Chapter 7: A New Life
Chapter 7: A New Life
“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Heheheh, it’s so awesome!”
The mare in question smiled as she hugged herself and spun in little circles across Dawn’s floor. Her voice warbled off of the walls in a joyous cry, and even Hawk Tail found himself smiling as he watched the mare gaily sing her name. “Raaaaaaaainbow Daaaaaaashhhh.”
Dawn, meanwhile, had already blocked Rainbow Dash out. Turning around, she frowned at her notes and looked them over. Her horn glowed with an orange aura as she pulled out books and old scrolls from various shelves around the room. They levitated into a ring around her, sliding in and out of her gaze as she needed them. Hawk Tail only noticed when a book flew over from across the room and smacked him behind the ears on its way over to Dawn. Grumbling, he rubbed a hoof behind his head and walked over to the table beside the unicorn.
“Thanks for that,” he mumbled, giving the notes a casual glance with his untrained eyes.
“Welcome,” Dawn replied, not really paying Hawk any attention.
Hawk glanced back over his shoulder to where Rainbow Dash was lying on Dawn’s bed, giggling lightly to herself. The corner of his mouth twitched upward in a soft smile, which he ultimately pushed away as he returned to Dawn. “What are you looking for?”
Dawn merely pressed a clipboard with hastily scribbled notes into his face. “Counter spell, hex, some sort of abjuration magic to counter curse. Anything, really. Not familiar with this kind of magic, no no no no no. Much darker. Yet light? Confusing. Balance of the two, yet neither both nor the third. Hmmm.”
“Uh… what?”
“Not important,” Dawn stated as she quickly turned away to examine the remains of the summoning circle. “Or rather, exceedingly important. Simply a matter of perspective. Unimportant without unicorn Arcana, only a unicorn can possibly break the curse, therefore important to me. And her, by matter of association. Slightly important to you, judging by your various…” she raised her head and took a deep breath, “…cues.”
Hawk Tail shook his head. He wasn’t sure if it was the book or Dawn’s high velocity speech that was making it hurt. It was probably a combination of both, he figured.
Trotting over to the bed, he looked down on Rainbow Dash as she hummed to herself. “You seem like you’re in a good mood.”
“Hehe, yeah I am!” Dash exclaimed as she sat up. “I just figured out who I am! Isn’t that awesome?!”
Hawk tail chuckled. “Yeah it is. It’s a step in the right direction, at the least.”
Rainbow Dash smiled and hopped out of bed. She went up to Hawk Tail and offered her hoof for a hoof bump. “Thanks for everything, Hawk. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
“Probably dead, from what I heard,” Dawn commented from the side.
Both Hawk Tail and Rainbow Dash glared at the unicorn, but she was too fixated with her notes to particularly mind.
Hawk sighed and lightly bumped Rainbow’s faltered hoof. “It’s not a problem to me at all, Rainbow Dash.” He smiled slightly to himself at the beaming grin Rainbow’s name aroused from her. “Lanner and Dad and I—we’ll be willing to look out for you for as long as you need it. We’d be honored to have you at our table and under our roof.”
Rainbow blushed and ducked away. “Aww, you guys don’t have to do that crap for me. I’ve already burdened you enough these past few days. I’m sure I’ll be fine on my own.”
Hawk frowned at Rainbow Dash and looked her pointedly in the eyes. “I know you’re happy you got your name back, Rainbow, but we’re not out of the woods yet. You know that.”
The mare’s smile faltered and she looked away, her false bravado quickly leaving her. She sighed and sat back down on the bed. “You’re right. But I don’t want to be like, I don’t know, freeloading off of you or something.”
Hawk sat next to the mare and reached out a hoof to touch her shoulder. He thought better of it, however, and instead tapped her back with his wing. “I told you, you don’t have to worry about it. I’ll be here for you until we get your memory back—and longer, if need be. We still don’t know where you’re from or why you’re here.”
“Yeah…”
Hawk Tail cringed inwardly as he heard the despondent Rainbow Dash creep back into her voice. He nudged her in the shoulder and smiled. “Hey, don’t worry about it. We’ll figure this out eventually. I mean, if Dawn could make some progress on your name, I’m sure she’ll be able to get you the rest of your memory back in no time.”
Across the room, Dawn raised her head and glanced at Hawk Tail. She opened her mouth to say something, but when no words came out she simply turned back to her notes. Her tail swished as she did so.
Still, his assurances left a noticeable effect on the mare. Her free wing slackened a tiny bit, and a smile tugged on her lips. “I’m glad that I don’t have to do this alone. I hate being alone.”
