Remembrance Day

The vintage Equestrian red and gold motorized carriage with large, black iron wheels made a smooth right into a self-serve carriage washing service located off of North Lucky Clover Avenue in Downtown Canterlot. It pulled up next to one of the washing stations and the cream mare with a turquoise and white mane and tail as well as a cutie mark with a gold trophy set in front of a violet flame opened her driver’s side door from inside the cab area. Sitting next to her carriage was a metal box that looked like it was straight out of a science fiction novel. It had many complicated buttons that each contained a list of instructions written in at least seven different colors. The mare squinted her purple eyes to get a closer look and saw that each of the colors stood for a certain setting.

Under the mess of colorful buttons was a place to slide a credit or debit card. The mare took out a silver, Ponyville Credit Union Platinum Member’s Credit Card with her name, Mrs. Sure Fire, scribbled on the back, small, white area that asked for a signature to confirm ownership of the card. Mrs. Sure Fire slid it into the bottom portion of the machine before making her selection. A set of green letters appeared that said “Approved” and then “Select your washing preference.” The mare pushed a series of buttons that together completed “The Extra Deluxe Scrubbing Special.” The screen flashed again and said “Two bits has been charged to your Card. Please proceed when the yellow arrows light up below the undercarriage. Thank you for making Carriage Scrubbing Pros your choice for premium carriage washing services today!”

Mrs. Sure Fire placed the silver credit card back in her wallet and tapped her hooves on the black steering wheel cover as she waited for the lights to appear. As soon as the string of yellow arrows lit up one by one underneath the undercarriage of her coach, she guided it slowly into the washing area of the carriage wash. There was a red stop sign that let her know where to bring her carriage to a halt inside. Some words appeared above on a waterproof screen that read, “Please sit back and enjoy your carriage wash.” Mrs. Sure Fire made sure all of the windows were closed. She made a mental note of all of the windows in question. First window. Check. Second window. Check. Back windows. Check. Very back window. Check. She pushed the window roll-up buttons on the driver’s side door several times to make sure the windows were tightly sealed.

Everything was all set and ready to go. Mrs. Sure Fire hummed as she waited for the automated carriage wash to kick into gear. She was getting her carriage cleaned up for the 120th Annual Equestrian Carriage Races. She wanted to make sure that her vehicle stood out the most as it slid across the finish line. And when she got out of the carriage on the other side she would hold up the Equestrian flag, as was custom, in remembrance of all of the ponies who she held the dearest to her heart.

There was a sudden large, metallic grinding sound that resonated from the top of the carriage as the first cleaning cycle began. While a few jets of water were sprayed on either side of her vehicle, Mrs. Sure Fire made sure all of her CDs were in order. She pulled down her driver’s side storage compartment which had a CD holder with pictures of green lizards printed on it in florescent ink. She inspected the CDs one by one as the first cycle moved on to rinse the top portion of her cab. Coloratura’s Material Mare. Cheese Sandwich’s Pony Polka Palooza, DJ Pon-3’s Magic Beats. Constellation by Lyra Heartstrings. Overture by Octavia. Dreaming of Summer by Sapphire Shores. The Flim Flam Brothers’ Casual Casino Jukebox. All of the artists were in perfect alphabetical order. She inspected the CD placement to make sure that the individual album titles were organized within each sub-genre. She was pleased when she saw that everything was the perfect vision of organization.

Mrs. Sure Fire’s racing record was also perfect. She had secured her position as the fastest carriage driver in all of Equestria for nineteen years running and she wasn’t about to give up her title now. She had a reason to push herself to be the best. Every time she crossed the finish line she was winning a victory for not only herself but for all of the ponies who she cared about most in her life. She raced in their honor every year. And every year she made sure that the ponies closest to her would not be forgotten.

The second cycle started. A generous helping of a thick, pink foam squirted out from giant metal nozzles attached to the four sides of the washing garage onto the windows of her carriage on all sides. This reminded her that she needed to do some tiding up of her own, from her side of the cab. She pulled out a container of Wet Wipes and began cleaning her windows from the inside. She had to unbuckle her seat belt, which had a matching lizard cover on it to complete her task. One by one she cleaned the inside of the windows, making sure not to miss a speck. She had to crawl around the seats, which all had the same lizard covers on them. Every surface of the car seemed to be crawling with the green scaled beasts, even the black steering wheel cover.

As she cleaned the windows from the inside of the carriage, her thoughts drifted to her husband. She got a bit teary eyed as she thought of him.

