Of Hooves and History

by Ahmad J Charles

A Dark Revelation

Returning back to the unicorn forest village wasn’t as hard as I initially thought, with easy-to-spot jagged marks in occasional trees. Izzy seemed smarter than I perceived her to be. Sunny was, too.

“Isn’t it interesting,” she noted, as we sat down on the same log where we had first peered over the map, “that pegasi were mostly left out of the report? I wonder if the ancient unicorns of old were also trying to leave a legacy of horned supremacy behind for the generation to follow.”

“You’d be surprised at how prevalent that is where I’m from,” I remarked. “But I would refrain from assuming the worst. Whichever way we decipher this mystery, somepony has to cast the inter-dimensional spell. And I have a good feeling who it might be.”

Right as the last word left my lips, I could’ve sworn I heard Izzy’s tail twitch, but I ignored it and lay down in the golden bath of the setting sun’s rays. After a fifteen-minute rest, we continued in the opposite direction while keeping to the same path as we’d come from the village. Sunny was almost shuffling from tiredness and soreness, but Izzy was merely down to just below average of her happy-go-lucky energy. I was feeling tired too, but the hopefulness inside my heart kept me going.

We finally arrived in the Bridlewood village and headed straight back to Botania’s house. Unfortunately our door knocks fell on silence, even after three tries.

“Just leave her,” I said, patting Sunny’s shoulder. “We’ll talk in the morning. It’s been a long day of forest trekking.”

Back in Izzy’s house, I revealed the mini chest from the study room, and my pony friends gasped in awe before quickly suggesting the key Botania had given me.

“Let’s see,” I whispered, pulling it out of my pocket and gently pushing it into the lock. But no matter what, it just wouldn’t fit. Observing the key enacted a chuckle from me as I headed to the kitchen sink and drizzled some vinegar over it, gently rubbing with a paper towel. Gradually the rust and flaky surface wore off, and the key slid in first try. I gently turned it, resulting in a click! sound as the lid popped open.

Inside there were two small rolled scrolls of paper and five cone-shaped rocks, with a metal capsule – about the size of a small pen, only twice as thick.

“Huh. Wonder what these are for,” Sunny pondered.

“Let’s figure it out in Zephyr Heights,” I yawned. “Right now we gotta regain our energy and hit the pillow for the long trip ahead of us.”

There was no argument to that – we freshened up with the washbasin and ate some olive herb bread with a siding of fruit. I had to admit; Equestria had some exceptionally good food. If this was what Bridlewood could offer, I couldn’t wait to taste the grand offerings of Zephyr Heights.

I laid back on the floor but Izzy pushed me up with her hooves, a tough, confident look on her face.

“No way am I gonna let you flop down on the hard ground like that. Come sleep with me.”

I couldn’t help myself – the blush came burning a little. “Uh, um… okay, thanks. How big is your bed?”

“Aaaaaa hahahaaaaaahahaha you silly colt!” Izzy laughed, dragging me upstairs. “I have a guest bedroom.”

“Oh alright that makes much more sense. Thanks again.”

I set down my backpack, dagger, and the small wooden chest, locking up the latter to avoid misplacement or spillage. Pulling off my socks and shoes, I stretched out on the wooden bed, wincing as it creaked under my weight, but held well. Just as my hands reached for the rolled-up blanket Sunny stepped in, looking fresh and clean, albeit still with her mane braided.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Um, can I…”

I lazily bit back a chuckle. “Of course. Make yourself comfortable.”

The warmly content smile on her face washed away any initial doubts about bed sharing or fears about the bed’s structural integrity. With Sunny curled up beside me, I pulled up the covers over both of us and lay my weary head on the feather-stuffed pillow. Needless to say, it took a while to fall asleep due to a painful feeling searing through my left arm and hand which were struggling to stay away from her mane and shoulder.

Even before awakening, I felt warmer than last night, which only prolonged my sleep. However, the loud trill of two birds jostled my eyes open. I blinked and reached to push back the covers… only to see Sunny soundly snoozing. On my chest. And subtly cradling my torso like a teddy bear whilst making soft comfort noises.

