• Published 24th Jun 2016
  • 852 Views, 246 Comments

Shine Of The Silver Sun - Nameless Narrator



Necromancers and dark mages are rising all throughout Equestria. Some ponies aim to find out why and destroy the root of the new evil. For now, though, the important ones are those standing against the new darkness - The Order of the Silver Sun.

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Hit Hard: Field Trip II

It was halfway through the train ride to Canterlot. Cromach had spent so much time on the standard shuttle during the first months of the rebuilding of the Order that all he needed was a single glance out of the window at any point to know exactly what part of Equestria they were passing through. Anvil and Bubbles were sitting in the coupe as well, but on the other end of the windowside table, both concentrating on the cards in their hands or claws. Astray refused to play cards with the others, thankful for each moment he could spend by resting, sleeping, or at least passed out. Cromach had secured a coupe for just the four of them, meaning the satyr could simply lie down on the floor, legs stretched, and listen to Anvil's grumbling whenever the minotaur lost yet another round... which was happening a lot. She had been ordered to wear something less revealing than, well nothing, settling on a white, clean shirt and cloth leggings leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. Both Anvil's top and pants were unbuttoned, but each was still digging into her muscular form. She would really have to order some custom clothing eventually, but for this unannounced expedition the standard satyr fare hastily re-tailored to fit her had to suffice.

As they passed through a darker stretch of the forest, Cromach glanced at the window reflecting the cards in Anvil's hand. He looked at his own set, put them on the table, and declared:

"Read 'em and weep!"

"Oh go eat a manticore dick!" Anvil's fist thumped the table, as she had done over and over and over throughout the whole ride, "Sir."

"I've got all the mares with crowns and some stallions," Bubbles showed the cards she'd been hoarding, "Is that good?"

Cromach snickered. His attempts at teaching Bubbles the basics of poker fell flat on their face, as the mare picked the cards she liked the look of. In this particular instance, though, she actually managed to put together a hand that would beat even Anvil's. The minotaur noticed, of course, and moaned in despair. They weren't playing for money or anything, otherwise Crom wouldn't have cheated through the reflection whenever he could. It was just too easy and precious to make Anvil boil so hard steam almost came out of her ears. Bubbles, on the other talon, enjoyed the game just like any other, although her objective was to eventually see all cards in the deck pass through her claws.

Astray rolled over, wincing in pain. The metal floor wasn't a problem for him, he'd slept in way worse conditions, but the bruises all over his body left over from being tripped, punched, kicked, or thrown by Antares repeatedly made themselves known whenever he spent too much time in one position. He wasn't following the game too much, knowing only the barest basics of poker, but he'd spent enough time with long-distance caravans to notice the tells of ponies. In short, he'd known Cromach was cheating since game three but hadn't said anything. That would spoil the fun. The more interesting thing for him was that Anvil was actually pretty decent for not having ever played the game before.

He sighed, rolling over more carefully again to appease his protesting ribs.

His admiration for the unfriendly minotaur was growing steadily. She focused on something, and she did it after several tries. He'd hoped she would thaw eventually even a little, perhaps yesterday after what Cromach had said, but ever since he'd decided to accept training from grandmaster Antares she'd spoken to him only during training when it was necessary or when she made a derogatory remark. Astray knew he was the problem, and that he would likely remain that way, but he'd hoped for at least some encouragement when he'd stopped passing out every evening and was able to at least take a shower before collapsing. What wasn't helping was the fact that he knew Cromach had been right. If only Anvil kept giving him the evening massages he would be in much better shape every day. All in all, he was confused, slightly angry, but most of all sad that after he'd started believing he was beginning to earn some worth his decision to overtrain took it all away.

Groaning again as lying on his stomach proved yet again to be a bad idea, Astray had to stand up.

"I'm gonna go for a walk," he said, opening the door leading from the coupe to the train car hallway, "Lying down is killing me."

"Hey, wait up!" Bubbles raised her voice, smiling at the satyr and folding her cards, "I'm coming too. I think I've seen all the pretty pictures that are in the deck."

