The Sparrow in the Storm

by The 24th Pegasus

2-8

“Unicorn! You’re falling behind! Keep up, or we’re going to leave you out here!”

Sparrow wanted to shout something back at the pegasus in armor flying overhead, preferably something rude and snappy, but it was already enough of a hassle just trying to get air into her burning lungs. Sweat poured down her coat, her hooves felt like they were going to fall off, and it was all she could do to not froth at the mouth as she sucked wind and sputtered while running nearly full gallop under the morning sun. And to make matters worse, the colorful tails and wings of the pegasi galloping out in front of her were pulling away, disappearing behind a wall of mud clods thrown up by their hooves on the still-damp ground.

Of course, everything was exacerbated by Centurion Tern as his shadow flitted across Sparrow’s face, leisurely gliding along above her and sometimes buffeting her with the downwash from his wings. “Those recruits are wearing armor that weighs more than you, and they’re leaving you in the dust!” he taunted her, and when her mismatched eyes flicked up to him, she swore she could see a hint of a contemptuous smirk curving his muzzle under his stern, soldierly expression. “You don’t pick up the pace and there won’t be any breakfast left for you! I know gruel isn’t much to your refined unicorn palate, but hot gruel’s better than cold!”

Gritting her teeth, Sparrow summoned all of her willpower to resist snapping back at the centurion… but it hardly proved enough. Her anger got the better of her, and she speared the centurion with a glare. “I’ve… eaten… worse… than… that!” she forced out between panting breaths.

“That so?” Tern folded his wings against his sides, and before Sparrow realized he wasn’t going to open them again, he landed firmly on her back with all four hooves. The weight of his armor added to the impact, and Sparrow let out a startled yelp that turned into a choking sputter as she fell to the ground and buried her muzzle in the mud. As she pulled her head out of the dirt, coughing and retching, Tern landed in front of her and fixed her with a frown. “Consider that your breakfast then, unicorn. I’ll tell the cooks to not hold anything back for you since you’ve already eaten.” He spread his wings and jumped into the air, looking back at Sparrow only long enough to say, “Clean yourself up when you get back before we move to sparring. It’ll be hard to see how many times you hit the dirt when you’re already covered in it before we even start.”

Then he disappeared, flying off ahead to harass the new tail of the pack of pegasi, his armor catching the morning sun one last time before swooping down low over the next hill. Sparrow only sat in the mud, occasionally spitting out wads of brown saliva, propped up on her shaking, aching forelegs while her heart raced from both exertion and anger. Ultimately, however, it was a good five minutes before her breathing slowed down enough that she could force herself back to her hooves and finish the morning run at a trot instead of a gallop.

“I fucking hate that bird shit fucking flying armored pigeon, stupid fucking piece of…” she grumbled to herself, her words trailing off into exasperated pants. It wasn’t the first time Tern had picked on her during the morning run, and as the only unicorn training with the rest of the raw replacements Lost Winds’ legion had picked up over the course of its campaign, she knew the torment was far from over. But at Typhoon’s insistence, the centurion had agreed to include Sparrow in his daily drills, and Sparrow, as much as she had long wished for it, was finally getting a taste of real legionary training.

Like her travels and sparring matches with Typhoon so far, though, Sparrow was starting to think she had really underestimated just how grueling becoming a legionary would be.

By the time the young unicorn had made her way back to Stratopolis, she’d managed to pick most of the mud and grime out of her mane and coat with her magic, and had quickly waded through a stream to wash the rest off (and slake her thirst in the process), so she hoped none of the other pegasi would see just how much she’d embarrassed herself on the run. Those hopes, of course, were immediately dashed when she saw one of her fellow trainees sitting in the shade outside of the camp, and he snickered as she approached. “You missed a spot, Sparrow,” the stallion said, hopping to his hooves. “Behind your horn.”

“Fuck’s sake…” Sparrow grumbled, and she felt around the base of her horn with her magic until she found the small clod of mud and grass and tossed it aside. “What did Tern say?”

“The centurion said that you wouldn’t be joining us for breakfast on account of you stopping for a snack on the run,” the stallion said, and as Sparrow walked into the camp, he matched her strides at her side. “I saved a little something for you, though. I figured if you at least have something in your stomach other than mud you’ll have a better chance at not getting laid out so easily during sparring later.”

“I’m glad you’re so confident in me… but thanks, Chinook.” She looked back over her shoulder, and at Chinook’s easy smile, she let a little bit of warmth loosen the taut line of her lips. “If we get matched up, can you take a fall for me? Just one?”

Chinook barked his youthful laugh and patted Sparrow on the back with his wing. “I would, but then I’d be the one who lost to the unicorn. You have to earn that win yourself.”

“But you’d be the first! Isn’t that something to be proud of?”

