'm gone." Dad says softly and I realise now that this is a dream.

"Dad, you can come back! You've only just left us last night, you can come home!" I exclaim in confusion and shock.

He can't leave, he just can't.

"I'm sorry, Soar. I can't do anything about it, forgive me. Live a happy life, Soar, make me proud. I'll always be watching down on you, I can promise you that for sure." I can barely make out his silhouette in the candle light, but I'm sure that he's reaching out to touch me; however, he brings his hoof back to the ground.

Tears are now streaming down my cheeks; I don't care if I seem weak. "Dad, please, don't leave me! I can't get into the team without you cheering me on! Stay, please!" I beg but I know it's no use.

"I'm sorry, son," he says, his voice growing quieter as I get pulled away from him. "Stay strong for me, you can do it... Goodbye, Soar. I love you..."

Suddenly I am blinded by a white light and I can no longer hear my father's voice.

"No, don't. Dad!" I cry out and sit upright in the bed.

I look around my room, shocked to find nothing has changed. The sun is shining happily through my window as if it didn't care that my father had just died. When some ponies talk about death in novels, they say that the sky is gloomy and it's raining, they make it out as if the whole world is affected by our loss. That's not true though, it's just another normal day.

Ponies die every day, ponies that I don't know and I go about as if it's a normal day for me because I'm not affected by their death. It's sadistic and cruel, the way this world works, but it's the only way it can work. If we mourned for the death of every single pony that died, we would never be happy, never get on with life. That's why we only mourn for the ones that hurt the most, the ponies who are our loved ones.

Still, my father wants me to be strong and he wants me to get on with life. Mum and Wave Chill are going to need someone to be strong in the family right now, so I will be the one to do that. I will hide my pain and act as if I can get through this. I'll act as if I really am strong and maybe in the end I will trick myself into thinking that it's true.

I climb out of bed and walk out into the hallway. Wave Chill and mother aren't in their rooms so I figure that they're downstairs, maybe they didn't even go to bed last night.

When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I see that Wave Chill and mum are sitting silently at the table. Mothers hair is in a mess around her face, her makeup has ran down her cheeks in black streaks and her eyes are red and puffy from the tears that she's shed since last night. Wave Chill is pale and his eyes are tired as he silently spins a coin around on the table. His hooves shake with each movement he makes.

Slowly, I walk over to the stove and turn on the cooker before I begin to make breakfast. I need to be strong. I need to be strong for them.

"Good morning, everypony!" I say as I attempt to fake a smile. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"

Wave Chill glances up at me in confusion. "Soar, don't you... Don't you remember?" He asks and his voice breaks.

"Yes, I do, but I'm okay! We're okay, aren't we, mum?" I begin to make some pancakes and focus all my attention on that.

"Soarin', stop it, you're being disrespectful!" Mother cries out.

As I flip the pancake, I turn to face mum. "Dad would want us to be happy and carry on with life, so I'm not upset, I'm happy. After this I need to get new saddle bags for the Academy, then I need to do our groceries..." I trail off as I mumble about everything I need to do.

I place the pancakes in front of mum and Wave before I make myself a slice of toast. Wave Chill stares at me in shock and confusion. I need to stay strong, even if they think it's wrong and I'm supposed to be upset. Dad wouldn't want that.

"Anyway, I'll be off for a few hours. Make sure you both eat." I turn to face Wave Chill. "Look after mum, okay?"

Wave Chill frowns slightly as he watches me pick up my saddlebag and a bag of bits, when he doesn't answer my question I send him a look, "Okay, Wave?" I ask sternly.

"Okay, I will! Celestia, Soar, stop being such an angry sod..." he mutters under his breath.

Rolling my eyes, I walk out the door and mutter all the insults I could say back to him but decided not to since I should be the bigger stallion.

As I fly through Cloudsdale, I get a few sympathetic looks from my neighbours but I just send them a cheerful smile in return. They cannot see my cracks, nopony can find out that the strings inside of me are breaking.

I land near the bag shop and slowly walk in as I count up my bits. I just need a simple yet large bag which will be able to hold my possessions for the academy. There is already a yellow mare with a fiery orange mane standing at the counter.

"No way, that's mental! Two hundred bits just for a bag? No offence, mate, but you're a rip-off," The mare exclaims in utter shock.

I walk up beside the fiery mare and look over her shoulder at the brown leather bag, "I do have to admit," I say as I turn to the clerk. "It looks far less than two hundred bits, Streak."

"S-Soar, what're you doing here... I thought you'd be with your family?" Streak stumbles awkwardly. "I-I mean, I'm sorry for your loss."

I have been going to school with Streak ever since I was a colt so of course he'd know about my loss.

The mare is looking at me in curiosity and I can feel her gaze burning into me.

I smile at Streak, "Well the other day I was accepted into the Wonderbolts Academy so I needed a saddlebag but if you're
selling them for that much I don't think I'm gonna buy it from you, sorry."

As I turn to walk out of the store I hear Streak calling me back. A small smile forms across my lips as I turn and walk back towards the counter.

"Fine, one hundred bits..." Streak mumbles under his breath in defeat.

"How about eighty bits?" I ask, knowing that I'm pushing it.

Streak sighs and nods. "Okay, eighty bits it is then."

I grin at Streak before placing one hundred and sixty bits on the table. "I'll take two of them, please!"

Once Streak has packed up the bags and made the payments, I pass one over to the mare.

"I'm Soarin', by the way," I smile.

The mare looks back at me with a raised eyebrow, "I'm Spitfire. It looks like I'll be seeing your goofy flank in the Academy."

I freeze and stare back at Spitfire. "W-Wait, you're... Spitfire, last year's recruit of the 'Bolts?!" I say in shock.

Spitfire laughs, "Yup, I sure am! I'm also the Wonderbolts' new captain as of next year; I look forward to working with you, Soar."

"But... I'm not even on the team yet?" I frown in confusion.

"Well, if you're the Soarin' that almost beat old Hurricane in a race, then I'm sure you'll be on the team in no time. Anyway, I need to head back to HQ, thanks for getting me this bag. I'll see you next week, Rookie!" Spitfire laughs as she stretches out her wings and flies away.

I stare after her in complete shock. I haven't been to any of the shows which she's performed in and I also have never seen her out of uniform so it's completely acceptable not to recognise her. Nonetheless, it was a complete shock to bump into her.
I just hope nopony at the Academy realises about my father because that would mean that if I did get into the team, it would be out of sympathy.

Sighing as I set off into the sky, I head towards the supermarket as I run through the shopping list in my mind so I don't forget anything.

It's strange, I thought the world around me would collapse if I ever lost my father but in reality, it's still spinning on its axis. It just feels emptier and colder.

Author's Note:

Hey guys, just a quick A/N XD
I felt like introducing Spitfire at this point!
Anyway, I haven't started the next chapter yet so who knows where this'll end up XD
Until next time
<3

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TorontoFCBrony

TorontoFCBrony #1 · Aug 31st, 2013 · · ·

Really, really well done! All of it so far. I'm going to have to check out the other stories, then :)

One thing:

Mothers hair is in a mess around her face, her makeup has ran down her cheeks in black streaks and her eyes are red and puffy from the tears that she's shed since last night

*Mother's

That's it ^.^

And maybe don't capitalize after a quotation. But your writing is far underrated.

elue1234