Skeletons of the Past

by Sturrn

The Doorstep Mile

Chapter Twelve
The Doorstep Mile

I walked through the dark night of Canterlot endlessly. Not because I was lost but I wanted to enjoy the city one last time. I would be going aboard the Liberator and flying to Saddle Arabia, when I would return to Canterlot if ever I had no idea. Responding to that, my thoughts drifted to and fro on the subject. ‘How long will the flight be? Will the quarters be cramped like a submarine or spacious like a cruise ship? How am I going to keep them from knowing the truth about me?’ The questions kept coming but I had one final act left to perform in the city proper. I had to put Pain Killer to be bed and say goodbye to her and Sturrn.

The walk to her house was calming. The streets didn’t have a single pony in them and it was quiet. After a bit of walking I made it once more to Killer’s villa, the bad news was she had drooled on my robes during the trip. “I don’t care if you’re drunk or not, that’s just disgusting.” I said to her unconscious form. She murmured something in her sleep but it was unintelligible at best. Only then did I realize that I would need her keys to get in. ‘Maybe she has a cat door I can shimmy through?’ I hopped the tiny fence that separated the front yard from the back. Her back door was a sliding glass one, and it was locked too.

‘Looks like I’m going to wake her up then.’ I thought bitterly to myself. I scanned her back yard and saw across the pool was a lawnchair I could put her on. The ground wouldn’t have been a good place to wake her up on. Once she was on the chair I realized I didn’t know how to wake her up. I contemplated throwing her in the pool but drunks can’t swim and I didn’t know if skeletons could either. As I was looking at the pool she muttered something in her sleep. I turned around just in time to see her roll off the chair and fall on the ground face first. She hadn’t even bat an eye at the sudden impact and went on sleeping. I walked over to put her back on the chair when I saw a small set of keys on the ground “Well isn’t that just convenient.” I said to the snoozing mare.

I picked up the keys and the party girl before heading out front and opening the door. Placing her on the couch seemed better than rifling through her house to see which room was her’s. She seemed to like the couch but I heard her muttering again, this time it was more coherent. With a minimal of slurring she said. “Rorke.” I leaned in right next to her face to hear more but was surprised by her sudden waking. Her forelegs grabbed my head and she left a lingering kiss on my clothed muzzle. Her eyes were bloodshot with a large tooth filled smile underneath them. “I’ll miss you.” She spoke the words with slowly, and with care for each one.

I may not have been used to affection from girls, pony or otherwise but I knew one thing. She was the only one who didn’t know what was underneath the robes. With a heavy heart I rose back up to my full height. “I’ll miss you too, I’ll come back to Equestria though. I have a few ponies to meet.” She smiled and I thought about how conversations just weren’t the same without expressions.

“Can you do me a favor?” She asked.

“Sure.” I replied nonchalantly.

She stood up on the couch and stared at me. “Can I see your face?”

‘And then life just sucked a little more...’ I contemplated my internal thoughts with her request and unfortunately came up with a single word response. “No.” Her smile almost fell apart but still remained.

“Then can you promise to show me when you come back?” She said, making one last grab for hope.

“Pinkie Promise?”

She gave me a confused look. “What?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” I began repeating the sacred oath and the motions with it. “I pinkie promise to show you my face when I get back. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” She smiled once more and gave me a hug before laying back down. I let myself out as I heard a light sigh from behind me.

‘At least that bought me some time to think of a good reason why I’m dead.’ The walk back to the castle was faster than usual but wasn’t anywhere as fun alone. When I arrived at the castle I knew something was extremely wrong. Not guard had greeted me, there was glass strewn across the ground, and ponies were all over the place cleaning. I walked over to a random pony. “Hey, what happened to the party?”

She looked up at me before turning around and walking away with expedience. I repeated the process and received the same result until I stopped after the sixth attempt. “What happened at the gala?!” I shouted to everyone in the courtyard.

“So glad you could join the party.” Came a voice. I turned to it and standing there was an armored and bandaged Sturrn. “You missed the fun.” He said with a smirk splayed across his face.

“What happened to you? What happened to everything?!” I exclaimed, flailing my arms around.

“Come on, I’ll tell you everything on the flight to Manehattan.”

He tried to walk away but I grabbed him by the tail. “Can we see Celestia real quick? I want to say goodbye in person.” He shook his head.

