Gusty the Great book 2- The crusades

by Dianabel

Chapter 3: Making ammends

“Gusty… I am-” Lancer began doing a hissing sound when trying to pronounce the word `sorry´ but couldn´t bring himself. He growled in frustration. “I can´t do this! I have done no wrong. I just did what I had to do.” he paced around as he spoke. “And if she doesn´t like it well, bad for her! This is war, there´s no space for being soft.”

“Is everything alright?” a known voice asked.

Lancer´s ears perked up. He turned around and saw Glory giving him an estranged look as she held some wood. He blushed embarrassed.

“How much of that did you hear?” he asked as he tried to avoid eye contact with

“Enough to know that ye´re rehearsing to apologize to Gusty.” Glory replied.

“Majesty forced me to!” Lancer quickly replied.

“Yeah… I don´t quite buy that. She told me that ye asked her if ye could get off yer duties to apologize to Gusty.”

Lancer sighed. Glory left the wood aside and sat beside Lancer.

“Hen Lancer. There´s nothing wrong with wanting to apologize.”

“I don´t want to apologize! But for some reason I feel guilty.” He groaned as he covered his face with his hooves. “Why do I feel that? I am general! Generals must be all tough and demanding in order to protect our kind! If we come across as cold, that´s their problem!” he crossed his forelegs.

“Ye were doing your job, it´s true. But generals are impartial, they don´t treat some ponies worse than others. And, let´s be honest: this time ye haven´t been quite impartial.”

“I´ve also been tough with other recruits!”

“But ye never disrespected them. Ye disrespected Gusty.”

“Well, it´s not like I insulted her.”

“No, but ye were very passive-aggressive. Saying that her being here was just unjust and that she was just lucky, dismissing her feelings, second-guessing her, ye´ve been basically looking for any excuse to justify that she shouldn´t be here.”

Lancer opened his mouth to replicate but seeing he had no arguments against Glory, he begrudgingly stayed quiet.

“What do you have against her?”

Lancer sighed.

“It´s what I always say. The only reason Majesty let her join the army was because according to her she´s the hero of a prophecy.”

“And have ye ever wondered why Majesty let ye in the army?”

“Because she saw I had talent for that.”

“How would ye feel if I constantly told ye that Majesty was wrong?”

“It´s not the same! I did have talent and she didn´t.”

“Maybe she has talents for other things needed in war. Lucena must have saw something in her.”

“Or maybe it was just delusion.”

“Because she makes mistakes and has more difficulties in some things than others? Because if I remember right, ye weren´t the best in training.”

Lancer blushed.

“I did mistakes, that´s true. But not bad as hers!”

Glory raised her eyebrow. Lancer looked away.

“Ok. Maybe they were.”

“Besides, not everything about her is bad. Have you seen her using her wind magic? It´s impressive how she used it during her training. And ye can´t deny it.”

“I´ll admit that her magic being dangerous can play in our advantage if she knows how to control it. But she´s impulsive, doesn´t know how to control her emotions and brings trouble! Do I need to remind you that the whole elaborated spying scheme failed because of her? You could have been killed!”

“Yeah, that´s true. But think this was bound to happen honestly. I mean, Majesty told spies not to talk to anypony until I came to them but sometimes, I can´t because I don´t have the chance. Back there, this was something that worried me. I feared that the lack of communication could result in somepony making a mistake. And that pony happened to be Gusty. Of course I got angry at first, but I don´t resent her for that because it could have been anypony. It could have happened to me even!”

“I… didn´t think it like that.” Lancer said in response.

“And if we look at the positive outcomes, Majesty finally admitted mares in the army. Back in the castle, ironically, I felt lonely. I had the spies, but our relationship was very formal. The only thing we talked about was what we heard and making plans. I didn´t have ye.”

“Yeah.” Lancer chuckled. “I also missed having you around. Things are not the same without you, you know?”

Glory smiled.

“Gusty might not be the best warrior material, but maybe it is a matter of waiting.”

