Loyalty in Brass: Captain's Ashes

by Mr BHunt

Chapter One: Three Musketeers

2 Weeks before the Captain's encounter...

Swift grunted to himself as he looked at his old armor on its stand, a scratched and dented suit of Royal Guard armor, the helmet lost its crest and one of the cheek guards were broken off. But then Swift turned to the suit of armor next to the old suit. The bodypiece was more sturdier and had a primarily purple colour scheme with plates of gold in vital places, but surprisingly there was no helmet.

---

"Ah, you the new Captain?" The castle backsmith asked the quiet Swift, who nodded. "Right, so your new armor is in that room there, I'm sure it'll fit right."

Swift walked into the side room and saw his armor, he quickly moved to put on his bodypiece but he hesitated on the helmet. The helmet was intricate and so much more different than Captain Shining Armor's, it didn't have the crest on the top like all the other helmets. But instead it had a curved faceplate, with an almost exact replica of the Legate of Glory's face. Swift paled and turned to the sound of hoofsteps, the blacksmith walked in with a proud grin.

"Ah! Knew that armor would fit! But that helmet, oh ho! That was hard! Had to get permission from the Princesses themselves to make something like this, fortunately they gave me a design to work off!" The blacksmith pulled a sheet of paper with the Legate's faceplate drawn with extensive detail, Swift grabbed it with the helmet and looked between the two. Then threw them into a nearby molten forge, the blacksmith yelled in surprise.

"You will never make something like this, got it?" Swift asked, voice full of malice.

"G-got it s-sir!" The blacksmith stuttered.

---

The fact that the Princesses let that pony make something like that made Swift's blood boil, so he instead went to somepony he could trust to make something.

---

"I'll be there in a minute!" A posh voice called out when Swift entered the store and a bell rang overhead, a white unicorn walked through a door and smiled as she entered. "Hello and welcome to Rarity's Boutique, how may I- Wait, I know you!" Rarity said with surprise, the Captain chuckled quietly.

"Indeed, the name's Swift. I presume you recognise me from the battle?" Swift asks and Rarity nods with a frown. "I too rather not talk about it, but I need to ask you a favour."

"A favour, darling?" Rarity looked confused, but thought of a scenario in her head with a slight blush.

"Yes, I've heard you've made some of the best dresses and scarfs and things like that. Would it be too much to ask if you could make a hat?" Swift asks, Rarity blinks.

"A hat, darling?" Swift nods. "I haven't made that many hats, but I can do it."

"Wonderful, now... the hard part." Swift says, Rarity gets slight worried. "Do you... remember the Captain?" Swift asks, strain in his voice.

"Um, I do not know you you mean, there are a lot of-"

"William."

"..." Rarity stares at Swift, ears slightly twitching. "I... yes, I remember him."

"His hat, I- please, I was offered a helmet that looked far too similar to that beast's face. I want to be seen respecting our fallen, not some animal." Swift says, his voice slightly panicked. Rarity looked worried and slightly scared, Swift was looking at her with wild eyes, his left glowing with a slight golden tint.

"A-alright, darling, I presume you want me to make his hat?" Rarity asks and Swift nods, his stress fading quickly with his golden tinted eye. After a moment of measuring his head and asking for a minute, Rarity returned with a black hat that looked extremely similar to Captain William's, except it had a hole for his horn. Swift took it from her magical grasp and looked at it before looking at the Element of Generosity.

"How much?" Swift asked bluntly and Rarity immediately shook her head.

"No need to pay, for a friend in need." Rarity said with a smile, Swift's mouth opened then shut and opened again.

"Are- alright, thank you, Rarity." Swift says finally and throws the hat into the air, it lands on his head and Rarity giggles. Swift turns and walks out of the boutique, leaving Rarity to wonder what caused such panic in Swift.

---

Swift was wearing the hat, he'd been doing so ever since it was made. But the first time somepony thought it'd be funny to hide his hat... well, it wasn't pretty for anypony, lots of tears and repairs within the Royal Guard barracks. Swift remembers waking up to a recruit in his room, hat in hoof, then it all went blank until he awoke in the middle of the barracks with beds and ponies scattered everywhere and a terrified recruit in the back. Swift slightly chuckled at the memory, then knocking on his door tore him from his memories.

"Come in." The Royal Guard Captain barked and two familar Captains trotted in, Captain Shining Armor and Captain Violet Scar. "Ah, it must be time then?" Swift asked and the pair shook their heads.

"No not yet, the Princesses wanted us to get you and go collect the rest of the Elements." Shining states.

"Why are you so eager to leave, Swift? You hiding something from your fellow Captains?" Violet purrs as she walks closer, Shining facehoofs and Swift started to noticeably sweat.

"I... have no clue what you are talking about!" Swift says quickly in a raised voice, the Lunar Guard Captain laughs and Shining sighs. "Gah! Could you quit doing that, you know I have n-nothing to hide!" Swift mumbles and Violet takes a step closer.

"Are you sure?" She whispers in Swift's ear, the unicorn turns slowly to look at her and his horn glows. Suddenly Violet found herself outside the room, a perfect Violet shaped hole in her wake.

"Now now, play nice." Shining laughs but falls deathly quiet at Swift's glare. "Come on, we're wasting time." Shining says with authority and trots out of Swift's room with the unicorn following behind, then a voice pipes up.

"This is a good view down here." The batpony says and the two unicorns turn to look at her, their eyes blazing with fury. "Oh shit..." The batpony found herself outside, a row of batpony shaped holes going through the many walls of the barracks. Then a Royal Guard pegasus pokes his head around one of the holes.

"That's the third time this month, you're paying this time!" The pegasus says in a cheeky tone before disappearing around the corner, Violet huffs.

"Welp, I guess I should think about a new hobby, something less destructive."

Author's Note:

I swear to god, the amount of times I've written Swoft instead of Swift is going to pop a lot of veins.
This and the next two chapters are collecting the old gang, after that will be the search for William. The part where Swift throws the helmet in the forge should explain itself, the stallion wants to remember an ally not an enemy, Swift's panic attack with come into play in later chapters. Also the comedy in this (if you can call it comedy ) chapter is to lighten the mood a bit, expect it in later chapters!

That's about it, I think... The Fog rewards patience, The Fog orders you to wait for the next chapter and read it when out!

Comments

[Mark Pecan29]

Good job on y' spelling there, nothing I could see that wasn't right.

[Mark Pecan29]

8243377
I've just had an idea!

The fog is spiritually linked with William as long he's a beast (basically if the fog dies then he dies), so the gang has to find a way to turn him back so they can clear the fog.
Meanwhile the Brass Inquisitors is under new rule by some sort of expert fire Mage who's training more fire mages to destroy the fog, which means the gang is under time constraint to stop the fire Mages fast enough before they can kill William, or before the fog consumes Equus/Equis/whatever you want to call it.

[Mr BHunt]

8244783
Holy shit, wow.
That is actually a really good idea, except that the Brass Inquisitors are ruled by many Brass Legates and there are only Cleaners, Incinerators and certain Fumigators who wield fire. But I'm sure that can change... For the Fog is assuming direct control.

[Mark Pecan29]

8245528
Would the legate's powers be fire, fire and more fire?

[Mr BHunt]

8245803
This Legate's power would be... hmm... ICE- wait, no that doesn't seem right.

[Mark Pecan29]

8246576
Oh, shut up!

[Mr BHunt]

8247056
Hehe, but seriously the Legate's power will probably be ICE fire.