Jumping down from the long, padded bench serving as the coupe seats, the rusty mare trotted outside. Cromach looked at Anvil.

"You going with them for some fresh air?" he asked as the duo left.

"I'm not squeezing myself through your tiny pony train just because one idiot isn't learning his lesson. Besides, it's not like anything I can say's going to help. He already knows my thoughts on what he's doing."

"So, you're certain you're on the right side here?"

"Definitely. He can't do it."

"Just like you can't win against me in cards."

"We'll see about that!"

Cromach tapped at the window, making Anvil look just as they passed another patch of trees. He wiggled the cards in his talons meaningfully. Anvil blinked in confusion, then narrowed her eyes, and in the end she gasped, pointing at Crom.

"YOU CHEATED!"

"From the start. Every game. See how easy it is to be wrong about something when you don't know all the facts?"

"I know what you're trying to do and it's not going to work. I am right."

"Wanna bet your bits?" Cromach nudged the cards with his talons.

"No cheating this time?"

"I solemnly swear," Crom drew the window curtains, "but you know. Proof is more than words."

"You're on. Deal! One bit bets first, don't want to bankrupt your little Order," Anvil grinned. She was sure she would lose more money than gain, but she learned fast.

Outside, Astray reached to open the door leading to another train car when Bubbles asked what he'd been thinking about since Cromach's visit yesterday:

"Why is Anvil mad at you? Can I help? Whenever we're training she or miss Connie just bark orders while you say nothing. I miss your bickering, it was funny and lively. Now she's all like - you're an idiot, and you say - you're right. I could almost believe she doesn't like you."

Astray sighed.

"Bubbly, she doesn't like me. To be frank, she despises me," he said, shrugging, "and she's probably right to do so. I'm not really worth her time the way I'm now, and the way I'm trying to remedy that is just making it worse... I think. And I'm sorry if I haven't been playing with you that much past few days. I'll get back to it once I stop passing out in the shower."

"I like you. You're really nice. I mean, to me... not to yourself," her pink eyes locked with his. Astray looked away, sliding a nearby window open and taking a breath of fresh air. The loud whistling of wind outside gave him a moment to think.

"Bubbles, they don't need me to be nice. Nopony needs me the way I am. They need me to be strong, hard, responsible."

"I like you the way you are!" Bubbles objected loudly, making Astray look down at her in surprise, "Well, most of the way you are. I like when we play, chill, or when you read to me."

"The only thing I ever read to you was the list of ingredients in my yoghurt,"

"Yeah! All those E six six three, lactose and suckerose things sounded really weird and funny," she said. Astray recalled saying that reading the list was akin to trying to decipher alphabet soup, "When Anvil read to me she got mad I called Pegasopolis a Pogo-stick-police."

Astray snorted, then burst out laughing at the image of pegasi bouncing up and down on pogo sticks made of clouds. Eventually he stopped and wiped his forehead.

"Bubbles, you know I enjoy spending time with you or even with Anvil, sort of. The thing is that we're meant to protect ponies from evil, powerful evil that doesn't wait or sleep. The time I can spend by 'just chilling' should be minimal until I'm at least marginally useful."

"Even my mom had days when she couldn't experiment anymore, like when the lab was full of mercury fumes or when she spent all her magic fighting some creature she summoned by accident. Whenever that happened she always said that playing with me helped her rest and recover faster. I liked when she did that, it was so much better than when she told me to help ponies sleep to tire myself out. I mean, that wasn't bad too when she didn't give them the silver whip, but I liked spending time with her."

Astray didn't have the heart to tell Bubbles that her mother was obviously just some abusive unicorn wizard who used her daughter to earn money for more probably illegal experiments. Instead, as usual, he tried to shift blame for everything onto himself.

"Look, Bubbles, I know proper rest is important. I just don't think I'm doing enough to burn out anytime soon. Just think about what you or Anvil can do. I'm not even a fraction as good as you are, and I have to work hard to be able to protect the two of you, or at least take more than one blow in your stead."

Bubbles shifted her forelegs nervously. She didn't like what she was hearing, but she wasn't good with words enough to change that. She brightened up. Everypony liked petting or hugging her after all!

