[Interlude] Remembrance
“It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
“I’m sorry! I panicked!” Cadance rushed over to the pony she had just knocked out. As Vinyl’s breakdown became more apparent and extreme, Cadance had her magic trained on the failsafe. If the unicorn had attempted to do something, she was going to shut it down.
Instead all Vinyl had done was show more pain and grief than Cadance had ever seen one pony exhibit. Cadance’s empathy had kicked in and a split-second decision caused her to execute the failsafe in the bind.
Vinyl was breathing at least. Her breaths came calmly and evenly now. The only sign that the mare wasn’t at peace was the tear stained fur on her face. It made Cadance’s heart hurt more and more with each passing second.
“It’s alright, dear. You did what you had to.” Shining Armor was at her side, resting his head against her own. “Who knows what she was going to do next. It was probably for the best.” That didn’t make Cadance feel any better about the situation. She was hoping Shining was going to be mad at her, signaling that maybe she was wrong in her decision. Cadance just needed something to support her doubt, not something to back her decision. She needed to be told that Vinyl was a good pony who wouldn’t do anything, that the pain was necessary for recovery. The Princess needed somepony to tell her she was wrong.
“Twilight, are you alright?” Cadance’s attention was drawn to the other female unicorn in the room. The filly was staggering on her hooves, her little horn sparking with magic. “Twilight, I need you to tell me you’re okay.” Celestia knelt next to her student, looking Twilight in the eyes.
“I-I’m okay.” Twilight closed her eyes as her horn stopped sparking. “My head just hurts.” Princess Celestia picked up her student and laid Twilight across her own back. The filly did not object or struggle, she simply laid on the monarch’s back with her eyes closed.
“Cadance, we’re going back to the castle.” Cadance nodded at her adoptive aunt. “Please update me if anything happens.” The monarch strode out of the room, purpose in her step. When it came to Twilight’s well-being and magic, Celestia was always going to move swiftly and act without hesitation.
“Will she be okay…?” That’s all Cadance wanted to know. Did Vinyl hurt right now? Was she still grieving behind closed eyes? Did this help at all?
That was the problem with a special talent being love. It made you feel an awful lot of the emotion, both platonic and romantic. Cadance hadn’t known the pony for very long, but she did know a lot about Vinyl’s life. Now she knew even more, every pony in the room had an intimate knowledge of her feelings during some very major events. That’s all it took for affection, even strictly platonic affection, understanding.
“She’ll be fine.” Shining reassured his love, kissing her cheek. “I mean, she’ll have a headache when she wakes up, but she’s probably used to headaches at this point. Have you seen the amount of liquor in the kitchen?” Cadance appreciated the attempt to inject humor, but it didn’t work. Surely Shining Armor had felt it too, the weight from the room had been lifted, but now it was resting squarely on everypony else.
“After that?” Cadance stood up and picked up Vinyl in her magic, making sure to keep the mare level. “Do you think she’ll be better?” That was the million bit question at the moment. Did this help at all?
“That’s a good question.” Shining followed as Cadance placed Vinyl on her parent’s bed. “I guess we can’t know until she wakes up.” It was decided then, waiting was going to be the worst part. If this did work, then maybe the healing could truly begin. If it didn’t, then they had just alienated Vinyl further.
“Do you mind if I stay here until she wakes up?” Cadance was invested now, she wanted to see this through. Helping a pony like that, connecting with somepony else’s memories and life was something that left a mark. Cadance had to make sure it wasn’t all for naught.
“Sure. C’mon, let her sleep.” The couple left the bedroom, closing the door behind them. Leaving the unicorn mare to dream.
----
Intrepid swallowed as he looked up at the monumental building before him. At one point in his life, it had been a symbol of normalcy and pride. Now it only brought dread. The words ‘HMEF Training Facility’ hung above the door to the large domed building, taunting him with memories of brighter days.
He was on a roll, though. Ever since that night out with Vinyl and Cadance, he was feeling better about himself. Yesterday he had cleaned up his apartment, straightened things out and made it brighter. Today he had resolved that he was going to confront his past.
