The Ties that Bind

by the7Saviors

A Campfire Tale

The Sun had just set by the time Fia, Corona, and Yojimbo had made it back to camp with the firewood. Thankfully, the three hadn't run into any trouble on the way, much to Fia's relief.

Inside the parked Vardo, the other two ponies and Abyssinian were still working on dinner. Ancient Scroll stepped out to help Yojimbo set up the campfire while Corona and Fia went in to check on Blue Moon and Rouge in the Vardo's kitchen.

"Anything out there that we should be worried about?"

Yojimbo grunted as he leaned down and used his massive paws to quickly and deftly dig out a pit for the fire. Once that was done, he straighted up and turned to Ancient Scroll as he responded.

"Not that I could see or smell," the old husky replied with a shrug, "sure, you had your occasional forest critter, but I think me being there was enough to make em' back off."

"Hrm," Ancient Scroll responded thoughtfully as he set about arranging the pile of birchwood within the newly dug pit, "that's a bit surprising actually. Given our track record so far, I could've sworn something was going to go wrong."

"Don't tempt fate, Scroll," Yojimbo replied seriously, "you know where that's gotten us in the past."

Ancient Scroll frowned and gave a slow nod, his gaze lingering on the pit in front of him.

"I suppose you've got a point there..."

The two of them were silent as Ancient Scroll finished his work. After the setup was done, he and Yojimbo backed away from the pit and Ancient Scroll's horn flashed to life for an instant. With a loud fwoomph, the arranged birchwood caught fire and the two stood in front of a blazing campfire.

For a minute or two, they both just stood there, watching the fire as it sparked, popped, and flickered in the pit -- their contemplative expressions lit by a bright orange glow as they silently reminisced about times long since past.

Eventually Yojimbo gave a soft chuckle and shook his head before turning to his equine friend.

"Ah, look at the two of us," he commented with a wry grin, "a couple of old fogies standin' around a fire thinkin' of better days. How cliché is that?"

Ancient Scroll gave a small chuckle of his own, his wrinkled eyes still locked on the fire as he replied.

"I have to admit, this does make me feel as old as I probably am," he answered with a sardonic smirk that quickly turned serious as he continued, "but you have to remember, Yoji, not all of those days were better -- far from it."

Yojimbo scoffed and rolled his eyes as he turned away.

"Come on, Scroll, I'm tryin' to be positive here," he responded in an exasperated tone, "we're out here on the road again, we got good company, we got a nice warm fire and a nice hot dinner on the way. Least you could do is enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts."

Ancient Scroll sighed and finally turned to the old husky with an apologetic frown.

"Yeah, you're right, Yoji," he replied, "sorry for being so dour. All of this business with Canterlot, the Princess, these mysterious ponies... everything. It's just got me in a bit of a mood I guess."

"I getcha," Yojimbo replied with a nod of understanding, "we might miss the old days from time to time, and going on a trip like this has been pretty exciting no doubt, but there was a reason we came back to Equestria and settled down."

Ancient Scroll merely nodded in response as he stared into the campfire.

"Well don't you two look grim?"

Ancient Scroll and Yojimbo turned to see Rouge approaching with a large plate of smoked salmon -- each of the fillies following behind her with their own smaller plates piled with various steamed vegetables.

"Heya, Rouge," Yojimbo greeted with a lazy wave, "I'll be damned to Tartarus if that don't smell good."

"Yes well, it's one of my mother's recipes," Rouge replied with a small smile, "and with Ancient Scroll's help, it turned out quite a bit better than I expected."

"And what about Blue Moon's contra... con... con... ugh! I thought I was over this!"

"Did you mean to say 'contributions'?" Fia suggested, taking a seat by the fire.

"Yes, Blue Moon meant contributions," the light blue filly grumbled bitterly as she and Corona seated themselves next to Fia, "seriously, what were all those dictionaries and thesauruses and speech practices even for?"

Rouge gave a lighthearted chuckle and moved to sit down next to Yojimbo and opposite Ancient Scroll and the three fillies.

