The Last Cutie Mark Crusader

by Jatheus

Epilogue, Part 4 of 8

The sun crested the horizon, sending its cheerful rays scattering across the land and through the window, striking the slumbering mare across her eyes. She inhaled deeply and stretched, energy beginning to work its way through her body.

Though the bed was perfectly comfortable, Lavender Pompon pushed the sheets back and set her hooves against the wooden floor. She shuffled into the bathroom and prepared herself to face the day.

The house seemed oddly quiet.

Upon completion of the necessary tasks, she made her way to the kitchen, where she discovered a note on the table beside a plate of muffins. The mare unfolded the message.

‘You looked so peaceful that we decided to let you sleep. I took the little ones to pick berries near Fluttershy’s cottage. Maybe we’ll be able to make a pie when you get off of work this afternoon. Ditzy’

Lavender Pompon smiled. Raising foals on her own had never been her first choice, but having a room mate that was happy to help with them had been a tremendous blessing. It did make the mother feel guilty to take advantage of her friend’s hospitality, but times had been hard for so many, that such arrangements had become rather common across Equestria.

She buttered one of the muffins and took a bite, letting the richness of the flavor and fruitiness of the raspberries fill her with delight. It was then that she noticed a half-crumpled newspaper sitting on the table.

Somepony had clearly already looked through it and then folded it poorly. A headline caught her attention.

‘Friendship Initiative Still Strong’

She pulled the paper close and read.

‘It has been nearly three years since Princess Twilight Sparkle created the plan to disburse changelings throughout Equestria in hopes that we could make friends with them in a one-on-one basis. Though it arguably got off to a rocky start, The Friendship Initiative first demonstrated real results almost a year after it began when Klixis’ treachery was uncovered and reported by his fellow changelings, ending his conspiracy before it was able to gain much of a following. More than two years later, nopony can dispute that The Friendship Initiative has induced a landmark metamorphosis since the end of the Timberwolf War.’

The article continued, but the mare realized that she didn’t have time to read it just then. She didn’t want to be late for work. Quickly drinking a glass of juice and grabbing another muffin, she left the house and walked through the morning toward her place of employment.

Catching sight of a clock as she went, Lavender Pompon increased her pace, finishing the muffin so she could use all four legs to carry her faster.

She arrived at Java’s with two minutes to spare. Straightening herself up, she opened the door. The small morning crowd was already at their usual tables, mostly surrounding the mayor.

“Good morning!” Java Chip sang from behind the counter.

“Morning!” Lavender Pompon replied as she made her way into the back to grab her apron.

Ready for work, she came out to find the boss waiting to give her an assignment.

“What would like first, the good news or the bad news?” Java Chip asked.

The mare felt her stomach knot up at the mention of bad news, “Give me the good first this time.”

“We got another shipment of flour and sugar, so we can try the new muffin recipe you gave me.”

Lavender Pompon felt herself smile but then began to brace herself for the bad news.

“And I need you to fix the espresso machine… again.”

The mare let out a groan as she shuffled into the back room to find the tool kit. She sized up the machine, her nemesis, the demon of Java Chip’s coffee shop. Keeping it working was nearly a full time job in and of itself.

A small spout of vapor was streaming from one of the joints. Unceremoniously, she shut it off and got to work. After stripping down the common parts that needed to be serviced, Lavender Pompon worked at each joint and fitting, carefully cleaning and reassembling the entire mechanism.

She was not exactly gifted as a mechanic, but she did have better rapport with the espresso machine than did the boss. After putting it all back together, she turned it on and listened as the water began to boil inside. It looked as if everything was functioning properly.

Without warning, a blast of steam caught Lavender Pompon in the face.

“Demon!” she growled at the inanimate device as she backed away.

The burst was more surprising than painful, as the small amounts of vaporized water that were able to jet out of the espresso maker cooled quickly. She had learned long ago to keep a respectful distance from the pipe. She felt around for the shutoff and stopped the flow.

"How’s it coming?" Java Chip asked.

"Swell," Lavender Pompon unleashed sarcasm.

Her boss snorted, "Well you seem to have more luck with that thing than I do."

"I still think it needs to be replaced," the mare muttered more to herself than to the boss.

"I couldn’t agree more. If I hadn’t had to replace the roof last year and half the windows the year before that, and if we weren’t paying down the mortgage…"

"I get it, I get it," Lavender Pompon answered with a forced grin.

She turned her attention back to the infernal contraption before her. If she could raise two foals on her own, surely she could keep the espresso machine running. She had been learning to know its cantankerous ways for nearly three months, to some surprising amount of success. Completing her work, she opened the valve again. The small pipes shuddered, but no steam escaped.

"Nice!" Java Chip said before walking away. "I should have hired you years ago."

"It still has to make it through the day,” she replied guardedly, “don’t thank me yet."