The lone pegasus climbed the stairs to the door. His heart was racing in his chest, beating against his ribs like a gorilla in a cage. his stomach had simultaneously formed a deep pit and found it’s way to his throat.
How long had it been? How long since his accident? Two years. How long since he set hoof in this building? Three years at most. This was the precipice of his past and a bridge to his future. He had to cross this tom move on, he had known that for a long time.
With equal amounts trepidation and resolve, the pegasus pushed open the door to the building he once called home. His metal hoof was the first one to step inside. I hit the tile with light tink which echoed down the entryway.
Nothing had changed. Black tile floors were contrasted with white marble walls, making the floor seem like it was miles below the ceiling. The walls themselves had pictures of all of the ‘active’ members of the force.
It struck him that they were all young smiling ponies of every race, color, and creed. They joined to see a bigger world, to find something nopony else had before. Right now they were all off in distant lands, thinking of Equestria under a thick blanket of stars and dreams. Just like he once had.
They were all so brave. It took guts and faith in yourself to take the oath once your training was complete. It meant knowing that home was wherever you put your head at night, that a time would come to pass where you didn’t know when your next meal was, and knowing that your life could be in the hooves of those around you in a split-second. It meant knowing that not being at your best could lead to blood on your hooves.
“Who’s there? We’re closed today.” Intrepid was pulled from his thoughts by the voice. It was one he knew well. “I know you’re there. I can hear you breathing.” Out of the door at the end of the entryway, a batpony came.
The batpony had the same coat that most of them did. It was muted bluish gray, her mane a shade of navy blue. The most striking thing about this particular batpony was her eyes, they were a cloudy gray.
“Echo…” Intrepid thought the name and it was spoken. An old friend and the caretaker of the training facility. She was blind, everypony knew. That didn’t stop her from giving some of the recruits a run for the money, though.
“Intrepid?” The leather-winged equine cocked her head to the side, pondering the identity of the voice. “Intrepid!” The mare broke into a sprint when she decided on who the pony was. Intrepid braced himself as the batpony collided with him. It didn’t bowl him over, but it certainly staggered him.
“Hello Echo.” The mare wrapped her hooves tightly around the stallion, a smile causing her fangs to reveal themselves. Intrepid had to admit that Echo was adorable when she was happy. Just the sight of the smiling batpony brought a warm feeling to his heart.
“I didn’t think you were ever going to come back.” Leathery wings reached out to him. The appendages went over his face slowly. It was Echo’s way of getting to know faces, or in his case, remembering them. “You look so old now…”
“Stress and time will do that to you.” Intrepid would usually scorn Echo for the insult, but he couldn’t argue against it. Lately he sure did feel old. “How are you, Echo? Are you doing well?” He wanted to deflect the conversation away from himself. It was something that Intrepid was not very good at talking about.
“Keeping busy.” The younger mare finally let go of him and sat on her haunches in front of her. Echo’s wings were constantly tapping against the ground, making audible clicks. “It’s the Day of Passing today, so all of the recruits have the day off.”
The Day of Passing was a holiday recognized by the HMEF that was for remembering those lost in the year prior. It was a day to reflect on the dangers of this job, and a way to let the recruits and those not on active duty rest their nerves.
“‘How many this year?” Death and loss was a major part of the HMEF. Ponies succumbed to diseases, to the elements, to predators...or they just never returned or reported. Twenty years ago they were losing a pony each week. It had been trending downwards for quite some time.
“Thirty-Six. Before you ask what happened, several of our crews got caught in a sandstorm that covered most of the Zebrican Desert. Bodies never recovered.” Intrepid cursed under his breath and sighed. That was still the number one killer in the field: bad weather.
“Dear Celestia…” The pegasus was holding back all of his questions. He wanted to ask about their intelligence. Had they known about the storm brewing? Was there any indication? Why weren’t there travel warnings out for the area? But that wasn’t who he was anymore. It wasn’t his place.