“The Princess is sleeping off a case and a half of the royal pink, she isn’t going to be waking up anytime soon. She told me to take you to the Manehattan dockside but we have to grab your supplies and a chariot first.” He wrenched his tail from my grasp and began walking toward the castle. “We have to go as soon as possible.”

I followed him through the castle halls that led to a sort of take off area filled with chariots and carriages. He grabbed a bag full of stuff as we walked to a gold chariot with a single harness in front. “Sturrn, are you pulling this by yourself?” I asked.

“Yep, didn’t hurt my wing so I’m good to go.” He flexed them outward and for a bare second I saw the inklings of pain writhe across his back. “Can you help me strap in?”He asked, I went around to the front and latched the harness onto him and retreated back to my seat with the supplies in hand. “You ready for take off?” He asked with a bit of excitement.

I nodded before I realized he couldn’t see me. “Y-yeah.”

“Nervous about your first time in the air?”

“No, I used to fly all the time but this.” I gestured around me, he still couldn’t see me. “ is so open and it’s scary. Like I’ll just fall out.”

“Well we’re going to take off so just hold on and it’ll be smooth flying after that.” He didn’t wait for a response before pulling the cart forward. The area was just one long take off strip as he ran fast and faster until he leaped into the air, wings spread large to catch as much lift as possible. The wheels left the ground and we were fully off the ground, and climbing further into the sky. I was busy trying not to pee myself, whether or not the dead can do that was irrelevant. “You okay back there?” He called.

“I’m good.” I had to shout over the wind shear but he understood.

“Pilot to passenger conversations aren’t that good.” He shouted back. “We’ll talk on when we land. Just don’t stare at the moon and get flight sick. I’ll let you know when we’re close. We should land by around noon.”

I looked behind my shoulder and saw that the moon was in fact STILL out. “What time is it?”

“About four o'clock in the morning.” Even from behind, I could see the makings of a grin.

“Have you gotten any sleep since I woke you up yesterday?”

“Have you?” He asked back.

“No.”

“Well I did, but not the voluntary kind.” He said with a laugh.

I just waved it off and sat down on the floor of the chariot. It became apparent though that I was too long and had to let my legs dangle off the back. It was a little scary but my thoughts drifted. ‘I haven’t slept since fighting those crusaders. How long ago was that?’ I couldn’t remember very well, so I did the one thing Sturrn asked me not to do. I sat and stared at the moon, it was calming but I liked the sun better. I always felt stronger in the sun, like I could face anything. It was strange to think of it like that but it’s how I felt. I had a few philosophies that held true no matter what.

‘Only the weak hide in the shadows, evil has no qualms with stepping into the light. The strong have no fear of taking their path away from the light, of stepping into the darkness to root out what lives there.’ The thought depressed me though, the whole thing was dreary but the atmosphere around me did nothing to brighten my mood. I used my time after that constructively, I rifled through the bag of mystery items. Inside was a few typical things. There was a ton of paper that was labeled for map making, a prototype “self-contained inked-quill” which really meant she gave me a fountain pen.

In a few of the pockets were pencils, erasers, and everything else I would need for map drawing including a how-to guide on map drawing which was good because I didn’t know how to draw a map. What interested me most was at the bottom though. A handful of small gems, a large red one, and a small bag filled around with twenty five small gold coins. I wanted to ask Sturrn how much money they were worth but decided to wait until we landed. ‘Killer didn’t pay for her drinks at the club.’ I thought of the revelation before chuckling. ‘They must have lost a hundred dollars in liquor.’ I looked back inside the pack but there was nothing left, having seen all the contents it had to offer I picked up the map making guide and started to go through it. I hoped it would have lasted me until the trip was over but reading nine words a second made most books go by fast.

I finished it before the trip was over so I practiced a bit on my drawing. I was halfway through my second crudely drawn map when Sturrn shouted back to me. “We’ll be landing a little ahead of schedule and across town from the docks, I’m stopping for lunch. Is that okay?” He shouted one last time.