"Can you just play with me at least every other day? We'll do something simple like fetch so you don't even have to move much," she caught his hesitant look, "Or just cuddle with me as a pillow. You always sleep better when I'm next to you."

"Cuddle? I mean that's not just a friend thing-"

"Look, every time I see you passed out on the carpet it gets harder to breathe. The longer you lie there the more it hurts. I want to yell at Anvil to put you to bed but I don't like being nasty to her. She's kinda nice to everypony but you. Even when she throws stuff at the guys whistling at her she's smiling. All I can do is hug you but that's not enough."

Kneeling, Astray hugged the mare on the verge of tears. She obviously liked him as a good friend. Astray knew it was only because he was one of the first being who considered her more than a toy, pest, or a pet. Heck, if the standard recruits knew Bubbles a little better she would have a bunch of friends much better than he was already.

"Come on, you can hop into my bunk whenever you feel like it. Heck, I don't even have to be there," he scratched her behind the ears, "I-"

Astray yawned, blinking in surprise. Was this perhaps a good time for an hour or two of sleep? Was he finally tired enough again for his wounds to fail at waking him up with each movement?

Bubbles, evidently brightening up after his words, licked his face.

"I think I've had all the fresh air I needed," Astray yawned again, "Let's head back before Anvil throws our boss out of the window when she realizes he's cheating."

"Ooooh, sir Cromach is crafty," Bubbles trotted alongside Astray back to the coupe.

When they arrived, Cromach was nowhere to be seen and Anvil looked up from some smaller book she was reading with her legs crossed, taking a large part of the bench.

"The window looks fine," Bubbles peeked inside, "I'll go find the boss!"

Aaand she was gone. Chuckling at the rusty blur looking through the door window into each coupe while rushing down the hallway, Astray walked back inside and closed the door behind him. The sounds of the train immediately lost a lot of their volume. As he sat down, wincing again at the muscle of his inner thigh pressing against a bruise from the inside, Astray heard a deep intake of breath from Anvil. The minotaur put the book she was reading down. It wasn't her borrowed history tome, but something colourful in paperback.

"Still sore?" she asked, sounding distant and cold.

"Just a little," Astray lied, poorly. The battered state of his body was clear to everyone. He gave Anvil a nervous chuckle, "Heh, doesn't matter anyway, right? What's going to change if I'm little out of it considering how insignificant my contribution can be compared to yours, Bubbles', or sir Cromach's. I'm in good enough shape to take a blow for either of you, which is all you need from me, all I'm good for."

Yet another deep breath, yet another sigh from the minotaur.

"Stand up and strip!" she said sharply, "You don't know the first thing about physiology, so don't go around telling me what you can or can't do."

"How about no?" Astray stared her down, well, up, "You can't keep telling me what to do! It's a coincidence we both think the same about what I'm good for, but you've been clear about not giving a damn about what I'm doing so the same goes from me to YOOOUUUUEEEEEEAAAAAUGHWWW!" he screamed in pain as she squeezed his shoulder so hard burning spikes of undiluted agony ran through his entire body. Seeing red and barely in control of his breathing, he heard Anvil's distorted voice through the hammering of blood in his ears.

"I wasn't asking," the minotaur's voice was downright frosty now. Her next words were calm and analytical, though, "You've been hunched forward since yesterday as if you had a hump on your back. Dislocated shoulder, maybe? Some unicorn medic must have set it back wrong. The guys know pony's skeleton through and through, but bipeds like us have slightly different joints. It must have been stiff and painful to move your arm, but you didn't tell anypony, am I right? You thought your body was just wrong or something, am I right? You didn't want to make a fuss not to appear weak, am I right?" she growled, "Well, you screwed that up royally, idiot. What if it became a problem mid-fight? Was that the bullshit about just being there to take a blow?" her raised voice made Astray lurch backwards, hissing as her hand refused to let his badly healed shoulder go, "Don't you dare try to run away again!"

"He was a good unicorn healer, I thought it was just some thing that would go away with time. I didn't want to whine about it like you said before... not complain and just take it, push through, and emerge stronger."