“Yeah. In your dreams. I’d make my Cirran ancestors so proud.”

Shadows flitted overhead as a century of pegasi took off and flew off toward the distance, their armored bodies glittering in the air and the blades on their wings rattling as they flapped. Sparrow paused to watch them fly, wondering if they would encounter any of the defenders of Dry Fens on their patrol. It was one of Typhoon’s changes in strategy after taking unofficial command of Legate Winds’ legion: fewer pegasi would go scouting, picketing, or foraging, and instead would conduct reconnaissance in force to make them less vulnerable to raiding attacks and skirmishes from the defenders in the town. The Legion’s once-commander wanted to have all the information she could work with to plan out her next move, and while she reduced the number of missions and the threat to Winds’ dwindling legion, it left plenty of time for the other centurions to rest their troops and train up green recruits.

It did leave Sparrow wondering when, if ever, she was going to get to do more than be picked on by the centurions during training.

At least it wasn’t all bad. Unlike the rest of the pegasi she trained with, Chinook had been kind to her, and though he teased her like the others, it was good-natured instead of mean-spirited. As she sat down at one of the wooden tables near the camp kitchen while Chinook fetched the little bit of food he’d set aside for her, she found herself studying him from afar. He was a lean pegasus with a sienna brown coat and a sky-blue mane that looked perpetually windswept, and his eyes were gray like stones. Two feathers along the leading edge of each wing were black like charcoal, and as he walked back to her with a bowl of lukewarm gruel in one wing, Sparrow noted the odd little limp in one of his hindlegs, maybe from an old injury that never healed properly. She had to wonder just how old; she was sixteen, and she doubted that Chinook was more than a year or two older.

The tin plate full of something that could only charitably be called oatmeal clanged on the table as Chinook dropped it and sat down across from Sparrow. “Might be a bit cold, but at least it’s something.”

“You didn’t heat it up for me?” Sparrow joked, snatching the bowl with her magic and using her telekinetic grasp to float the globs of the slurry straight to her lips. It definitely lacked for seasoning, and the cold, lumpy texture wasn’t appetizing, but it certainly beat mud.

“I don’t have a horn to hold it over the fire without burning myself,” Chinook shot back. “You’ll have to do that yourself.”

“Meh. It’s fine. Food’s food. I certainly didn’t have a whole lot of warm meals growing up on the streets.”

Chinook winced. “Sorry.”

“Why would you be? It’s not like you killed my parents. That’s the spiders’ fault.” Sparrow took another couple messy bites of her gruel, trying to force it down before the bland taste and texture sapped away her appetite. “How about you?”

The young stallion blinked. “What about me?”

“What happened to yours?” Sparrow asked him. At Chinook’s confused look, she cocked her head. “I mean, that’s why you’re out here, right? Unless Lost Winds is your dad or something, but he doesn’t exactly look like a family stallion.”

“Oh, no! No, no, they’re fine,” Chinook said, and he waved his hoof to assure her. “They’re living a quiet life in some small town on the southern frontier. That’s why I’m here, really. With things being as bad as they are without the Legion on the frontier, I needed to do something to help them.”

Sparrow smiled at that and slammed her hooves down on the table, making her bowl of gruel jump and Chinook flinch. “That’s what I keep trying to tell Typhoon! The Legion did so many good things for the ponies out here that there’s no wonder ponies are trying to bring it back! Ponies like you are proof that Equestria still needs the Legion, one way or another!”

Chinook abashedly rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m glad you think so highly of me, but I’m just trying to make my parents proud and make the frontier a safer place the only way I can think of.”

“Yeah,” Sparrow said, and then her smile flagged for a moment. “I get that.” She grabbed ahold of her bowl with her magic and lifted it up to her lips, covering her muzzle and her face for several seconds, then dropped it back to the table with a clatter. “So, were your parents legionaries or something?”

“They were,” Chinook said with a nod, and his eyes wandered back to his memories. “My mom was a soldier and my dad was a medic. They were part of Typhoon’s legion when she pacified the buffalo after they broke the treaty with Equestria.”

“Typhoon told me about that one,” Sparrow interjected. “The buffalo burned some kind of smoke and made them all lose their magic, then nearly killed them all. That’s how she lost her hoof.”

“That’s the one. Mom broke her ribs when she hit the ground. Like, all of them. At least that’s what she says. My dad found her and some other survivors and patched them up best he could.” He chuckled and added, “He must have been some medic to keep a mare without a rib cage from dying out there. Guess that’s why she married him to make sure he never left her sight in case she needed him again.”

“Lucky mare,” Sparrow said with a small laugh. “They fly with Typhoon on any other campaigns? Have any other crazy war stories?”