She stood up then, walking to the other side of the room and looking out the window. Hawk Tail slid off the bed and moved to follow her, but her voice held him in place. “It’s weird not being able to remember anything. Like… I don’t know. It’s like the world didn’t exist until I woke up yesterday. And now here I am, a full grown mare, twenty-something years old, and I only remember the past few days of my entire life.”
Hawk Tail walked up next to her and leaned against the wall. “The rest of your memories are somewhere in here,” he said, tapping her head with a hoof. She playfully glared at him and nipped him with the tip of her free wing. Laughing, Hawk Tail waved it away with a hoof. “We just gotta dig them out one way or another.”
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and shuddered softly. “I… I close my eyes, and I feel things. I can feel them in my head somewhere, but it’s like they’re under a heavy blanket. And no matter how much I—struggle,” she emphasized, sounding like she was actually wrestling with her mind, “the further they slip away. Just when it feels like I’ve got something between my hooves, it gets away.” She sighed and placed a hoof to her chin as she looked out the window. “It sucks.”
“Hey, there’s nothing we can do but keep trying,” Hawk said. Then, smiling, he added, “You look like a particularly speedy mare. I don’t think they’ll be able to get away from you for long.”
Rainbow chuckled. “Just wait until I get this stinking cast-thing off of my wing.”
“You’re lucky that’s a sling, not a cast,” Hawk corrected.
The mare rolled her eyes. “Whatever! It’s still not letting me fly and all.”
Hawk smiled and walked towards the door. “Nothing we can do about that,” he said as his hooves clopped across the wooden floorboards. He pressed a hoof to the handle, unlatching the door and pushing it open. “You need us for anything, Dawn?” he asked before stepping outside.
“No no. Just time to think. And work. And maybe eat. Not sure about last one; unimportant.”
“I’m going to be stopping by later tonight,” Hawk Tail warned her, “and if you don’t eat something by the time I get back, I swear…”
“Empty threats,” Dawn noted as she buried her nose deeper into an old tome. “Could turn you into an orange if I really wanted to. Not hard of a spell at all. Foal’s play.” From where he stood, Hawk Tail could see a friendly smile shape itself across the unicorn’s muzzle.
“Right,” he said. “We’ll be off then. Let us know if you find anything!”
Trotting out of the house, Hawk Tail left the door open for Rainbow Dash. The mare paused at the door, however, and turned back to wave at Dawn. “Thanks for everything, Dawn. You’re a totally awesome pony!”
“Some have said as much,” Dawn noted with a trace of humor in her voice.
“Heh, glad I’m not the only one,” Rainbow said as she turned around. “Catch you later!”
Dawn merely nodded from where she stood, choosing not to correct Rainbow’s statement.
Outside, the two pegasi casually walked away from Dawn’s shack. Side by side, they strode along the dirt path back towards Hawk’s home, content to take in the sights and feel the small tickles of the breeze through their feathers. It had been a bright and beautiful day before, but Rainbow Dash’s excitement only seemed to make it even more cheerful.
“This is a beautiful place,” Rainbow commented as she looked around. “It’s basically untouched by ponies.”
“One of these days I’ll have to take you to the lakes,” Hawk said. “They’re absolutely wonderful on a summer day like this. Or perhaps the windswept plains south of River’s Reach.” His eyes sparkled as he recalled each detail. “The long grass, ground so flat you can see for miles in any direction, the rippling wind from the northwest scattering beams of light through the flaxen plants, it’s just…” he happily sighed. “Beautiful.”
“You really love your country, don’t you?”
Hawk Tail shrugged his shoulders. “This could be your country too, for all we know. And... well, I love the land, the ponies, and the history. If those things make up the country, then yes, you could say I love Nymera. It’s not without its problems—the Noble Court of Mymis, for one thing—but way out here on the fringes of Nymera’s borders, we don’t deal much with the edicts from the capital. There’s a popular saying we have around here.”
“Oh?” Rainbow asked.
“Yes,” Hawk said, slyly smiling. “‘Mymis is far away.’ If it wasn’t for the raptors, we’d have almost no direct communication with the capital. Their nobles hardly ever come this far north, and River’s Reach is split between two provinces.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, for one thing, the town itself is actually split in two by the river,” he said. Opening a wing, he pointed with his primaries to a small brook racing alongside of them. “River’s Reach is where all the tributaries for the Glittering Run come together, and then the Run merges into the Emerald River farther south. On either side of the Run are provinces run by governors appointed by the King in Mymis. When it came to the question of which province River’s Reach should belong to, the nobles in Mymis got lazy and just divided the town in two, one half for each province.”
Rainbow chuckled. “I bet that works out great.”