The expression on her face grew unreadable, or possibly so conflicted that not even she could know what emotion would win in the next second. She indeed had said something along those lines, but the weakling in front of her took it too literally. It was his fault for being stupid, right? It had to be.

Maybe...

"Sit still," she ordered, squeezing his shoulder firmly but carefully this time, "Now, this is going to sting a bit. You are way smaller than I am, but I think I can fix this properly. Three, two, one..."

Snap!

Astray's overloaded senses could take it no more, and his world shut down.

Pain from his inner thigh woke him up, but it wasn't crippling. Warmth surged over the spot until it turned to mere discomfort, then the warmth moved lower. As his brain restarted completely, Astray identified the warmth as big fingers digging deep into his legs. He was lying on his stomach on the floor, buck naked, while Anvil's familiar technique worked his legs.

"I thought you weren't going to do this anymore," Astray mumbled, turning his head.

"You can waste your time in whatever way you want when you're pretending to be training," she dragged her knuckles across his other thigh, "but you're not getting me killed by accident on a real mission. If this helps you stand upright a little longer in fight then it's worth my time."

"Sorry, I didn't think of it that way..."

"Yeah, you damn well should be apologizing for this," she stopped, running her hand softly on his hindquarters. She couldn't help noticing how much more pronounced and rounder the muscles were since the last time. Experimentally, she applied a little more force and reveled in the response as flesh much harder than she remembered gave in way less than expected. Her focused massage turned to squeezing and groping that particular area before she gathered herself minutes later and coughed, "Hmph! Seems that at least the changelings know what they're doing. You're definitely a tiny bit less skinny, rounding up in the right plces. Heh, now you maybe could give a newborn minotaur a run for his money."

As she finally moved her hands upwards on his lower back, Astray noticed a faint scent... something similar when Contradiction had first left her room after the unfortunate ceremony. Among sweat, stale socks, and general slobbery, this scent had been there as well. He shook his head, probably some slightly fruity and spicy soap or something. It smelled nice in a way, strange but nice.

Anvil noticed the satyr's sniffing, then her expression froze.

"I'll be right back," she jumped up, slammed the sliding door open, and rushed towards the back of the train car where the toilets were. Several minutes of Astray blissfully falling asleep again later, she returned in a much more composed manner, "Nature called, ehm."

Astray just shrugged, moaning softly when Anvil's hands melted the tension in his back and shoulders away.

"What was the book you were reading?" Astray, eyes closed and on his back now, asked, "It didn't look like the history one you've been going through every evening."

"The asshat librarian didn't allow me to take it away from the mansion. It's apparently some copy of a rare, unabridged tome from Canterlot castle archives. The only one I could get my hands on in a hurry was what Bubbles borrowed from one of the normals."

"Bubbles reads?" Astray blinked. He'd somehow missed that aspect of the half-demonette's passtime.

"More than you do," Anvil finished pressing various points around Astray's fetlocks and underhooves, standing back up with cracking of bones, "All done."

As she stretched and sat back down on the bench, Astray managed to get upright as well, taking several cautious steps around the coupe to discover he was feeling quite good. Exhausted and aching, but not passing out in spikes of pain. He walked over to the table, giving Anvil's reading material once over. Shocked and dopey grin crawled on his face.

"Power Ponies and Demolishing Doctor Doomsday?" he asked in utter disbelief.

"It was the only thing she had around..." Anvil mumbled, looking away through the window, "It's not... completely terrible."

"You like books, don't you? Every time you're not training, eating, or sleeping you are reading."

"And yet that doesn't stop anypony from believing I'm just a dumb pile of muscle who is barely smart enough to know which end of a warhammer's supposed to go through their skull," she huffed, narrowing her eyes and staring defiantly at Astray. The satyr sat down next to her, rubbing his hands and looking at the floor.

"I'm sorry."

"You always are."