“Yeah…” There was a moment of silence before the younger pony stood up. “C’mon, no use stewing over bad news. Let’s go for a walk.” Reluctantly, Intrepid pulled himself to his hooves. Echo was going to pull him deeper into this place until he was fully consumed by memories. He couldn’t say no, though. Not to her.
“Other than that, how are things?” Hopefully he could maneuver the topic away from death or loss. There was enough of that in his own head, he didn’t need it echoed in the real world. “Good, I assume.”
“It’s been tough getting back on our hooves, Intrepid.” As Echo walked, she let her wing drag across the closest wall. Each bump or doorway was carefully traced over with the tip of the leathery appendage. “We lost you, or at least we thought we had. Nopony expected it. Nopony expected the senior member’s team to go like that.” She kept going, looking forward and moving at a constant pace. “It made us all question everything. Question our…”
“Mortality.” Intrepid finished the hanging statement for her. “We never said we were immortal. Even the best make mistakes. Fatal ones.” His mortality was something that he had never questioned in the wilds. He was a miniscule piece of a large world that he could not control outside of Equestria. They taught that to every pony who came and went through these doors. They were going to die out there. No sugarcoating that. No pony had ever successfully retired from the HMEF before, and he doubted any pony truly would.
“We just always taught them that if you were careful and smart you could survive everything.” Echo’s wing brushed over a plaque placed beside a door that read ‘Survival 101’. It hesitated for a moment before moving over it and on down the hallway.
“You should never give them false hope, Echo. These ponies deserve to be told the truth.” It had been one of the tenets on which this place was founded on. They were not doing this for fun or profit. They were doing this for Equestria and her interests, and usually those interests were not safe or practical. There was no guaranteeing life when out on a run. The more they peddled this ‘skill and smarts’ narrative, the more bodies would find themselves piled in front of them.
“We needed something to inspire them, Intrepid. We needed heroes.” Intrepid stopped in his tracks. The absence of his hoofsteps made the mare in front of him stop and turn to face him. He was no hero. He was a pony who did his job. He was a pony who had failed at that job and gotten his friends killed. It pissed him off that the ponies here viewed any of those out in the field as heroes.
“Heroes?” Intrepid asked, incredulous anger creeping into his voice. “Is that what we are? Heroes saving the world? We’re explorers, Echo. We don’t need romanticizing!” INtrepid slammed his fake hoof onto the tile, sending a cracking sound through the hall. “We don’t need ponies to look up to us! We go out there to die, do you realize that? Every year, dozens of ponies die to justify some agenda handed down from the brass up on high. If we need to create legends and heroes to make ponies want to do this, then what’s the point?” Now his emotions had taken over, years of anger were bubbling up and taking over. “We’re pimping death to ponies with promises of acclaim?! What nonsense is that? Heroes? Save those for the Guards.”
“Then what, huh?” Echo fired back, a fire in her stance. “We tell ponies that we’re sending them to die out there? Tell them that they’re never coming home and their bodies will never be found?! Is that what you want?” The mare advanced on him, tears building up in her dulled eyes.
“Yes! Thirty-six ponies died in the last year because we didn’t know which way sand was going to be blowing! Does that sound like something to be proud of? To flaunt to the masses?” Intrepid put the tip of his good hoof on Echo’s chest, giving the bat pony a poke. “You need to quit lying to them.”
“What happened to you?” Echo pushed his hoof away with her own and bared her fangs. “You used to tell me that we were noble and invaluable.”
“I thought, Echo. For two weeks in a bottom of a canyon and two and a half years when nopony visited!” He raised his fake hoof and shook it to make a rattling sound. “You hear that? That’s what I got in return for what I’ve done. That is the thanks we get. A fake hoof and Princesses’ pity. That’s it. No heroes ever come from here.” Poison is what he felt on his tongue, giving a healthy coating of it to every single one of his words. Closing his eyes, Intrepid turned and started to walk away. He knew this was a bad idea, but he had done it anyway.