For a moment I froze, my mind a blurred mix of shock, endearing love, and concern. Did she somehow detect that I wanted to pet her? Did I accidentally do so while asleep? Should I just let her wake up instead of pushing her aside? Before I could think too much of it, a yawn jarred my tense brain back into the real present moment.

Sunny stretched her forelegs up my chest and caressed my arm, thereby boosting my levels of conscious awake-ness. With a slight sigh, I let my heart and muscles succumb to the undeniable power of sweet cuteness these ponies possessed.

“Good morning, Sunny Bunny,” I said softly, gently stroking her silky-smooth mane and warm fuzzy fur. “Did I provide extra comfort?”

Now it was Sunny’s turn to blush as I let a twinge of cheekiness flash in my eyes. “Y-y-yeah, you felt warm and comforting, so I figured… why not, you know? Since you’ve been so, well, caring and loving, and…”

There was a clip-clop of hooves, and Sunny’s words died on her tongue as we both were alerted to the presence of Izzy standing in the doorway for who knows how long.

“Looks like you two had quite a pleasant sleep,” she remarked. “Come, let’s get a friendship breakfast going.”

Over a meal of warm porridge with berries and wildflower honey, I laid out my plan for how to get to Zephyr Heights.

“Using a cart, Sunny could likely carry most of my luggage, since I’ll pack light. We’ll walk there and I can meet royalty directly, and –”

“Can I come with you, please?” Izzy pleaded, eagerly leaning across the table, and I had to laugh.

“ ’Course you can, Miss Purple Cinnamon Roll. It’ll take some effort, but we can build a harness extension for you.” Now even I had to grin at my own excitement at the prospect laid on the table. I was going to let a unicorn feel the joy of flight.

Izzy giggled with a blush at her new nickname, and Sunny snickered at me whilst still holding a quizzical expression. We dropped by the tea house and hooked up with a rigging specialist – Ron Roper. Izzy paid him in advance with a couple bits, and he gave me a ten-meter lead of vine rope as an honorary gift. Motivated, we all set off for the coast. Thanks to the whole-grain breakfast, Sunny and I’s bodies were fueled up, and our buff legs made mincemeat of the hilly grassy terrain. Within minutes, we’d reached the cliff edge.

“Whoa, it’s all the way down there?” Izzy gasped, peering down the steep gradient. “And you sailed all the way from Maretime Bay?!”

“Yup,” I nodded proudly. “Been through thousands of miles of lakes and seas. Now time for a different way of travelling.”

I shot a warning glare at Sunny to not reveal the secret just yet, and with help from Izzy, the two of us rappelled down the cliff face. Sunny quickly realized she could descend with controlled slides, and thus was easily able to keep up with me. In just over twenty minutes, we reached the bottom and clambered onto the submarine hull. I unlocked the hatch and we stepped down inside.

I opened up the large storage area and set aside the mountain bike, then pulled out a large sausage-shaped box, a large bean bag chair-sized bag, and a sit-in harness with a black frame attached to the back. Sunny eagerly opened her mouth to inquire but I held up a finger, before quietly proceeding to sit down in the hammock and go over everything I should bring to Zephyr Heights. After hum and ho and making firm decisions, I opened up my backpack and a duffel and began re-organizing and packing. Sunny helped too, passing items to and fro. But as I opened up a cabinet door, Sunny’s eyes caught on to something I wished she’d never see.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing at two black hard-edged cases as a third of the blood drained from my face.

“Weapons of the kind that no pony should ever see or know about,” I replied quickly and flatly.

“Oh,” Sunny said in a regretful tone, but her face still displayed curiosity. “What kind, exactly?”

“I wanna know too!” came a familiar voice through the portal. Now I really was stuck. But in my freeze, I heard my dad’s voice to my mom:

“The more you try to hide it, the greater the inquisitiveness grows beyond your power.”