“You’re the one flying.” I shouted back as I put the shoddily made maps into the bag. I stood up in the puny flying cart and looked out over the city. There were skyscrapers studding the horizon of the afternoon sun and a lot of pegasi flying around. A few stopped in mid-air and stared at us as we passed by but I just waved an armored hand at them. They waved back absentmindedly. Hanging in the sky was a massive object that was reflecting the sun and obscuring what it was. When the flying cart finally ducked below the skyline the blurs of color below us became defined. Ponies, diamond dogs, and even a couple of buffalo came into view. Finally the cart hit the ground with a suppressed thud, Sturrn kept walking along, pulling the chariot down the street until he stopped in front of a sandwich shop.

We were in a rush so Sturrn grabbed his sandwich to go and within a couple of minutes we were back up into the air, low enough thought that we didn’t need to shout. “Hey Sturrn.”

“Yeah?”

“Wheres the Liberator? Isn’t it supposed to be some massive airship? I don’t see it anywhere.”

“Do you see the light being reflected over there?” He pointed with a hoof to the mass of light from earlier.

“Yeah, is that it?”

“Yep, I’m going to land on the deck and you’ll hop off. Do you have any questions before we fly over?”

“How long is the trip going to be?” I asked with worry. “I looked at a map and Manehattan to Canterlot isn’t very far but it took us almost eight hours to get here.”

He chewed on the notion for a moment as the mass of reflecting light bore closer. “I would say about three months if-”

“THREE MONTHS!!!” I yelled, much to his chagrin. He turned back and gave me a harsh stare.

“Yes, three months. This is a heavy laden warship, not a luxury cruise it takes time to travel, and you’re going very far away. Make some friends while you’re onboard the boat.” He said with a slight stab of sarcasm.

“You know, I told my mom the same thing before I was sent here.” I admitted. The notion of not see family again darkened my mood slightly for the second time that day. ‘The doctor could have at least let me write a note saying goodbye.’

Sturrn interject through my thoughts. “You never told me you were actually sent here, I don’t think you told me how you got that body of yours either.” He pointed out.

“It’s not a long story but I’ll save it till I come back, it’ll give you a reason to put up with a dead guy.” We laughed but it was true that we wouldn’t see each other for a long time.

We flew in silence until we punched through the shroud of reflecting light and I saw the Liberator in its’ entirety. The whole thing was massive in every definition of the word. It looked like someone had strapped an ironclad wood ship the size of an aircraft carrier to a similarly ironclad balloon that was the length of the ship. No one was on the deck though, I didn’t see anyone on the ship at all. “It’s pretty impressive huh?” Sturrn said before we ascended to wind shear height. “We’ll be landing on the deck, don’t forget your bag.” He shouted over the wind. Another minute of flying and we landed on the deck, still no pony was in sight.

I walked around to the front of the chariot with my bag over shoulder. “You should find the Captain first, see about your,” He gave a shit eating grin. “UNLIVING conditions.” He laughed hugely.

“Wow,” My voice lacking any emotion to it. “I can’t believe you just said that. That pun was worst than Celestia’s and quite possibly SO bad it might have given me cancer.” We both shared a last laugh at the terrible joke. “I’m going to miss you.” I said once the mirth had worn off.

“I’ll miss you too,” He replied before adding an addendum to his statement. “just don’t get all soppy before I leave. I’m still Captain of the guard, remember?” A calm smile plastered over his face.

“That’s cool.” I replied before scooping him up off the ground in a rib crushing hug.

The unfortunate pegasus was still strapped to his chariot but the whole contraption flipped up and allowed my to hug him even tighter. He started to gasp for air so I knew I was doing it right. “Rorke...” He gasped for more air. “Bandages, need... air.” He managed to squeak out.

“Awww.” I released him from the death hug and the cart flopped to the ground again. Sturrn was back on the ground panting for air and muttering ‘ow’ repeatedly. “Sorry, forgot about your bandages. I just wanted to say goodbye properly.”

“No problem.” He huffed for air as he stood up once more. “Goodbye Rorke, I’m glad to call you my friend.” His voice wholly sincere.

“Now who’s getting sappy?” That earned my a hoof in the knee. It was like a hit in the arm but being two and a half feet taller than the person throwing the punch makes it hard for them to hit that high.

“Goodbye.” He said with finality before taking flight, chariot in tow.