“But do you really believe that she´ll magically save us all? Be honest. Neither Majesty nor Gusty is around so you´re safe to say what you truly think.”

“I do believe that Grogar can be defeated. But I´m also realistic. I ken it won´t happen immediately. I understand that everypony is impatient on getting rid of Grogar, but ye have to work hard and take time to make miracles happen. Despite making many mistakes, Gusty keeps on trying and fighting. I believe that´s having a warrior spirit. And ye´re the one who knows best about having a warrior spirit.” Glory put a hoof on his shoulder.

Lancer looked at his own reflection in Glory´s eyes and saw a young colt who looked like him full of scars and bands but still motivated to fight. He sighed

“I guess that could be true.”

“If ye feel more comfortable, I can go with you.” Glory offered. “I know ye´re not the best with feelings so I could give you some advice.”

Lancer smiled at her.

---

“And…” Fizzy moved some water from the river to a bucket. “Ten! That should be enough for everypony. And this little will be for me.” she put water on her canteen. “Want some Buttons?”

“Yes.”

“Gusty?”

Gusty didn´t answer. She had her eyes closed her eyes while exhaling and inhaled air from her nose. Her eyebrows twitched from time to time, or her breath was irregular. Buttons and Fizzy looked at each other. Buttons moved her hoof to encourage Fizzy to do something fun.

“Hey, Gusty! Do you want me to show a cool and funny water move? I call it… The octopus form!” Fizzy made an octopus and moved it as she danced with her forelegs. She inflated her cheeks to make a funny face.

However, her attempt ended in failure. Gusty didn´t smile nor seemed interested in her mannerisms. Seeing it didn´t work, Fizzy undid the octopus, wetting herself and Buttons in the process. Fizzy smiled as an apology to Buttons.

“I guess we´ll have to do this my own way.” Buttons said after shaking her body to dry herself. Without realizing it, she splashed Fizzy. “Gusty, ma chérie.” Buttons said as she approached to her. ·We noticed that you´ve been uh… Actually, we´re not sure of what you´ve doing.” Buttons sat beside her. Fizzy sat next to Buttons. “But you seem to be struggling so do you want to talk about it?”

Again, no response from Gusty. She seemed to be very focused on what she was doing that she lost track of her surroundings.

“Gusty? Do you hear us?” Buttons put a hoof on her shoulder.

“AH!” Gusty yelped when she noticed Buttons´s hoof.

She turned around and noticed Buttons and Fizzy. She sighed in relief.

“Oh, it´s just you.”

“What were you doing?” Fizzy asked Gusty.

“Papa and mama taught me to take a moment for myself in a peaceful place and focus on my breathing when I felt very nervous. Whenever I get the chance, I take this advice. And it usually works somewhat. But this time…” she puffed. “It´s been difficult.”

“About that… Are you feeling better?” Buttons asked.

Gusty shook her head as she puffed.

“Not really.” she covered her face with her hooves. “I thought the memories had stopped popping back.”

“You mean this isn´t the first time that happened?” Fizzy asked surprised.

“Months later after that happened, I started having many nightmares replaying the whole scene in my mind. I was always hypervigilant that nothing happened to Celestia and Luna, thinking that the same could happen to them. Those days were very rough for the three of us. After some months, I got better and had less nightmares. And it always was the same, the memories stopped right at-” Gusty couldn´t bring herself to finish. “I´m sorry, I don´t want to talk about it.”

“It´s ok. We can imagine when it stops. You don´t need to say it.”

Fizzy thought on ways to cheer her up. She noticed the phoenix necklace she always wore.

“This might not be related to what we´re talking about but I must say I noticed that you´re always wearing that necklace.”

Gusty looked down. She smiled at it nostalgically while holding it with her hoof.

“How could I not? It was a gift he gave to me.”

“Your husband made it?”

Gusty nodded.

“I still remember the day he gave it to me. We were having a stroll when our master wasn´t around and he said `Hey Gusts, I have a present for you!´ and he gave me this. Afterwards, he confessed that he liked me very much and he wanted to be more than friends.”