I bit my lip and slowly pulled out both cases, laying them out on the ground. “Come on in, Izzy.”

After a subtle glare that read please-look-away, I typed in two four-digit security codes and one by one the locks sprung free. Both ponies leaned forward in curious earnest as I lifted the lids to reveal two handguns, two backup magazines, packets of ammunition, and conceal-style leather holsters.

“What are these?” Sunny asked slowly.

“Guns. Handguns, to be more accurate,” I replied. “One is for close combat, the other for slightly farther targets that need a firmer strike. They serve one purpose: to hit a target – and if that target is a living creature, kill it.”

Izzy looked up at me in pitiful disbelief. “Why… would you own such terrible items?!”

I nodded slightly. “I know. Believe me, there are times when I just want to remove these two soul-suckers from my life, yet sometime later they end up saving it.”

It didn’t take long for that understanding to register with them both. I reached to close the safes but Izzy spoke again with another hard-hitting sentence.

“Can I see how it works?”

“No. It is far too dangerous.”

“Please? Pretty cupcakes please?”

“No.”

“I’m not afraid of anything.”

Sunny confidently backed up her friend. “I once saw her drill down a tree once with her horn. With her… horn.”

My eyes widened in shock, and a little part of my mind got an idea. “Alright.”

“I can imagine each one is ready for use,” Sunny commented, and I couldn’t help but smile at her already knowing Gun Rule Number One.

“Let’s start with the big boy,” I began, lifting out the larger of the two. “This is a M1911 – named after the year it was invented. Often guns are referred to by the width of the bullets in inches or millimeters, so you could call this one a .45, and the other one a 9. Izzy, pass me that.”

I pointed to the pre-loaded .45 magazine, and Izzy floated it over to me. I shut the safes and locked them, and we stepped outside into the sunshine. Atop the hull, I explained the terms and the basics of gun mechanics, along with how the three mechanisms – mag release, safety, and slide lock – all worked. Finally, it was time for the shot.

“Take that mag, and now you slide it up and click! in place. Make sure the slide lock is on and slide back the top,”

“Which pushes a single bullet up into the chamber,” Sunny interrupted, quickly catching on.

“Exactly. Note my index finger is on the side, off the trigger, and the tip is pointed away from anything I wouldn’t want to destroy. Now grip tight with a firm stance, ‘cause it’s gonna shake with recoil. I’m sure you know this from bows and arrows, granted you have them here. Now stand aside and back.”

Keeping as steady of a stance, I sat on the portal, held my arms out, pointed at a good-sized branch of the tree at the edge of the clifftop, and squeezed the trigger.

BANG! SNAP!

The empty cartridge jumped out into the water with a quiet plop. The bullet struck half of the branch, bursting the wood into tiny pieces and causing it to flop over. An echo resonated across the rock face, while a gentle breeze blew the splinters over and they wildly danced down towards us. Izzy shrieked.

I slid my finger off the trigger and slowly turned my head towards her. “Now you know. The other one is speedier and would likely have made a cleaner shot. But it’s hard to say given how far the tree is.”

“My ears hurt,” Sunny whimpered, rubbing them with her hooves.

“Sorry,” I apologized, giving her a little headpat. “Mine are a little shaken too. I should’ve told you both how loud a gun can be. Now let’s get that harness thingie out of the sub.”

Author's Note:

I slid a little movie reference in here. See if you can find it.

Might have to change this story's rating to T now.

If I got any facts wrong in the last part, please let me know.

Comments

[StarzGecko]

what have you done… the cuteness is to much… the girls… they like him don’t they…. be carful not to draw in the silly ships 🚢 that loves a good human story around here

Nice chapter. I wonder how they’ll handle Zephyr Heights since well they will likely be attacked. Also don’t be afraid of guns they can be use to protect you and others it’s placing them in the wrong hands or hooves is the issue.

Not sure if you need to raise the rating but that’s up to you. Also, 30’ up the shoulders? That’s very tall