She felt pride in her accomplishment, but her attention was redirected as the doorbell rang. Almost by second nature, the mare automatically looked up and greeted the newcomer.

“Welcome to… to Java’s!”

A unicorn stallion had entered, white with a white mane, and the greenest eyes Lavender Pompon had ever seen. His cutie mark was in the form of a forked lightning bolt. The eyes were what had caught her attention. She hadn’t intended to stare, and quickly looked away when she realized that she had.

He approached the bar.

“Greetings,” he said as he looked about. “It seems that I must have arrived before everypony else has had a chance to make it this way. That is, of course, unless there is another area where Scootaloo or the others might have gathered?”

She remembered the name, “They’ll be here, but you are a bit early. Can I get you something to drink?”

“I feel it would be most uncouth of me to indulge before the others have an opportunity to appear.”

“Oh,” she replied, her attention caught for a moment by the necklace the stallion wore with a brass locket. “In that case, if you would like to take a seat, you are welcome to wait.”

“You have my thanks,” he replied with a bow.

His gate seemed strange to Lavender Pompon until she noticed that he had only three legs. She couldn’t help but wonder what had become of his missing right front limb, only a small stump of which remained. Given his apparent age, he must have been wounded during the war. The thought of it made her shudder.

As if he had felt her gaze follow him, the stallion looked back up at her once he was seated. In spite of the deformity, he was rather handsome. Realizing that she was again staring, she quickly thought of something to say.

“Would you at least like a glass of water while you wait?”

“Please,” he answered with a disarming smile.

As she brought a cool cup to him, she observed, “That’s a very nice locket.”

He smiled, “It is a mere trifle. Yet that which is contained within is the most valuable possession I own.”

Lavender Pompon let her mind wonder as to what could be so important. Business was slow, and the machines were functioning, so she stood a moment in thought. Gold or a rare jewel seemed the obvious answer, but she knew she would be disappointed if that were the case.

“Not gold or jewels?” she probed.

The stallion smiled, “Nothing so common as that, I can assure you.”

Her interest was peaked.

“Something magical then?”

He tilted his head to one side, “I suppose it could be considered magic, after a fashion, though, not the kind a unicorn would normally have propensity towards.”

“Well, what then?” her curiosity had gotten the best of her.

As the stallion opened the container, Lavender Pompon leaned in closer. She felt her eyebrow raise when she saw the little purple flower, pressed flat within glass. There didn’t seem to be anything particularly rare or special about it. The mare couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

“That’s a flower,” she said.

“Indeed, that it is. I expect you would not find it nearly so unique as do I, though, if truth be told it has no value to anypony in all of Equestria, save myself alone. For you see, this little purple flower is the final gift that my love ever gave to me.”

“What happened?”

“She died.”

Those two simple words seemed to carry a mountainous burden behind his green eyes. Lavender Pompon felt her stomach knot a little. She wished she hadn’t been so insensitive to ask him about something so personal.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to bring up sad memories for you.”

He again smiled disarmingly at her, “Do think nothing of it. There are very few subjects I would rather discuss or long to remember than the mare that gave me this flower. Though I live a hundred years hence, my sweet Pibs will always hold a place in the center of my heart.”

Lavender Pompon’s blood ran cold at recognition of the name.

“Did you say, Pibs?”

“Indeed, she was the mare for whom I have waited, though I know she shall not return.“

“She had a pink coat,” the mare began, “a blond mane, and a cutie mark of exotic flowers.”

The green eyes seemed captivated by her for a moment. The stallion nodded.

“I knew her.”

He stood, “Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lighthoof, formerly of Her Majesty’s EUP Guard in Canterlot.”

“I’m Lavender Pompon. I’m nopony special; I just live here in Ponyville.”

“I see. Should your duties permit it, I would be most pleased to hear how you knew my dear, sweet Pibs,” he gestured to an empty chair at his table.

She took her seat, and Lighthoof sat across from her, his gaze focused squarely on her.

“The night when Ponyville was overrun,” the mare began, “Everypony was in a panic, and the soldiers were trying to keep us all together and get us to the castle. I had lost my foals that night. We became separated, and I told them… the soldiers… I told them that my little ones would go to the school. They wouldn’t let me leave to find them. They assured me that they were brining all civilians to the castle, and that’s where I had to go.”

She took a breath. The stallion’s piercing gaze did not leave her for so much as a moment.

“I searched the entire castle, but my foals… they weren’t there. I can’t begin to tell you the heartbreak I felt that night. I… I was certain…” tears welled up in her eyes as the sting of the near loss came back. “I believed I had lost them. Everypony had made it to the castle, and they put up a magical shield. And that was that.”

The fear from that night seemed fresh again in the mare’s mind as she shivered. She took a breath and swallowed the emotion as best she could.