“And did you like him back?”

“Ever since I saw him.”

“And how did you meet?” Fizzy asked excitedly.

Gusty was about to answer but somepony interrupted their conversation.

“Gusty.” a masculine voice said.

They turned around and saw Lancer and Glory.

“Well, well. Looks like mr jerk has come here.” Fizzy stood up.

“Fizzy!” Buttons yelled at her. “Stop it!”

However, Fizzy continued talking.

“What have you come here to do? Are going to call her useless for breaking down in front of everypony when you were expecting to slay a creature like a knight in shining armour?”

Buttons put her hoof on her forehead. Gusty blushed in embarrassment as Fizzy spoke.

“Don´t worry, Fizzy. He´s not going to do that.” Glory reassured Fizzy. “But I think it´s better if Lancer explains himself.” she said as she gave Lancer a little push.

The stallion gulped. He looked at Glory.

“Go on.” Glory whispered to him.

Lancer turned his head to Gusty. He forced a smile.

“Gusty? Heeey!”

Gusty, Fizzy and Buttons widened their eyes surprised. Although not in a good way.

“I know we´ve had our issues, but I… he struggled to talk. “Want to start over!”

The three unicorns looked at each other and then stared at Lancer.

“So what do you say? Truce?” he offered his hoof to Gusty.

Fizzy took some water with her magic ready to slap Lancer.

“It´s ok. I can handle it.” Gusty stopped her.

She got up and walked towards Lancer.

“Truce?” she said calmly yet angry at the same time. From the moment you saw me, you´ve never wanted to see my face. But now you want me to behave like nothing happened. And you expect me to do so as if nothing happened. HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!”

Lancer widened his eyes at Gusty´s sudden reaction. He looked at Glory, who encouraged him to continue.

“Gusty. I didn´t mean to say that. All I want is to clear things between us.”

Gusty pushed him away with a soft gust of wind.

“Get out.”

“Come on, I´m trying to apologize!” Glory nudged him. “Ouch! I mean… why won´t you accept my apology?” he faked a smile, making Glory shake her head with a hoof on her forehead.

“If you truly wanted to apologize, you wouldn´t faking smiles or your behaviour.”

“That´s true.” Glory agreed.

“Are you with me or with her?” Lancer asked her upset.

“You want me to forgive you? Then show me you recognize your mistakes and regret them!”

Lancer frowned.

“Go on. Start over.” Gusty ordered.

Lancer exhaled air from his nose.

“I… Am… Sorry.”

“That´s a start.”

Glory smiled, but it quickly vanished after what Lancer said.

“That you´re making this harder than it needs to be!”

“Time out!” Gusty exclaimed as she ignited her horn.

“What?” Lancer asked confused as a small tornado surrounded him, making him float away. Gusty turned her back on him and sat down with her forelegs crossed and eyes closed. “Wait! Fine, I apologize! I didn´t mean to hurt your feelings.”

“Time out?” Buttons asked Gusty.

“Whenever Celestia and Luna misbehaved, I did this.” she replied quickly.

“But don´t you get it?” Lancer continued. “This is not about you. It´s about our safety and future and not your feelings! I can´t be calm if our lives are at the hooves of a selfish and incompetent mare!”

Gusty gasped at the word `selfish´.

“Selfish?!” Gusty yelled full of rage. “You can call me incompetent dumb, or whatever but never selfish!” she got up and walked toward Lancer. “Don´t you think I know the weight I´m carrying right now?! Even before I met Majesty, I´ve been feeling the pressure of holding lives! I had to raise two fillies on my own and had my back flogged countless times to feed them. And now I´ve accepted to go into a war to save you all! You have no idea what that pressure feels like!”

Lancer scoffed.

“I have no idea what that pressure feels like?! You really think that?! I am a general, all those soldiers´ lives lie on my hooves! As well as Queen Majesty´s. That´s a pressure bigger than the lives of two fillies.”