Hawk smiled. “Actually, it does.” When Rainbow raised a confused eyebrow, Hawk Tail elaborated. “See, it’s hard to run a town according to provincial laws established by two different governors. Thankfully, both of the nobles in charge of the provinces realize this, and for better or for worse, both are too stubborn to give their half of the town to the other and too lazy to coordinate their laws with each other. Thus, they both just let us do our own thing.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Since we’re not our own province we don’t get to appoint a governor, but our mayor handles things fairly well. He was educated in Mymis and knows how to make progress even while dancing with the Noble Court.” Hawk chuckled to himself. “As my dad puts it, he’s ‘the only pearl to ever come out of that shithole of an oyster.’”
“Your dad doesn’t seem to have high opinions for Memas,” Rainbow Dash observed.
“Mymis,” Hawk Tail quickly corrected, “and no, not since he was discharged from the Royal Army. To this day, he still feels like he shouldn’t have been sent home because of his wounds. I’m inclined to agree with him; he wouldn’t have been any different than an earth pony soldier, and his experience would be invaluable to younger recruits.”
“So this ‘Noble Court’ of yours just got rid of him?”
“Yeah. ‘Retired’ they call it. But the benefits of being a veteran certainly help out with expenses,” Hawk Tail added. “Running the post office isn’t exactly a very profitable profession. I mean, it’s good enough that we can get by—better than some of the artisans and farmers in town, even—but there’s not much wiggle room with expenses.”
“That’s gotta be tough,” Rainbow Dash said. “I wouldn’t—I mean, I don’t know what I did before all… this… and I’m not even sure how well it paid, if anything at all. But it sounds like you guys are all doing well. Your house didn’t look bad or anything.”
Hawk Tail smiled. “You can thank my great-grandpa and his brothers for that. They built that house from scratch many years ago. Went to the forest, cut down the trees, and dragged the timber all the way back up the hill to put the thing together log by log. I tell you, great-grandpa Kestrel was a genius for his time, and he built the thing to last. The house has been standing for at least as long as Amber Grain’s been alive, and that’s no small amount of time.”
“Do you still have family around?”
Hawk shook his head. “Not in River’s Reach, at least. My grandma—Kestrel’s daughter—moved to Mymis and had her kids there. From there her children, my aunts and uncles, spread across Nymera. I’ve got cousins and family out there for sure, but my dad’s the only one who came this far north.”
They had strayed from the path and were following the brook as it weaved between sturdy oaks and under ferns, flowing ever deeper into the forest. The canopy above left shimmering spots of sunlight on the earthy soil, and the green allure of healthy leaves and strong trees drew the two ponies inward. Rainbow Dash turned her head up and watched several birds flutter from branch to branch, giving out the occasional burst of chirping. It was a happy noise, and it brought her a sense of calm she had been lacking ever since she woke up.
Eventually the brook turned into a small pond where several other small streams met up before flowing further east into the Glittering Run. The basin had a grassy edge along the water next to a few broad, flat stones basking in the sunlight. The trees stood a respectful distance away from the clear water, opening up the pond to the blue skies above. The cool air coming off the water was fresh and clean, and somewhere nearby the sploosh of a frog jumping into the water made its way to Rainbow’s ears.
The two ponies leisurely walked around the edge of the pond, letting the lazy waters lap around their fetlocks. They made their way over to the rocks and lay down upon them, sighing at the feeling of warm stone against their stomachs. Hawk Tail shut his eyes and rolled his neck, eliciting a few satisfactory cracks from the vertebrae. Beside him, Rainbow Dash sprawled herself out across the rock, moaning happily as she let the warmth creep into her joints.
They lay there in silence for a good while, letting the summer sun and the sounds of nature fill the easy silence between them. Glancing over to Hawk Tail, Rainbow Dash noticed just how much he blended in with the forest around them, yet how much he stood out with his red mane and tail. The forest and its solitude was easily befitting of him, and she couldn’t help but observe how she stuck out with her wild colors. Still, she felt entirely at home by this little pond in the forest, so far away from everypony else.
Hawk’s ears suddenly perked up, and he began to survey the canopy with renewed interest. Rainbow Dash only looked confusedly between him and the pond. “What? I don’t hear anything.”
“Then listen harder,” Hawk Tail teased, even as he lowered his head alongside Rainbow’s to point with a hoof towards a large walnut tree across the pond. Rainbow tried to follow his hoof, but only saw branches and leaves. She frowned, and Hawk chuckled at her expression. “No, farther up. About halfway, on the branch to the left. See her?”