“Nah, nothing really interesting,” Chinook said with a shake of his head and a wave of his wing. “Obviously it took mom a while to get back into fighting shape. By then, all the treaties with the buffalo had been renegotiated and signed, so she and my dad were stationed at a fort near the old stampede grounds Equestria had opened up for settlers. The garrison was there to make sure the terms of the treaties were followed and to mediate any disputes between the buffalo tribes and the settlers. They got to know the buffalo fairly well over the years; that’s why I’ve got a buffalo name, actually.”

“Really?” Sparrow asked. “I thought your name was a little weird.”

“I could say the same thing about yours, Sparrow.”

Sparrow chuckled and glanced away. “Yeah, well, there’s a story behind that. I’ll have to tell it to you sometime.”

“I’d love to hear it,” Chinook said with a smile and a little flutter of his wings. “Though I guess since you asked me a bunch of questions, it’s only fair I get to ask you something in return.”

Sparrow’s eyebrow rose. “Yeah? Sure, ask away.”

“How did you get your flank mark?”

Sparrow blinked, the question catching her off guard. She looked down at her flank, shifting in her seat a little to get a better look at it. The blue silhouette of a bird seemed to glow in the morning sun, and in its pointy beak was a pink rose with long, sharp thorns. “That’s… uh, well, that story’s probably not very interesting.” Her tail swished as she settled back down and turned back toward Chinook. “You been staring at my flanks?”

“Only if you’re alright with it,” Chinook quipped. It was hard to see under his ruddy brown coat, but Sparrow was sure she thought she saw a bit of red on his cheeks.

Her coat, however, didn’t hide red as well, so she quickly looked away. “If you ask next time, then maybe.” She awkwardly coughed, curled her tail up over her lap, and stood on it with her forehooves to try and stop it from swishing. “Well, uh, flank mark… yeah. You know Boiling Springs?” When Chinook nodded, Sparrow shrugged. “Well, when I first blew into Boiling Springs a couple years back, I met another filly named Wren. She and I got along well enough, but we were both terrified of this other filly named Juniper. The three of us were all street foals, but Juniper thought Wren and I were encroaching on her territory up at the hot springs. She was a little older than me, so her magic was better than mine. She would shove Wren and I around—literally. And if you’re up at the hot springs, those rocks can be slippery. Falling’s dangerous. Well, maybe not for Wren since she had wings, but definitely for me. But those were some of the best places to try and get some money or some food, so it wasn’t like Wren or I were going to give that up, right?”

“So, I take it you and Wren decided to team up against Juniper?” Chinook posited.

“Kinda,” Sparrow said. “One night I found Juniper picking on Wren. She had pinned Wren down and was pulling her feathers out with her magic.” That statement made Chinook wince, and Sparrow shared his grimace. “Yeah. Nasty. But I’d had it up to here with her and I got involved. Juniper and I were like two cats fighting. There was a lot of biting and bucking in addition to the magic flying around. But when all the fighting got the attention of some of the town guard, Wren tried to distract the stallion that found us so we could run. When he cornered her, I tried to save her in turn, and when he turned and cornered me, well, Juniper broke a brick on his skull and we all ran out of there as fast as we could.”

Sparrow chuckled a little bit at the memory. “When the three of us were safe, I turned to Wren and Juniper and told them that we needed to stop fighting each other if we were going to survive in Boiling Springs. We’d have a better chance if we worked together. And, well, after everything that happened that night… Juniper agreed. She apologized to Wren, and soon after, the three of us were in business trying to rob the ponies who visited the springs to get by.” She looked down at her flank again and shrugged. “I didn’t even notice until a day or two went by that I suddenly had a picture on my butt. I wouldn’t think that getting in a street fight and teaming up with my bully would be my life’s purpose, but here I am.”

“It’s probably a little more abstract than that, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t an interesting story at least,” Chinook said with a small chuckle. “Maybe it means you’re a peacemaker.”

“Maybe it means that I should be a birdwatcher and a gardener.” Sparrow shook her head and craned her neck to get a glimpse at the image on Chinook’s flanks. “You want to tell me what three curly lines going down a mountain means?”

“Maybe when you tell me how you got your pegasus name,” Chinook said, and with a grunt, he stood up and offered his hoof to Sparrow. “Come on, it’s almost time for drills. Wouldn’t want to give the centurion something new to punish you for, right?”

Sparrow took his hoof and stood up with a sigh. “Maybe he’ll run out of things if I just run through them all, right?”

“I wouldn’t count yourself so lucky.”

Comments

[Reclusive]

She awkwardly coughed, curled her tail up over her lap, and stood on it with her forehooves to try and stop it from swishing.

I love this.

[CopperTop]

Really enjoying this story, but dang do I suddenly need Tales or something to jump ahead and catch me up on how Ty came to this point!

Can't wait to see where this all goes!