“Well, now I have the pressure of the lives of soldiers, my daughters, Queen Majesty´s future, and the future of pony kind! That´s much bigger, you genius!”

“Oh, how humble.”

“That´s what the prophecy says, not me!”

Getting tired of Gusty and Lancer arguing, Glory sighed as she rolled her eyes.

“I´m going to tell Majesty we´ll be late for dinner. Anypony wants to come?” she asked Buttons and Fizzy.

“And miss this?” Fizzy asked, invested on the argument. She clicked her tongue. “No, thanks.”

“How about ye Buttons?”

“Tch tch.” Buttons shook her hoof to quiet Glory. “I want to hear what they´re saying.”

Glory blinked.

“Yer aff yer heids.” she muttered under her breath as she left.

---

Majesty walked around the camp to make sur everything´s alright. Some soldiers came to her.

“My queen. We checked around and we have seen no dangerous monster around.” the leader communicated.

“Perfect. How about our enemies? Have you seen any of Grogar´s or his allies´soldiers?”

“Not that we know of. But we can look harder.”

“It´s ok, gentlecolts.” Majesty held her hoof high. “You may take a break for today. We´ll have dinner soon.”

“Thank you, your highness.” the soldiers bowed to her.

After they left, Glory approached her.

“Ah Glory! How is the apologizing thing going for Lancer?”

“As well as ye can imagine.”

“They are fighting, aren´t they?”

“Aye.” Glory nodded.

Majesty groaned.

“I gave Lancer some advice to apologize, but he loses his patience very easily. And Gusty is equally stubborn as Lancer.”

“Of course she is.” Majesty mumbled frustrated.

“So if we are late for dinner ye´ll know why. I´ll try to intervene even though that´s pretty much mission impossible.”

“Don´t worry Glory, but don´t get too late. We´ve been attacked by a monster before and it certainly won´t be the last. And it´s likely that he has already talked to his allies. We must be very careful, especially Crunch, since we are in his territories. Possibly Katrina´s as well. If you have to drag them here, don´t doubt it.”

As Majesty was talking, several shadows popped up from the ground. The only thing that could be seen were their shining eyes and widened smiles.

“Hope not to get to that but understood.” Glory replied.

Something in the horizon got her attention. She saw something getting back to the ground. She took out her sword.

“Behind me!” she told Majesty.

“What is it?”

“I saw something.”

“Draw out your swords!” Majesty ordered every soldier as she did. “We may be attacked in a few moments.”

Suddenly, a paw popped up from the ground and pulled down a soldier.

“Help!” she cried.

Some seconds later another soldier pulled down. And another, and another.

Majesty and Glory understood what they were confronting once a head popped up near Majesty.

“Hello your Majesty.” it said.

Before he could drag Majesty, Glory zapped at him.

“Diamond dogs!” she exclaimed.

“It´s an ambush!” Majesty yelled. “Warn the others!”

“I´m not leaving ye here!”

“Don´t worry I´m not alone. Be as quick as you can!”

Glory nodded. She ignited her horn and disappeared in a flash. After noticing, Gaueko growled.

“One of them has disappeared!” the black dog told his minions. “She could be the Wind Warrior. Search everywhere!” he ordered all the diamond dogs.

Afterwards, some dogs stopped fighting the unicorns and went underground instead.

***

“Can´t you just listen to what I´m saying for a second?” Gusty asked frustrated. “I´m trying to make you understand how I feel! Why don´t you listen?”

“Because we are in the middle of a war! I never talk about my feelings because soldiers can´t see their general turning soft and getting killed for showing weakness!”

Immediately, Lancer covered his mouth. Fizzy and Buttons left out a dramatic sigh. Gusty widened her eyes.

“I knew it!” Fizzy exclaimed.

Gusty stopped the tornado and gently let Lancer on the ground.

“Is that true?” she asked “You think showing feelings is weakness?”

Lancer began to sweat.

“I…”

Finding no words to say, he covered his face in embarrassment. Gusty sat next to him.