"If you're trying to fix a long standing problem with your speech, then you're bound to have relapses every now and then," Rouge explained, "it's nothing to fret over, little one."

"Are you speaking from experience?" Corona asked, digging into her steamed carrots, "you sound like you're speaking from experience."

"I am, in fact," Rouge confirmed with a nod, "believe it or not, I used to have a lisp when I was a little kitten," she grimaced, "I despised it, but everyone else just thought it was cute -- which only made me despise it even more."

"I can imagine," Fia responded with a small giggle, "thinking about it, that does sound really adorable."

"Well, Blue Moon hopes this goes away completely, soon," the light blue filly groused before turning a curious gaze towards the old husky, "what about you, Yojimbo? Did you have any weird or annoying things to deal with?"

"Me? Nah, nothing like that," Yojimbo replied with a shake of his head, "if anything, I was the annoying one, always goin' around biting anyone I didn't like as a pup, chasin' all sorts of critters into the neighbor's houses... just bein' a little mongrel in general really."

He looked away with a far off expression, absently taking a bite out of his smoked salmon as he spoke.

"Ah, those were some of the best days of my life I tell ya..." he said with a wistful smile, "and then there's the adventures I got roped into with the old coot over there," Yojimbo turned to the fillies with a hint of mischief in his eyes, "hey, you pups wanna hear how Scroll and I met?"

The fillies paused in their eating. They looked at each other, then to a grimacing Ancient Scroll, and back to Yojimbo with eager nods. Ancient Scroll sighed heavily and gave a slow shake of his head.

"Oh boy," Ancient Scroll muttered, "here we go..."

"So this was back maybe forty... forty-five-ish years ago," Yojimbo began, "back then, I was in this... uh..." he faltered before giving a small shrug, "well let's just say the dogs I hung around with weren't very nice. Real mean, real dumb, but they were my pack and I had nowhere else to go.

"I was just a small time grunt, barely worth anyone's attention at the time. Lived in one of the rougher subterranean neighborhoods. I took my orders from the pack leader and in return, me and the rest of the gang got fed. It wasn't a very complicated life and I was fine with that."

Yojimbo frowned,

"Then this one dog -- akita, went by the name Baku if I remember right -- he comes into town and starts makin' all these claims about a better neighborhood under his leadership, and takin' the scum of society -- like me and my pack -- out of the picture for good. Real piece of work, this guy.

"Bastard had a real smooth tongue, could talk a cow out of it's hide if you gave him a few minutes and a skinning knife."

"Come on, Yoji, really?" Ancient Scroll chided with a disapproving frown, "you're talking to fillies around a campfire, not your buddies at the bar."

Yojimbo glanced at the uncomfortable fillies and chuckled sheepishly, "sorry about that, pups. Got a bit carried away with my story there. I'll try to keep it a bit more foal friendly."

He cleared his throat and continued.

"So... like I was sayin'," his frown returned, "Baku managed to get a bunch of support from the richer folk in town and before any of us knew it, we were bein' pushed out."

"Pushed out?" Fia asked in confusion, "what do you mean 'pushed out'?"

"Out of town, pup," Yojimbo replied somewhat bitterly, "out of our homes, out of our jobs... just... pushed out, like pieces of--"

"Yoji."

"Sorry, sorry," Yojimbo said, raising his paws defensively, "old story tellin' habits die hard, alright?" he shook his head and sighed, "anyway, long story short, this guy started kickin' out the riffraff from the older, rougher neighborhoods.

"Sounds like a noble thing to do on paper right?" Yojimbo chuckled mirthlessly, "turns out this guy's solution to gettin' rid of the riffraff was to not only kick em' out, but take em' down... permanently."

"He started killing poni -- er -- dogs?" Corona asked with a horrified look, "you don't just... you can't just kill the ponies, or dogs you don't like!"

"That's exactly what my pack leader said right before the bastard killed him," Yojimbo replied as he glared into the fire, "did it right in front of all of us like some kind of public execution. Of course the rest of my pack tried to go after him, but he had the town guard and the support of those greedy, arrogant little..."

He clenched and unclenched his fists for a moment before relaxing once more. The fillies eyed Yojimbo with looks of worry and pity, but the old dog waved off their concerns.