I only knew him for a week but he was always going to be a friend in my book. I stood on the deck alone for what felt like hours, it couldn’t have been more than a minute. ‘Guess I should see if anyone is actually here. You’d think a ship with almost a 1000 ponies on board would be packed.’ I scanned the deck but there wasn’t a shred of evidence that said anyone was aboard. “Hello!” I called out. It was a huge mistake.

“Surprise!” A mass of voices shouted. Out of the woodwork sprang every pony that was unaccounted for in my initial search. They appeared from barrels and any other conceivable place a pony could hide on the ship’s deck. When I was confronted with the well planned surprise greeting I did the single most logical thing I could think of. I dropped the satchel I was holding, fell to the ground in a scramble, and ran to the side of the ship only to jump right off of it. Before I left the railing a singular voice rang out. “Cutter!” I descended through the air fast but it didn’t take me long to realize I was an idiot. ‘Hold on guys, surprise greeting better jump off the side of the ship.’

I was glad when a griffin shot off the side of the ship after me. I wondered something though. ‘Why is a griffin on an Equestrian warship?’ Despite my fleeting thoughts he dive bombed after me and caught my falling body with easy. The sudden deceleration felt weird on my bones, but being held in the griffin’s arms like I was the bride he intended to carry though the door of their house was weirded. “You sure know how say hello.” He said with a laugh. “I don’t think I’ve seen anypony jump overboard just from a crew greeting call.”

“They popped out of nowhere, how would you have react?” I asked with just a little agitation.

“You speak really well compared to other diamond dogs, and I’m the one who taught them to do that.” I didn’t really know what dogs sounded like but the compliment was nice either way. We landed on the deck softly and he deftly dropped me to my feet.

“Thanks, and sorry for jumping off the ship.”

“It’s fine, you’re really light and the thrill was kind of fun.” How he smiled with a beak I’m not sure. “Dad, I guess you can do the introduction since everypony went back to work.”

I didn’t see another griffin on the deck but instead a medium built stallion that stepped forward. He was the first pony I had seen with any facial hair besides Fancy Pants, a thick Gorton’s fisherman beard clinging to his face, white with age that contrasted the dim grey hair coating the rest of his body. A black top hat rested atop his head covering a navy blue mane, the only part of his attire that seemed out of place was the broken unicorn horn strung onto his hat. “We still need to wait for the ambassador.” The pony replied. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off and see Steam Cog?” The griffin beamed and flew off.

He turned to me with a smile that soon died. “I’m sorry, I never told you my name.” He raised a hoof. “My name is Thule, and I’m the Captain of his fine ship.”

I took his hoof in hand. “Rorke, nice to meet you.” He shook my hand with a deceivingly subtle strength.

“You aren’t a diamond dog.” He stated before pulling his hoof back.

I looked at him and zoned in on a couple of subtle details. The horn on his hat was his own, peeking out slightly from under his hat was a shattered stub. Another detail was his beard, it wasn’t a sailor beard that only grew because he let it go untrimmed. It was too precise and uniform, his beard was maintained to a fine point. After my examination of him I snapped back to the conversation. “No I’m not, a lot of ponies seem to think that though.”

He nodded sagely. “Not many ponies have seen an Alpha and lived through the experience. Enough of that though, if you would follow me please.” I grabbed my bag and we walked down a set of stairs and the first thing that surprised me was the ceiling, it was high enough for me to stand in.

“Thule, if this is an Equestrian airship why is the ceiling so high? No pony grows this big.” I stated.

“You would be correct, the reason is diplomatic actually. If a minotaur or other similarly bipedal creature comes aboard we don’t want them hunching over to walk. If either of the Princesses come aboard we surely can’t have them touring with poor posture.” The explanation made sense but I was just glad I didn’t have to spend three months crouching through the halls. Thule led me all the way to the rear of the ship to his office. It had a simple brass plaque ,with his name etched into it, nailed to the door. With a slow push the door was open and I was escorted in. “Please, take a seat. You may place your bag wherever you like.” I sat in the closer of the two chairs and sunk right into it, placing my bag and blade spear on the floor.

The Captain took the other seat as well and began the conversation. “So, what do you think of the ship so far? First impression are always the most important.”

I didn’t want to say anything bad about his ship but I didn’t have anything outstanding to say either. “It’s... Big, and uh... Shiny?” I felt like an idiot saying that and the questioning look he gave me was evidence of that.