"Look, I know we all make fun of you sometimes for the minotaur stereotype. The thing is that we don't mean it, at least not completely. I definitely don't, and I doubt Cross and Antares did. To me they feel like the kind of changelings who make fun of everything they can because the saw horrors nopony can imagine and know how precious laughter is. If they didn't think you were worth working with they wouldn't do it. Heck, you are smarter than I am. You read a bunch, mostly something that would make me chew my leg off out of boredom. You know history, physiology, geography. You've been around a lot and, I know I'm not an expert on minotaurs so I might be wrong and I'm not going to ask directly because it's rude, you look still young, kind of. Nopony can call you stupid and mean it... but you must admit you've got some... self-control issues. You're a bit too... sure about everything you do or say. It's not the end of the world to be wrong."

Anvil stared at him with a mix of confusion, thoughtfulness, and annoyance.

"Hmph, wrong..." is all she said at first, and then added, "I believe my experience until proven otherwise. It is you who should be much firmer, and your entire weird pony culture should focus more on being honest and straight instead of saying things you don't mean, even as a joke," she looked outside again, "And I'm twenty-nine, weakling."

"Friendly humor is a way of bonding. Look, I know it doesn't mean much from me but I like you even if you think I'm less than a worm. You're right, in a way, but that's not important. Bubbles likes you as well. She definitely wasn't the reading type when we first met two weeks ago and if she's trying to become smarter then it's because of you. Miss Contradiction respects you despite not showing it much. You were the only one whose judgement she even bothered to consider during the squad training. The normal recruits like you as well."

"Guess what the normals like about me..." she frowned, opening her tight shirt to give Astray a clearer view of her expansive, by pony and satyr standards, cleavage. Then her hand slid lower to the unbuttoned pants the open V of which ended an inch above her crotch, "I'm an attraction to them, that's all. Not that I mind. Little wimps should admire a real body even if it's way out of their reach. No offense, but your mares just don't offer the right mix of curves and steel muscle like the frozen north builds in us."

"Come on, that's not true, the attraction part, I mean," Astray dared to take her hand into his with utmost hesitation, "You've already shown you are much more than the 'I no know what shower be for!' braindead lump of meat. And I've seen you smile when they whistle at you. You are sure of yourself, a little too prideful, quick to anger, but you care... and aren't like most mares... a," his voice faded away.

Anvil heard the almost imperceptible whisper, though. 'Heartless bitch' was what the satyr breathed out. She recalled his first outburst when he inadvertently let out some of his past experiences.

Astray shook his head.

"How are things among the minotaurs anyway? You said our culture was weird with what we say."

"We mean what we say," she shot the question down, "and I meant what I said when you started your pointless overtraining. So, when are you quitting in order to focus on something properly?"

"I'm not quitting," he sighed, "If there's something I'm sure about it's that I need to do a lot more to be a real part of the team. Besides, well rounded experience -in my case being beaten up by a vast assortment of implements- can't hurt. Metaphorically, because literally it hurts like all hells."

"It's your funeral," Anvil shrugged, "Hopefully it won't be mine as well. Now get dressed, getting cold right after a massage is a sure way to ruin my efforts."

"Oh," Astray blushed suddenly. He hadn't realized he was still completely naked, "Uhh, right, right."

Bending over to get his brown pants and shirt still strewn on the floor, he wasn't in the position to notice Anvil's eyes locked on him. He did notice, however, when she kept staring even after he turned back.

"Is anything wrong?"

"Hmm?" she blinked, as if lost in thought, "No, no, just checking if I didn't miss a bruise or some little thing."

"And?"

"Of course I didn't," she gave him a smug grin, "I know what I'm doing."

"Whoah," Astray shivered. He hadn't realized how cold he was after the massage. Relaxed muscles and slowed down flow of blood hit him like a frozen hammer, "Is there a draft or something?" he rubbed his hands together quickly.

"Hairless hybrid," Anvil rolled her eyes, "One good blizzard up home would make a meat popsicle out of you. Come here!"

"Huh?" Astray looked at her waving at him to sit next to her again. He rolled up the cloth serving as his blanket from the floor and answered the invitation, "I'll just wrap this around me. It's a bit dirty but whatever..."