Mr. Strong Fire was a muscular, brown stallion with a black mane and tail. He had deep brown eyes that almost looked black in certain lighting. His cutie mark was two swords crossed over a shield covered in blue flames. She had met her husband while working at the Canterlot Royal Palace as a carriage driver. She always saw him practicing his sword work in one of the palace courtyards during his lunch break. One day she trotted up to him and asked if she could watch. Mr. Strong Fire was a bit shy by nature, but he still nodded and allowed Mrs. Sure Fire to watch him practice his moves.

It came to pass that the two would take the same lunch hour every day and talk to each other while Mr. Strong Fire practiced his swordplay. They seemed to talk about just about every topic under the sun. How their families were doing. Their favorite foods. Their dreams and aspirations.

At that time, Mr. Strong Fire wanted to become the Captain of the Royal Guard. He was in direct competition with Shining Armor for the role. But he felt confident that if he trained every day, he could surely earn the title. Mrs. Sure Fire on the other hoof aspired to enter her cab into the Annual Equestrian Carriage Races. If she won first place, she would receive 1,000 bits and a chance to become the Head Motorized Carriage Driver at the royal palace. Her boss, Miss. Dusty Trails had won the race every year for ten consecutive years. It seemed liked no one could surpass her. But Mrs. Sure Fire wanted to win more than anything. So every night, after everypony had returned to their homes after their shifts at the palace, Mrs. Sure Fire would take out her coach and drive it around the palace race track. She was determined to win and she would get first place at all costs.

When the second portion was complete, a rinse cycle came and washed the foam away. Mrs. Sure Fire had just finished cleaning the back window. The third cycle appeared. It squirted a blue-colored foam out of a second set of metal nozzles attached to the wall of the cleaning garage onto the exterior of the carriage. She crawled to the front of the vehicle and put the box of Wet Wipes back in the center storage compartment. From within the deep recesses of the storage unit she took out a lint roller. She began rolling it on all of the lizard-covered seat covers. First there were the two front seats. Then the uniform back seat. Then the bed of the carriage. She had to get on all fours to scrub away at the very back. Not one corner was left untouched by her lint brush.

Her mind drifted into thinking of various things again as she cleaned.

Yes, practicing for that race was one of the hardest and tedious things she had done in her life. But every evening, Mr. Strong Fire would bring her dinner and after she was finished driving around the track for a few hours, the two would eat dinner together under the stars. This continued on until the evening before the race. It was then that Mr. Strong Fire had gotten on his knees, handed her a marriage necklace, and asked her to marry him. The proposal seemed to come out of nowhere, but Mrs. Sure Fire gladly accepted it. Afterwards, the two lovingly held each other for what seemed like an eternity under the blanket of stars glinting above. The next day, against seemingly all odds, Mrs. Sure Fire somehow managed to beat Dusty Trails on the racing circuit and had taken first place in the 100th Annual Equestrian Carriage Races.

Mrs. Sure fire snapped out of her daydream-like state and crawled up to the front when cycle four had just begun. It started rinsing off the thick blue foam. She placed the lint brush back in the center console and realized that she needed to organize the cleaning supplies within. She spent a while placing the wet wipes at an even distance to the Lint Brush. There were tissues and a bottle of sanitizer in the center console as well. She made sure these were also at proper distances from one another. There was a small notebook where she recorded her mileage and a box of pens. They stared at her like misplaced children. They didn’t seem like they were in the right place.

Yes, sometimes things in life were never in the right place.

She thought back to the years after she had married her husband. She was now The Head Carriage Driver at the Canterlot royal palace. She had given birth to a filly three years prior and juggled taking care of her toddler with her full time job. Strong Fire helped out in-between his shifts as a Royal Guard at the palace. But one day, Strong Fire was sent by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to fend off an attack of Chimeras upon the citizens of a nearby town.

He said farewell to his wife and daughter and went off to help the other members of the Royal Guard stop the Chimeras before they caused any more damage than they already had to the town. Strong Fire knew this was his chance to prove himself worthy as the Captain of the Royal Guard. So he left with his unit, without any hesitation. Eventually, the Chimeras were defeated and driven back into the Wild Woods. It was all over the papers. The town was saved from the terror of the rogue clan of dangerous beasts. However, although most of the Royal Guard made it out with minor injuries, Mr. Strong Fire never came back. He died attempting to save a mother and daughter from a building that one of the Chimeras had set on fire. He managed to get the mother and daughter out, but just as he was about to leave, the supporting beams of the building fell down on top of him, taking his life. The following year, Shining Armor, who had been a close friend, solemnly became the Head of the Royal Guard in his place.