“Big and shiny?” He pondered the notion before laughing. Even his laugh was different from the ponies I had met. It boomed with volume so you knew he was laughing but it wasn’t intrusive or harmful to the ears. He also put emotion behind it, I could tell he wasn’t mocking me but enjoying the statement itself. “Big and shiny indeed, but enough of me interrogating you. Do you have any questions?”

“A lot of them, I hope you’re comfy in that chair.”

“I hoofpicked these chairs myself.” He said with confidence.

“Let’s do an easy one first. Is the trip really going to be three months long?”

He chuckled a bit. “No, that’s just a joke among the various guards. The trip should last no longer than two months total. The ‘Liberator pulls good speed on nice days but a choppy sea breeze will slow any ship down. Princess Celestia specifically instructed me to stay over land the entire journey, she doesn’t want a storm to throw us off course and prolong the trip.”

‘That’s not much better than three but two is still pretty good.’ I twiddled my claws together before another question came to mind quickly. “What can you tell me about the ship specifically?”

“Oh that’s a good one.” I could tell he liked the ship a lot. “This airship is called the H.M.S. Liberator. A first rate, canterlot class, airship boasting over seven deck and enough carry for a 1000 guardsponies plus the 200 hundred crew. 106 cannons total and four inches of metal composite armor on both the ship itself and the balloon keeping us aloft. She’s my pride and joy behind Cutter.”

That rose another question altogether. “That griffin called you dad, I suppose that you’re his father and his name is Cutter then?”

“As far as he and I are concerned, yes.” He explained. “When Cutter was about six years old, he escaped the wreck that was the Dominion. Life shined on him and his little wings managed to carry him all the way to an Equestrian airyard where the Liberator was docked. He snuck aboard during the night and lived undetected on board the ship for two weeks, stealing food and water in the darkness. His capture came when he started to molt his feathers and left a trail of them right back to his hiding place. I had been a Captain for a couple months by then, I still had my horn by that point.”

I think he noticed when I scooted closer to the edge of my seat but he didn’t say anything. “The crew who found him wanted to give him to the authorities in town but I didn’t. I told them to release him and the instant they did he tried to fly away. I’m just glad magic is a little more nimble than flying. I caught him and brought him to the mess hall for a real meal. We talked for quite a while and he decided to stay aboard, officially he’s still a stowaway but in reality he’s the the main deck observer. He’s guided us out of more storms than I can think of.” He had the smile of a knowing parent.

“Couldn’t he be thrown off the ship or arrested if anyone finds out he’s still a stowaway?”

“He can still be arrested for it.” He stared at me with a hard expression “Can I trust you with this information?” He asked curtly, dropping all pretence of humor in his voice and adopting an air of complete seriousness.

“I won’t let a word pass my lips.” I responded in the same tone even as lesser ideas passed through my mind. ‘I don’t have lips. Does that mean I’ll still break his trust if I tell anyone?’

He jovial attitude returned. “Excellent. Can you keep with a secret?”

“Didn’t you just ask me that?” I asked incredulously.

“A different one.” He quickly scampered over to his desk... scampered... and came back with a scroll sealed with a golden buckle. “As a gift for thirty years in the fleet and ten as Captain, Princess Celestia gave me this.” The buckle came unclasped and the paper unfurled.

“Recruitment papers?” It looked like army papers from back on Earth.

He shook his head but stopped abruptly. “Well yes, but it’s a little different.” He prodded a golden seal at the bottom. “That’s Celestia’s military seal.” He noted like the proud dad he was. “She’s offering Cutter immediate enlistment aboard the Liberator and officer ranking. I’m giving these to him on his eighteenth birthday in a few weeks.”

‘Wait, it was mid-September when I was sent here.’ “What day is it today?”

“I believe it’s September twenty sixth” He replied.

“My birthday is in three weeks then.” It sounds stupid but I was half expecting Pinkie Pie to pop out of nowhere and announce a party. No such luck.

“I’ll mark it down and have Butter make you a cake. Would you like pegasus food cake or Germane chocolate cake?” He leaned over his chair to my side. “Go with the chocolate, she’s not a unicorn but there’s magic in that cake.”

Just his face as he said it made me laugh. I was barely able to get a response out I was laughing so hard. “I’ll go with chocolate.”