“You’re my hero.” The voice was not small as he would’ve expected. It was as defiant as ever. “To everypony here you were a hero. We didn’t tell them that you or anypony else was a hero. History speaks louder than you think, Intrepid.”
Intrepid wasn’t going to hear this anymore. He walked down the hallways and out fo the door he was so afraid to enter.
History had spoken. Every day the words of the past spoke rolled around his head…
----
Three years ago, the edge of Equestria.
“Canis!” He could hear the cry over the ringing in his ears. Barely. What had happened? One moment they were walking along the cliffs and the next moment the ground exploded. It had thrown him clear from the scene.
He pulled himself to his hooves. His vision was swimming with a mix of colors, movement, and confusion. Intrepid blinked rapidly, trying to clear the haze from his view. As he did, he realized that maybe it wasn’t the best idea.
A towering creature was coming out of the ground. Its scaly purple body loomed easily thirty feet above the ground. It’s head was pink framed by a bright red fringe that was spread wide in a threatening display. The worst part was it’s mouth. The beast’s mouth was split into three sections, each with three protruding spikes that could only be called teeth.
Then there were the tentacles protruding from the center of the spread mouths. One of them currently held the newest unicorn of the group, Canis, in its grasp.
The unicorn was firing spells at the creature in an attempt to be freed. It was to no avail, though. The tentacles drew the pony in until she was close enough for the jaws to come down around her. Once the creature’s jaws closed around the pony, it retreated underground, taking with it the threat of being devoured as well.
“What in the hay was that thing?” Fuji, the only earth pony in the group, asked in his thick country accent. “Reckon it might come back?”
“I don’t know, but we need to move.” Finch, a bright yellow pegasus mare, came over to Intrepid as she spoke. “Are you alright? Can you move?” She looked the pegasus stallion over carefully.
“Y-yeah. I’m fine.” That wasn’t the truth. His head hurt beyond all belief. Probably a concussion and hopefully nothing more. That wasn’t anything to hold him back though, there had been a lot worse. “But you’re right, we need to move.”
“That thing just took Canis! We can’t just leave my sister down there!” Polaris, the sister of Canis spoke through tears as she kept her eyes on the hole the creature had retreated into. “We have to help her!”
“She’s gone, Polaris. We have to move, now.” It was cold, but it was the truth. Intrepid was not scared of telling ponies what they didn’t want to hear. Often times it spurred action, whether that action was positive or negative all depended on the pony.
“She’s not gone! We have to save her!” The green unicorn sped over to the hole, frantically calling her sister’s name as she did so. “Canis! Canis, we’re coming to help you! Stay calm!”
“For Celestia’s sake!” Finch stepped away from Intrepid’s side, only to have the slate gray pegasus stagger on his hooves. That drew the mare back to his side. “Fuji! Please go get her so we can get out of here!” It wasn’t so much a request as it was an order issued to the bright red earth pony.
Not being one for words, Fuji complied with a nod. With power and purpose propelling him the stallion was set to cover the ground between him and Polaris in seconds. That was if the creature from before hadn’t come up from right beneath the earth pony and tossed him into the air.
In a split-second the thing’s mouth split open and shot a black slimy tentacle at the red stallion. The prehensile appendage caught Fuji’s back leg and pulled him towards the worm-like creature at blinding speed. At the last second the creature lowered its head and retracted the tentacle, sending the earth pony flying over the edge. He screamed all the way down.
“NO!” Intrepid flapped his wings, lifting himself off of the ground. He fought through dizziness and a splitting headache to move towards the creature. He needed to get passed this thing and get Polaris, she was the only one who couldn’t get away by flying now.
“Intrepid, no! We need to go!” Finch grabbed his hoof with hers, pulling him the other way with all of her might. “Forget about her! We can get away!”
Intrepid couldn’t believe that. Finch wanted to leave Polaris as some kind of bait for the creature so they could escape. This wasn’t how they operated. They didn’t leave ponies behind, especially not friends. They had never done it before and they weren’t going to start now.