"Use your brain and stretch your legs on the bench. I'll be damned if I let you keel over and fall asleep on the floor again. You'll be so stiff the only way you'll be useful in a fight will be as a club."

Astray obliged, propping his back against Anvil's shoulder. A second later she shifted uncomfortably, and wrapped her arm around his chest, making him slip backwards on something far softer. The comforting warmth, Anvil's coat tickling his chin, and the rocking of train joined together to finally allow the satyr a restful, refreshing sleep.

***

[ATTENTION ALL PASSENGERS! THIS TRAIN WILL BE ARRIVING AT UPPER CANTERLOT TRAIN STATION IN TEN MINUTES.]

"Mmmph?" Astray twitched as the loud announcer's voice coming from the reproductor above the coupe door got through to him even in his deep sleep. An attempt to swing his legs down from the bench he was lying on proved unsuccessful due to something heavy weighing him down. The second attempt at gradually regaining consciousness by sitting upright ended with his face hitting something soft and squishy. After lying back down on a much firmer surface but with similar warmth, the satyr finally woke up enough for his brain to decide that opening his eyes would be the best course of action.

Looking down at him from above two round globes barely covered by white shirt was Anvil's waiting face. That meant he was lying in her lap, and that the soft flesh he'd gotten a faceful seconds ago was her bossom. He blushed, and looked at his legs. Bubbles, yawning after being stirred from her sleep by Astray's movements, was giving him a mouthful of spiky death while still draped over his lower body. She smiled at him, rolling over and slamming on the floor with a 'thump!'.

"I'mokay!" she stood back up again instantly, shaking her head.

"Quite the lady magnet, aren't you, Astray?" an amused voice of Cromach commented, the griffon recieving a fiery glare from Anvil and covering a mischievous smile growing on his beak.

"Yeah, I like him!" Bubbles exclaimed, "Like help-with-sleeping like like."

"That's a whooooole lot of likes," Cromach raised an eyebrow, looking at Anvil and Astray, "Help with sleeping?"

Astray, blushing even harder, buried his face into the nearest surface facing away from the griffon, which was Anvil's sixpack. The minotaur didn't notice, though, having suddenly become intently interested in something outside the window, warmth creeping up her muzzle as well. As the train ran into the final tunnel before the station, the lights automatically turning on inside the coupe allowed her to see her face in the darkened glass. The frowning reflection in the temporary mirror surprised even her. By no means anything that had just been said should be bothering her, but...

...for some reason it annoyed her.

She shook her head, leaving her reflection behind as the train left the tunnel, daylight poured in, lights shut down, and the window became just a window again.

"You gonna keep slobbering all over my thighs or what?" she looked down at Astray again who hastily wiped his mouth, discovering a dried string of drool running down his cheek. Had he been doing that since he'd fallen asleep? Why didn't Anvil wake him up? She probably just wanted him to rest up so he wasn't a total waste of space later.

And damn, did he need it!

He felt much better when packing his blanket back into his bag, much less sore all over at least. He had no idea when Cromach and Bubbles had returned to the coupe, but he was grateful they let him sleep. When everyone was finally ready, the train was already beginning to slow down at the station in upper Canterlot.

"Now, who knows their way around Canterlot?" Cromach asked after they pushed through the crowd of ponies leaving the train, and found a place on the platform devoid of milling visitors.

One hand rose up. Astray's.

"Really?" Cromach asked, digging in his saddlebag before pulling out a three pieces of paper, "I thought you all came to Manehattan from here."

Anvil shrugged.

"Locked in a tower somewhere," Bubbles beamed.

"Well then," the griffon gave every recruit one of the papers. Each contained the name 'Ambassador Cromach' and an address, "This is the address of a hotel where I've booked a suite for tonight. You can drop the things you don't think you'll need down in the sewers there. Astray will guide you through the city while I have to talk about our job here with few Royal Guards. They should spare several members to guard the perimeter in case we have to flee quickly or some of us are wounded. They will be waiting out on the streets by the closest sewer entrances. I'll tell you the details later, now go to the hotel and I'll meet you there when I'm done."

"Yes, sir!" the trio saluted.