"Now don't gimme those looks," he said with a snort, "this was ages ago now. Yeah it still hurts to think about, I'm not gonna lie, but it's a distant hurt. Don't affect me like it used to."

"If you say so," Fia replied, unconvinced, "then... what happened next?"

"This oblivious egghead of a stallion shows up, that's what happens next," Yojimbo replied with a smirk, "this idiot unicorn walks right through all this chaos and bloodshed with his face buried in a map," Yojimbo let out a bark of laughter, "didn't even give us the time of day at first."

All eyes turned to Ancient Scroll, who rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged.

"I wasn't exactly the most attentive pony growing up, you have to understand," he explained, "got me into trouble more than once."

"Yeah, I bet it did," Corona replied flatly, causing the other fillies to giggle.

"Alright, as funny as this is, I wanna finish the story," Yojimbo interjected, "we're gettin' to the good part."

He gave Ancient Scroll a toothy grin before turning back to the fillies.

"We didn't get ponies down where I lived, see?" the husky explained, "they don't normally go waltzing into underground towns like Scroll did. So when everyone finally noticed him, all the fighting just stopped.

"We all looked at him until he finally noticed where he was, and what's the first thing he says?" the old dog paused for dramatic effect, "'does anypony have an extra quill? Mine just broke'."

The group broke out into a round of laughter at Ancient Scroll's expense and after a few moments Yojimbo continued.

"Seriously though, that little distraction saved my life," Yojimbo said with a chuckle, "woulda been impaled on a spear if Scroll hadn't shown up when he did. And let me tell ya, the stallion can fight."

"Fight?" Blue Moon turned to Ancient Scroll with a raised eyebrow, "you had to fight?"

Ancient Scroll nodded with an unamused frown.

"For some reason this Baku fellow thought I was here to 'liberate the scoundrels from their deserved fate' and had his minions attack me, so I fought back."

"Yeah he did," Yojimbo added, "threw a bunch of fancy magic around like it was nothing and took out the entire guard almost single handedly."

"I didn't kill them," Ancient Scroll clarified at the fillies looks, "I only stunned or knocked them out is all."

"Didn't stop Baku from cheesin' it outta there as fast as he could," Yojimbo replied, chuckling darkly, "didn't make it that far before the folks in town that suffered got to him, but he tried."

Yojimbo stretched and cracked his neck a few times before leaning forward.

"The rest is history," he concluded, "without its leader, my pack broke up, and with nowhere to go, I decided to follow Scroll here. Been friends ever since."

"Wow..." Fia muttered after a moment of awed silence, "that's... some story."

"Ain't it?" Yojimbo replied with a smirk, "gets better every time I tell it if you ask me," he turned to Rouge and his smirk fell into a deadpan frown, "or maybe I'm actually losing my touch here."

Confused, the others followed his gaze and the fillies couldn't help but laugh. The Abyssinian had fallen asleep at some point with her legs crossed and her plate had fallen to the ground -- half eaten fish dropped onto the dirt.

Ancient Scroll chuckled and collected the plate and fish before rising to his hooves.

"Well, I suppose it was about time we turned in anyway."

Author's Note:

Or 'The Chapter Where Old Folks talk About the Good (and not so Good) Old Days'.

Comments

[Birribi]

Ancient Scroll's flashed to life for an instant

Missing 'magic' or 'horn'

How cliche is that?

cliché

husky,"what

Missing space

turns out this guys solution

Missing apostrophe

without it's leader

its

[the7Saviors]

8929600

How cliche is that?

Didn't know how to add the é on a keyboard.

[Dark Feather]

"We all looked at him until he finally noticed where he was, and what's the first thing he says?" the old dog paused for dramatic effect, "'does anypony have an extra quill? Mine just broke'."

Well I now have an opening for my mage in the next dnd campain.

[ObamnaSoda]

This immediately came to the forefront of my mind when I saw this chapters title

[Fresnor]

Why do I get the feeling that he really is Twilight's uncle? So much alike.

[midnight arrow]

9187954
same