“I’m not letting her die!” He looked towards Polaris. The lone unicorn was firing spell after spell off at the creature, letting all of her rage and pain out. The creature loomed over her and shrieked, saliva and slime spraying from its mouth.
“I’m not letting you die!” Before Intrepid knew what was happening, he found the other pegasus’ hooves around his midsection. She had pinned his wings to his sides and started flying up and away from the beast and the unicorn. “You’ll forgive me one day.”
Intrepid struggled against her grip. He wasn’t functioning normally, though. Every movement was slower and less powerful than intended because it was moving through the filter of a concussed brain. For all of his trying, it produced no results.
A sound like a whip cracking echoed through the air. He felt his carrier tense up, every muscle trying to fight something infinitely more powerful than itself. When Intrepid glanced down, he didn’t like what he saw.
One of that thing’s tentacles had latched itself onto Finch’s back leg. She was trying to fight it. The mare winced and struggled, her wings flapping faster than he had ever seen. It was a losing battle, though. Very slowly, they were being reeled in towards the monstrosity below.
“Intrepid! Intrepid, I’m going to let you go and you’re going to need to fly!” Finch looked down at him, her eyes watering from newfound pain and exhaustion. “P-promise me you’ll fly.” Intrepid heard the familiar sound of a limb popping out of socket. “Please!”
“Alright!” Intrepid pushed all of the thoughts of what was happening out of his mind and instead focused on what he needed to do. Finch relinquished her grip on him. As she stopped flapping her wings, he started flapping his. He felt the mare being pulled away from him at a breakneck speed, but Intrepid did not turn to look.
The pegasus pushed his wings to their limit. He needed to fly. He made a promise and he wasn’t going to break it. He was not going to die out here. He was not going to go out like his friends.
Intrepid heard the crunch, but tried not to think about what made it. He tried not to think about his oldest friend in the jaws of that thing. He tried not to think about its jaws closing around her as she gave up and allowed it to happen. He tried.
Another screech came from behind him, the creature celebrating another victory. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t killing for food. This was either territorial or for sport and neither answer filled Intrepid with hope. Only more fear.
The black was creeping into his vision now. It started in his peripherals and was moving in. With the encroaching darkness, so to came fleeting motor skills. The head injury was taking his toll and would be the death of him if he didn’t fight it. His wings fell out of rhythm and his speed decreased dramatically as the darkness threatened to take him.
Intrepid felt himself tumbling across the ground before he registered that he had blacked out. He finally opened his eyes just as he came within a few inches of the edge of a cliff. The pony blinked away the pain and darkness, struggling to get to his hooves.
Another screech. That thing was getting closer now and Intrepid couldn’t waste time trying anything. Whatever came next was going to happen, there was no trying now. He put as much power into his wings as he could muster, lifting a few measly feet above the ground.
Regardless of ability, he pushed himself towards the edge. Getting over this canyon would mean getting away from the beast, so any risk was worth it.
A few dozen feet passed the edge of the cliff is when he felt another blackout coming on. This couldn’t happen now! Not here! If he passed out, that would mean a few hundred feet to the bottom of a chasm.
There was no fighting it, though. Even survival instinct gave in to a damaged brain, everything did in the end. His wings started flapping, he felt that much this time. Before the true sense of falling could kick in, he felt something grab his wing in an effort to stop him.
The beast’s tentacle had a tentative grip on his wing. It was an uncomfortable feeling at the most. The slimy appendage was covered in tiny barbs that dug into the skin of his wing, easily drawing blood. Intrepid tried to scream, but could not find the energy to. He was in Fate’s hooves now.
As it so happened, the creature did not have that good of a grip on his wing. It retracted for a second to get a better grip, but when its tentacle wrapped back around his wing it found no purchase. Gravity had Intrepid now, not even that creature could fight it. The tentacle tried to fight the force of nature, though. It failed, taking feathers and flesh along with it.