“What I didn’t know, was that they were safe. Pibs, your Pibs had found them at the school-house. By herself, she kept them safe and brought them back to me. I met her the next day, after my foals found me. I was able to thank her, but I always wished I had been able to do more. As you know, she didn’t survive the siege.”

Lighthoof smiled, “I am overjoyed to hear that mine is not the only heart in which she holds an important place.”

The pair grew quiet, and sat in each other’s company, each of them recalling how their lives had been touched by the same mare. An instinct grew in Lavender Pompon’s mind, and it wouldn’t leave her. She remembered the words of her father, who had recounted the words of her grandfather, a proud soldier of Equestria.

‘Who dares, wins.’

The mare looked back up at the stallion, her blue eyes capturing his green. She took a breath, steeling her resolve as she turned the thought over in her mind again, ‘Who dares, wins.’

“Is it your intention to remain alone, since you have lost your love?”

Lighthoof’s expression was difficult to read before he spoke, “I choose to wait, though it be to my dying day, for her return.”

“My husband was also a soldier who went out to fight the timberwolves. He was lost on some field and never recovered. Providing for our foals on my own has been such a difficult road…” She took a deep breath, “I apologize if this seems overly forward, but perhaps we might be able to help each other.”

“I’m afraid for the one my heart yearns, there is no replacement.”

Lavender Pompon felt her face flush a little at the rejection, but her grandfather’s words echoed in her mind as she pressed the attack.

“You misunderstand. I would never presume to think I could be a substitute for what you lost. My mate will always hold a special place in my heart, as will Pibs in yours.”

A faint hint of tears could be detected forming in the stallion’s eyes.

The mare continued, “I love my foals, and I love the mare that brought them back to me when I believed they were lost. If the only way I can repay that kindness is to give you some small comfort in not being alone… I’m willing to try. I realize that such an arrangement would be me essentially asking you to help me raise my own foals as well, but,” she shrugged, “there could be more. It may not be the family you wanted to build, but I’m young enough that more foals can come, your foals, if you’d have me.”

The stallion took a breath, his expression still impossible to read as he spoke, “My… you are a rather bold mare indeed.”

Lavender Pompon suddenly became acutely aware of what she had just proposed, and her face flushed again. Perhaps it was the massive coincidence of the meeting that combined with her own propensity to talk far too much when nervous that had caused her to speak like such a fool.

Lighthoof stared back impassively for a long moment that became increasingly uncomfortable. The mare felt magnificently embarrassed as she finally concluded that she had made a monumental mistake and sabotaged any chance she might have had with this stallion. She stood; it was all she could to do not run away.

“I’m so sorry,” she took a step back. “I was speaking pragmatically… just that the possibility… I didn’t mean… I mean… to suggest that we should… we… that I…”

She could not even think of how to complete her thoughts and salvage the situation. The mare turned to walk away, her face having become a bright shade of crimson.

“Miss Lavender Pompon,” Lighthoof said as he stood.

She stopped, turning to face him. Her heart racing as her face became hot.

“Would you do me the honor of accompanying me to dinner on this fine evening?”

She felt her mouth drop.

“As you said, things past will always hold special places in our hearts. Nothing we can build will replace or restore what could have been. I, for one, am willing to spend at least a little more time in the company of one who also understands just how dear my Pibs was to me. I would not presume to speak for the future, as in that regard you seem far more bold than I.”

Lavender Pompon suppressed a giggle and felt herself blush even more as she finally remembered to close her mouth. Suddenly at a loss for words as the warmth of joy spread through her, she nodded vigorously.

Lighthoof smiled at her once more, this time staring directly into her eyes. He had a nice smile.

Author's Note:

So, there you have it! A character that wasn't in the first draft... never intended to even so much as have a name... now... she has her own short moment in the spotlight!

I had some misgivings about this... since chapter 11 was the last time this character was mentioned (unnamed at the time)... but as soon as this scene developed in my mind, I knew I had to write it.

Also, the phrase, "Who dares, wins." I took it from the amazingly talented Emperor, who told me that it is actually a common motto for various military special forces. That being the case, he told me to use it without reservation. But, wince I got it from him, I wanted to give a shout-out to Emperor, and his fantastic fic, Phantasmare.

I hope y'all found it as much fun as I did.

Also don't worry... we're already through the main body of the story, so romantic couples are no longer in danger.

Comments

[Emperor]

I couldn't remember Lavender Pompon at all, but I do vaguely remember the foals that Pibs holed up with during the Siege of Ponyville. Good to know that Lighthoof at least found some new company, and all it took was Lavender following one of the sayings I employ in my own fics

[Jatheus]

8982164
I think she had only one mention in chapter 11? She had never been named until this chapter, so it's no surprise that she seems to come out of the blue. I don't remember, but I think it was another reader had asked what happened to the foals, and then that got me thinking, and this is the result. The sudden... near proposal... was criticized a little, so I had to make it a little less bold than the first draft. I'm still happy with the result.

And thanks again for that.