Decay

by whisperity

Prologue: Of forlorn worlds

Change is a fundamental part of life, right?

The meal tasted wonderful. Even though some was dulled by the daily routine and the recurring tastes, she didn’t seem to get less interested over time. She had a great time in the dining facility with her squad mates. Promptly after she finished her meal, an officer walked up to the table and put a note next to her plate, saluted and walked away.

It was the day she waited for months, the day when she was able to leave the Fort and go back to the life of an ordinary civilian for a time. Soldiers regularly have this little opportunity, but for her, the timing was even better. She stood up, bid farewell to the other soldiers at the table and walked outside, towards the administration hall.

Fort Sigma was just another ordinary military base located in the Far West. But for her, it has been home for almost a decade now. But a chance to get away from it always heated everyone. At the counter, she gave her identification and took her civilian clothing and the pocket pistol. She spent seconds examining the firearm, but not having come to a conclusion why having a pistol on leave is required, she holstered it in her dress.

When the guards were not looking, the boy behind the desk stood up from the paperwork and leaned a bit closer to her.

“Miss Shard. Enjoy your leave, but if you can, bring us something useful, please,” he said, patting her on the shoulder.

She walked out of the Fort, down on an old, dusty road. The rays were filtered by the dull clouds, sowing only dim brightness on the plains near the fort. A group of pegasi flew overhead, dressed in full airborne equipment. Training happened daily across various squads as the High Council’s orders came from above. The train station was not far from the fort and Azure Shard enjoyed the slowly paced walk. She was a pretty and young pony, a rather strange and unbelievable sight for a soldier. But being part of a ‘doer elite’ was her dream since childhood and she liked every moment she had in the Army. From the very beginning of her life, she had a strange sensation about the world itself being… problematic. She wasn’t the melancholic kind of a mare, but rather someone who wanted to act, to do something.

To change…

She was, yet again, lost in her thoughts. It took the blowing horn of the arriving train to break the desolate silence and alert her. She boarded the train, paid the ticket’s price and sat down in a cabin. And so, the train rolled off leaving only the sound of clatters behind. This kind of transportation always softened Azure’s mind even more and she found herself falling into an intense nap.

In her sleep, she dreamed about how it was; and she envisioned how it will be. The only thing she could never dream about is the present. Life was different in the Fort as soldiers kept a strict code and the ups and downs of the outside world never really reached them. And even if they did, they were just status reports: facts without underlying emotions.

Things have changed in Equestria since the last time she was really away. Everyone was having a general feel of unease and the ponies were more cautious in their daily routine. When Azure Shard arrived in Ponyville, she felt the same strange distress. She had a cup of water and it tasted… disharmonious. She entered the diner cab with tiredness on her eyes and bought some sunflower seeds. It was her favourite snack and she began to flow away with her thoughts again as she nibbled the small spats. Variously coloured farmlands and plains shifted in her sights as the train continued its unbreakable roll towards eternity.

She was born there. Her parents moved to Ponyville after her mother graduated from university. Back in those days, Ponyville was a blooming little town with tons of opportunities. Ever since its foundation, the town expanded and a social hierarchy settled. She remembered the occasional excursions to Cloudsdale, the capital of her kind.

But today’s Ponyville was nothing like back then. For the uninitiated eye, Ponyville was just another busy shire with ponies living their daily lives, but for her, the way of how her hometown changed was a real blast. Because of this new, overprotective nature, Ponyville entered into stagnation.

But her hometown was not her destination this time. She set off her opportunity of leaving to go to the City of Dark Lights, Hoofhammer. In the East, it was the capital of Earth ponies, and, in a rather firm and excluding sense, the old inhabitants really clang to the “Hoofhammer for Earth Ponies, Cloudsdale for Pegasi and Canterlot for Unicorns” scheme, even though such kin-based administration were long eradicated and the races were equal with Canterlot being the capital. But to prove their points, the use of flight or magic was strictly forbidden within the confines of the City.

The train slowly halted as the engine reached the end of the line at the train station. As Azure Shard got off the carriage, she was amazed by the reaching city. She stretched her wings for the final time and walked out to the main square. Hoofhammer was a city of many insidious rumours. But there was that one rumour which mattered to her the most: The Red Herring bar. It was known, colloquially, that there is this bar somewhere deep within the city where ponies meet to have a drink, some food and exchange intelligence.