Intrepid fell down the rocky chasm. Falling was a feeling every pegasus knew all too well. From the first time they were pushed off of a cloud to every drunk weekend in Cloudsdale, the feeling of falling was primal.
He landed. Not with a splat, but with a thud. However far it had been was not far enough to kill him. It was enough to break things. Bones in his chest and legs fractured and sent wake up signals to his brain.
His eyes opened just in time to see a rock falling right towards him. The pegasus attempted to move out of the way and succeeded to a degree. Instead of landing directly on top of him, the large rock landed only on his right front hoof.
The pain sent him into darkness once more.
----
Present day, Canterlot
Intrepid found himself in the darkness of his home again. How had he gotten here? Why did he always wake up in darkness? He tried to stand up, but found out his fake hoof was missing.
He wanted to cry, but no tears would come anymore.
He wanted to mourn, but his memories were all tainted.
He wanted to move on, but history wouldn’t let him.
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You are one cruel individual.
6815480
Mind extrapolating, friend?
6815486 taking two appendages wasn't enough for you, you had to make him a sole surviver of a squad too.
6815504
That was already laid down earlier. Tragedy builds character.
You REALLY need to add tags to your story, I like this story a lot but only like the first 3 or so chapters fit into comedy really, and in no way is this a 'slice of life' story. Seriously add a 'tragedy' tag on there or something for christs sake, maybe a romance tag too God knows it would make more sense. And get rid of the slice of life tag for realzies. Well anyway way the stor insofar is great can't wait till you update it!
6815558
It's not Slice of Life?
Originally it was supposed to be funny. That went off the rails after a year. I'll throw a drama tag on there maybe. But not tragedy or romance. There's no real romance yet.
6815564
stories aren't really Slice of life to me if they include completely pivotal points in peoples lives. A slice of life story is a story about some ponies going to an symphony, a tragedy is explaining how one of those ponies lost a leg and a wing as well as the rest of his squad in a flashback. slice of life stories are used to capture certain points of someones day to day life.
Also this story has way to big a plot and timeline, you are explaining Vinyls ENTIRE life to this point, not just a 'slice' of it.
6815580
Fair enough.
I won't slap a tragedy tag on it for one chapter, though. Drama, Sad is probably my final decision on the matter.
6815584
If someone having there parents die and then refusing to speak to their 'pretty much a sister' because she gave up her kid isn't tragedy i don't know what is. Just saying. Not even mentioning how she later became an alchoholic who never allowed herself to grieve properly...
However I think a sad tag would work fine.
6815593
Well I updated it and I hope no one has any misgivings about me re-tagging it in the middle.
Things change and so must the tags, I guess.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
6815615
No man it's cool, it just irked me a bit that's all. And I gotta admit when I read the first chapter or so you were pretty accurate. Sometimes when you expand enough on an idea the idea itself can change. I'm not gonna suggest you put back the comedy tag, but I would like to note that just the drama and sad tags alone don't do your story justice.
6815580
Drama/Sad fits better. Tragedy is when the hero becomes the villain or arguably, when the hero fails to do what he set out to do.
6847070
Makes sense, is this gonna update soon? Looking forward to the new chapter.
6847401
Okay, so I was going to update it this weekend. But the NFL playoffs are happening and I had to watch my Kansas City Chiefs! They lost, sadly.
I want to watch the rest of the playoffs up to the superbowl in the coming weekends. If I can find the time and proper motivation, I'll have a chapter out either this week or next week.
Okay, gotta be honest with you, I'm not particularly impressed with the Intrepid's guard unit as portrayed in the flashback. For a group that's supposed to be some sort of trained guard force in a world with monsters around every other rock, their reaction to the attack was really underwhelming. No chain of command, no organized or sensible reaction, they basically just flailed about and died. They might as well have been on a field trip as opposed to a military expedition.
Mmmm... Intripid's been through some shit... he needs one of those character medals.
Ooooo I love it.
And ECHO~
Nice chapter, dark, gritty, glorious.
Good show