The fourth cycle appeared. This time, a liberal portion of thick, green foam squirted out from a third set of metal nozzles attached to the walls of the washing station, onto the car. Mrs. Sure Fire took the small notebook and box of pens out of the center console. She opened up the glove compartment on the passenger’s side. A pile of letters fells out. The mare placed the notebook and box of pens on the passenger’s side seat. She gathered the letters up one by one, studying them closely like a poker player studies their cards during a game. They each had military addresses on them. Some were sent from The Chrystal Empire. Some from Yakyakistan. It was if she kept the whole land of Equestria in her glove compartment. Within the envelopes were age-worn letters. They hadn’t been looked at since their first opening. Mrs. Sure Fire studied those letters intently.

It had been five years since Mrs. Sure Fire’s daughter, Rapid Fire, had joined The Equestrian Royal Guard. Rapid Fire was a tall, white, and muscular pony with a turquoise mane and tail. She had black streaks running through her mane and tail and dark purple eyes. Her cutie mark was of two cannons crossed over each other over the backdrop of a blue flame. Rapid Fire had worked her way up to be a Lieutenant and was sent to train new recruits at each of the bases set up to both help defend Equestrian citizens and their allies. Her daughter had a bright smile which she likened to the sun. She had a calm and gentle personality that Mrs. Sure Fire always thought would be more suited to working in a career of caregiving. But despite Sure Fire urging her daughter to go into some kind of medical or caregiving field, her daughter wanted to become a member of the Royal Guard, much like her father had done many years before she was even born.

After staring at the letters for some time, Mrs. Sure Fire decided to put them in the center console with the cleaning supplies. She placed the box of pens and the notebook in the glove box. Inside the glove box, there was a small tool kit that she made sure was kept neatly tucked beside the carriage’s owner manual, the insurance, and other important carriage documents, such as carriage repair bills. The notebook and the box of pens seemed to fit in better next to the tool box. It was a perfect match of likes, just like the letters had been a perfect match for the cleaning supplies and tissues.

As Mrs. Sure Fire continued to organize things inside the carriage, she thought about Rapid Fire’s childhood. The death of her father had shown her the harsh realities of the world at an early age. She didn’t hang out with her schoolmates or the other neighborhood children. Rather, she found her father’s sword and took to practicing with it in the back yard. Every day when she came home from school she would head straight to the backyard and practice her sword work.

Then many years later, after graduating high school, Rapid Fire told her mom that she had enlisted in the Canterlot Royal Guard. Mrs. Sure Fire begged her daughter to go into some other field but Rapid Fire wouldn’t listen. She was stubborn like her father. No matter what Mrs. Sure Fire said, her daughter would not budge on her decision. So finally, with a heavy heart, Mrs. Sure Fire agreed to let her daughter go off and train to be a member of the Royal Guard.

The rinse cycle started. Some green letters flashed above the screen. “Your carriage wash is almost complete. Thank you for stopping by! Please follow the yellow arrows on the way out when your wash has come to a complete stop. Have a nice day!” A thick cloud of drying agent was sprayed over the cab. Afterwards, the yellow lights lit up and Mrs. Sure Fire drove away from the automated carriage wash to the front entrance of the parking lot.

As she watched the traffic go by, waiting for her opportunity to pull out onto the main road, she thought about the upcoming race. She knew it would be somewhat of a challenge as she would be facing off against an upcoming racing star named Rapid Typhoon, a grey pegasus with a white and gold mane and tail. Rapid Typhoon had a cutie mark of lightning bolt crossing a black and white checkered racing flag. He had dark grey hooves and gold eyes. He had won every minor motorized carriage race from his home town of Las Pegasus to Ponyville. And now he sought to take the title of the fastest racer in Equestria from Mrs. Sure Fire by competing in the 120th Annual Equestrian Carriage Races.

But Mrs. Sure Fire had something to race for. And she wasn’t going to let some young-blooded hotshot knock her off of her most esteemed throne.

Mrs. Sure Fire was so engrossed in her thoughts about the upcoming race that she didn’t notice a bump in the middle of the road as she pulled out onto the now empty main road. It startled her a bit as she drove over it and it shook her carriage. A loose letter wedged between two cushions of the back seat went flying up by force of the impact.

The letter read,

“The Head of the Equestrian Royal Guard regrets to inform you that Lieutenant Rapid Fire’s life has been taken in the line of duty. She served in the Equestrian Royal Guard with bravery, and with honor for all of Equestria. She is the very symbol of the Equestrian Dream and Patriotism…”

Mrs. Sure Fire didn’t notice the letter as she drove off to complete her daily errand run and continue to plan for the upcoming race.

It was the one piece of her carriage that remained unorganized.

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