Azure Shard bought a piece of paper and a pencil at a stationer’s shop and, using the fragments of what she could remember, she made a small map to The Red Herring bar. Thinking about the name of the place made her smile… it must have been named like that due to its rather bad reputation and that it was the source of misleads. “Maybe the vernacular term ‘red herring’ got its name after the bar itself?” she wondered. Either way, it was well advised to go there for a drink if you had the opportunity, but always be cautious about what you hear and never, ever talk about the bar.

Looking out for anyone who might be watching her, she started to walk the route she was gossiped. With only thirteen-fifteen minutes of a steadily paced stroll she arrived at a small wooden door leading to a passage, with a faint, copper sculpture of a herring overhead. She knew it must the place, and she slowly opened the door, putting her hooves inside and quietly walking in. There weren’t many ponies chilling out in the bar, only three or four at the moment. It was still not for the best of luck to enter such shady place and be the only mare inside. But the ponies seemed profound in their own thoughts and so, she kept her calm and sat down at the counter.

The bartender was a friendly guy, that’s for sure. Azure talked with him about everything, but most importantly about news from the Capital and army operations.

“It has been a strange ride all the way here… everything is so different and… well… sad,” she explained to the bartender, “it wasn’t like back then.”

“You don’t feel? The world needs to get used to the Regent,” the bartender replied with a rather calm tone, even though the other ponies in the bar grunted hearing that word.

“The Regent?” she was still puzzled. It’s for sure that not many reached the soldiers in the West.

The bartender’s face froze with a shock from her question. He tried to avoid answering and it was quite clear to both of them that he doesn’t really know what happened either. Azure stared at an old stallion sitting next to her at the counter, drinking a jug of beer.

“Perhaps you know something?” she asked him.

The stallion adjusted his cloak and hat a bit and made a really confident reply, “I know many things, young girl.”

“I would like to hear,” she replied as she started to sip the beer the bartender poured for her. The Red Herring bar was a place where every pony thought they know everything about every pony else. And despite every warning, her adventurous self won this time.

“We can talk, if you have the aptitude… –“ he abruptly ended the sentence and pulled out a coin from his pocket “– you only drink that much?”

As she nodded, the stallion pulled out another coin and lifted his foreleg. “Mister Thane, I would pay for my crimes. And for this filly.”

She felt hesitant from this statement. As he paid and the bartender gave him the change in the form of a smaller coin, he slid the coin towards her on the desk.

“A change for a little change, my lady?” he inquired with a soft and very charismatic voice.

A change…

As she also finished her drink, the two stood up and walked away from the desk. She followed this enigmatic stallion towards his room. Turns out, The Red Herring bar was also a little guesthouse and he apparently lived there. He gave her a cloak, not that dull and dark like his, but it was dark enough to contrast Azure Shard’s white coat.

He lifted his hat a little bit revealing that he is a unicorn, while also pointing at Azure Shard’s wings. “Pretty wings –“ she blushed “– but you really need to hide those. This city is unforgiving towards our kinds.”

She looked very different with that cloak lying upon her dress and body, but she now fit into the style of Hoofhammer. As the two went for a walk in the city, they started to talk about the state of the world, a subject Azure was really keen about.

“Where are you from? You didn’t know a lot about the current political events.”

She felt she needed to avoid giving the real answer. Especially on a leave, soldiers were not meant to give away their identity.

“I was… travelling to distant lands. I hadn’t care much about what’s happening in politics,” she responded.

The stallion nodded, “I see,” but it was quite obvious for the both of them that she, technically, lied.

“Well. Even though he is a good leader, the ponies didn’t seem to be relieved that Nicholas’ ascension somehow stabilised politics and economy.”

“Nicholas?”

The stallion shook his head. “Forgive me, my lady. Manners seem to sometimes… be far from me. I haven’t introduced myself now, have I? Name’s Andreas. Now, onto the topic. Regent Nicholas, the Controller Supreme of the High Council, titles… titles…” he sighed, “the current leader of Equestria.”

“What happened to Princess Celestia?”

“She’s gone. They are gone,” he replied factually.

This was a moment where she really felt dismay and inferiority. The Princesses are gone and no one in the Army knew or told her. They just trained like it was everything all right. But the fact that there is now a reason for the general anxiety of the world gave her a shot of self-acceptance for she is right. She was right. Still, the princesses are gone and something happened. And that stallion… he knew.

To both of their luck, she didn’t lose herself completely and didn’t pull the small firearm which was still with her.

“I… I need to know,” she stuttered at him.

The two slowed down a bit as they walked the streets of Hoofhammer, with Azure Shard constantly aweing at the buildings and thinking about what happened while she was in Fort Sigma believing everything is fine.

Andreas started to tell her the tale. “Things have changed in Equestria…”

Things have changed in Equestria…