“Hoh, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.” He admitted before he stood and walked to his desk, coming back with a small wooden case. “Do you mind if I smoke?”

That surprised me, I never knew ponies had anything that they smoked. “It’s fine.” I didn’t think second hand smoke would affect a skeleton.

“Thank you, ponies always like it better if you ask first.” He undid the latch on the case and inside was a long two piece wooden pipe and a small jar of what I guessed was the tobacco. ‘I hope it’s tobacco. Maybe he’s secretly a well to do crackhead and prefers to smoke up in luxury?’

It was actually tobacco, just dried and cut into small pieces. He smoked at a fairly slow pace as we sat and chewed the fat. The conversation wasn’t really tied to any single topic or of any relevance but we got to know each other a bit more. “You should retire early, you’re going to need the rest for dinner tonight when you meet the rest of the crew.” He said, dumping the last bit of ash out of his pipe and packing it away.

“Where is that, Thule?”

“Captain Thule, if you please.” He insisted.

I never really had a problem with authority but ranks always threw me against a wall. It’s why I didn’t like pulling those medallions out to Celestia’s guards. “I’m sorry, but I'm not good with ranking systems..” His calm exterior broke for a single second before it reformed into shape once again.

“That’s fine,” He sighed lightly, as if announcing that it wasn’t fine in the least. “let me escort you to your room.”

He got up from his chair and I followed him with axe and bag in hand. Thinking about our respective ranks, Fero as opposed to Captain, while traversing the long wooden halls, passing easily a hundred ponies on the way. We finally arrived outside a room labeled ‘115’. “This will be your room, if Steam Cog doesn’t sleep in her workshop you can bang on the door marked ‘116’ and ask her questions. I’ll leave you to it then, here’s the key.” I picked the key out of his hoof and watched him walk away before opening my door. The room inside wasn’t bad but felt a little bare, there wasn’t a thing on the wall. I didn’t really care, at least not enough to do anything but the bed was comfy. I laid down instantly, dropping my axe and bag onto the floor again. ‘Why does It seem like everything important ends with me falling asleep?’ My last conscious thought drifted away as darkness invaded my vision.

---------------------------------

So, we had our not so tear jerking goodbye from both Pain Killer and Sturrn. He got on the ship fine and only (almost) pissed himself once and had his little chit-chat with Thule. Sounds like a productive day and it all gets topped off with him falling asleep ONCE AGAIN.

This was a strange chapter to write. I barely revealed anything about Rorke up front when the story started and it's coming back to bite me, hard. I feel like I can't write anything about his previous life without it seeming contrived. The events that will be happening on the Liberator and centered around developing who Rorke is, don't think there won't be awkward conversations and mediocre fighting skills though because that always finds a way into situations. Lastly, criticism? It feels like I'm writing garbage but I'm getting very little, if any, feedback about the actual quality.

(Of no difference to the story: I gave Rorke my birthday, yes I feel bad about doing it. I pushed the publish button by accident so if there is two notices that's why.)
Edited by:
Salacar (Proofreader)
Thule (Makes dialogue not garbage)

-Sturrn

Comments

[Thule]

Thule has arrived!

Thuleception.... DUN DUN DUUN!

PS:

the bad news(?) was she had drooled

I’m the Captain of this fine ship.”

[AppleTank]

I wanted to ask Rorke how: You wanted to ask yourself? How does that work?

[PinkiePieSwearz]

Hmm, Criticisms....uhh i'd rather not ruin your fine story with my uncultured heathenistic P.O.V., but i guess if i HAD to say something, (maybe it's just not far enough or something), but i just don't feel....entrenched in any of the characters besides Rorke, will that be amended or will i have to see more "come as you may" Characters (won't really effect my view since im pulled into the story, but i'm just generally curious)

[Kotushk Fier]

1372659
What, you DON'T talk to yourself? Are you loco in the cocoa?

[werewolf435]

enough carry for a 1000 guardsponies plus the 200 hundred crew.

"enough carry" ....?

"two hundred hundred crew"....?

Author, I think you got some s'plainin tah do here.

[JawsOnYou67]

First Sturrn now Thule...where the hell is Boreal?

[The Shade]

I wanted to ask Rorke how much money they were worth but

But... It's Rorke's perspective?