“Who?” Rainbow asked. The only ‘she’ that came to mind was Lanner or Dawn, and she wouldn’t expect to find Dawn halfway up a tall tree. “I don’t see her.”
Smiling, Hawk Tail stood up and faced the tree. Taking a deep breath, he opened his wings and leaned forward, making a scree call towards the tree. He watched the tree, waiting a few seconds before he made the call again. It was an uncanny mimic of a hawk’s mating call, and it left Rainbow Dash thoroughly impressed.
“That’s pretty awesome,” she said, standing up next to Hawk Tail. “Where’d you learn to do that? You’ll have to teach me how to do that one day.”
“You’re not watching the tree…” Hawk Tail scolded her. When Rainbow rolled her eyes and turned back to the tree, Hawk Tail made the call yet again, this time adding short chwirks to the end of it. Rainbow Dash was just about to give up watching when a screech answered him.
She snapped her head back towards the source of the noise and grinned. There, hidden among the shadowy boughs of the tree branches, was a rather large red tailed hawk. It flicked its amber eyes towards her for a brief second before Hawk Tail’s whistles caught its attention again. After waiting a few seconds, the hawk answered and took wing, diving out of the tree towards them.
In flight it seemed even larger. Its wings floated the bird across the lake, leaving surprisingly large shadows on the surface of the water. With another screech, its powerful appendages flapped and sent the hawk soaring straight for Rainbow Dash. The mare flinched and scrambled backwards just as the raptor veered up, fluttering its wings one last time before settling comfortably on Hawk Tail’s outstretched hoof.
“Woah!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she cautiously approached the hawk. “How’d you do that?”
Hawk Tail shrugged. “It just comes naturally to me. As I believe I said earlier, tending to raptors comes naturally in the family. I’ve always been able to do it, once I learned the calls. I used to scare the living daylights out of my mom when I’d call down falcons as big as I was to the patio out back.”
Rainbow Dash laughed, but that soon died away as a more serious question came to mind. “Say, where is your mom? I haven’t seen her at all since I woke up.”
Hawk Tail’s ears drooped slightly. “My mom died a long time ago.”
Rainbow’s ears flattened in shame and she looked down at the pond. “Sorry, didn’t mean to bring it up.”
“It’s fine,” Hawk Tail said. “I’ve… learned to move on, and Lanner never knew her, so we do alright.” Waving the hawk away, Hawk Tail smiled and patted Rainbow Dash’s back. “But enough of that. You know, today’s just the very beginning.”
The mare’s ears perked up, and she turned towards Hawk Tail. “Beginning of what?”
Hawk smiled as he lead her away from the pond and back towards the house. “Why, only the start of your new life! Until you get your memory back, you’re a River’s Reach pony, and gods be damned if I just let you sit back and waste away at the house. Today, we’re going into town. There’s stuff I need to take care of while I’m there anyway, and it’ll do you good to meet some of the locals. I know my friends are dying to see you.”
Rainbow chuckled uneasily. “Sounds… fun.”
Hawk Tail nudged her with an elbow. “Don’t worry, we’re all friendly here in River’s Reach. Nopony will bother you if you don’t want them to. But still, get out there and talk to some ponies. Who knows who might be able to help you.”
“Heheh… Well, I suppose. If you insist.”
“That’s the spirit!” Hawk cheered as he led her back onto the path and back towards town. “Trust me, it’ll be fun. I’ll even let you listen to a few of Amber Grain's stories.”
Smiling, Rainbow Dash trotted off after him, her good wing quivering with anticipation at the start of a new life.
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DAMNIT.
Aside from that, I like how you played Rainbow in this. And we also get more info on Hawk. Who is awesome.
Here's hoping you get to EqD, mate!
~Skeeter The Lurker
I can feel the plot twist approaching in town.
3333867
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Whoops, sorry, totally forgot about those damn timezones
And, yay, new chapter :3
Totally incredible awesome chapter. Like always, as excepted. Moar
!
That raptor talent is pretty awesome. I have this great mental image of a Hawk's mother finding him as a foal just surrounded by various birds of prey.
Dashie so happi!
i like this story it has a sense of wounder to it
TIME TO FAV!
The Hereos of Olympus series come into mind, if any of u read it u might recall that in the second book Percy Jackson wakes up and he's lost his memory and he's in a place he's never seen before and Rick Riordan' s books have mythology a lot really pit into them anyway just thought I'd bring that up......but anyway awesome story so far it's really good
While reading first chapter, thought the atmosphere in this is dark, Midnight Hollow or FOE like. Now there's sunny weather, it got brighter. Still thinking that things on the ground and pony colors are about 40% of brightness in Equestria, about 70% of common brightness.
edit: err there it was.