“I know you didn´t mean to say that, but I´m thank you anyway for telling me. I like this, you know? You telling me how you feel. It makes me feel like you consider me part of the team.”

Lancer said no word. Gusty sighed.

“Look, I also find difficult talking about my feelings sometimes. When I first met Fizzy and Buttons I couldn´t talk to them about what was going on but that only made things worse. Slowly, I opened up to them and I promised to say how I felt. As difficult as it seems to us, it truly makes things easier.”

Lancer shook his head.

“You don´t understand.” he made eye contact with Gusty. “You don´t have a rank as high as I do. Many unicorns count on me. Majesty counts on me. They can´t see me falling down because it wrecks their spirit. And an enemy can take advantage of you.”

“I understand what you say. It must be very hard.” she put her hoof on her shoulder.

After hearing Gusty´s words and feeling her comforting hoof on his shoulder, he somehow started to feel better. He stared at her curiously.

“But I´m not talking about telling everypony or your enemies how you feel.” she continued.” “Just your closest ones, like Glory! Or ponies you have conflicts with, like me. We are a team and if we want it to work, we need to tell each other everything. Ok?” she offered her hooves to Lancer.

“Ok fine.” he put his hooves on hers. “But I also believe that you need to control your emotions. I feel like it blinds your judgement and leads you to take impulsive choices.”

“Yeah…” Gusty put her hoof behind her neck. “I apologize for that.”

“I´m also sorry for having treated you like that.”

“I accept your apology.”

They smiled at each other.

“So we call it a truce?” Lancer asked.

“Truce.” Gusty replied.

Fizzy used Buttons´ tail to dry her tears.

“Ah, I love when things get solved.”

Upset, Buttons took her tail away from Fizzy.

“Now let´s go back to Majesty before she worries about us.” Gusty said.

Lancer looked around estranged.

“Where is Glory?”

Then, out of nowhere, the unicorn appeared in a flash.

“I need ye to stop fighting and come immediately!” she exclaimed in panic.

“What´s wrong?” Gusty asked her.

“An ambush! We need ye immediately!”

“Ambush?” Buttons asked shocked. “By whom?”

“Ye´ll see when ye get there. We need to go noo, before they-”

Suddenly, something grabbed Fizzy and dragged down a whole. She yelped.

“No!” she told the dog as she tried to take its foreleg around her.

“Fizzy!” Gusty exclaimed worried.

“Help me! Help me!” Fizzy reached her hoof to Gusty.

“Come on!” Gusty tried to take her hoof.

“Get away!” a dog said to Gusty as he took her.

Glory and Lancer were captured as well. The four unicorns struggled to break free without their magic, as the dogs blocked it with rings around their horns. Fortunately, there was still a unicorn that needed to be capture.

Buttons zapped one at the head of the diamond dog that held Gusty, making it lose conscience. Afterwards she gave out a war cry as she jumped.The diamond dogs and the unicorns stared at her in shock.

“That was close.” she said.

“Why you little-” a dog said as she took her bow to shoot an arrow at her.

Buttons jumped away to dodge the arrow. Fizzy yelled horrified as she saw the arrow coming at her, but Buttons broke it in half. Buttons jumped on every diamond dog that came near and zapped the ones that had her friends. When they were free, they took the rings off their horns. Gusty made a wind to make herself and her friends float so the diamonds dogs couldn´t reach them.

“Should we help her?” Glory asked concerned.

“Nah, I think she has it under control.” Fizzy replied.

Two dogs jumped from both sides to get her. Buttons froze them as she jumped. She took a moment to fix her mane before hitting them both with her rear legs. In a few seconds, she defeated the two remaining dogs.

“Come on, what are you waiting for?” she asked at her shocked friends. “Majesty need us!” she ran away.

They stared at her as they landed.

“Wow.” Lancer said.

“Oh no…” Lancer´s ears dropped in horror.

It was completely empty. Everypony had been captured, including Majesty, which they could tell by her fallen crown. Glory sat down and picked it with her hooves.

“We got too late.” she lamented.

“What do we do now?” Buttons asked.

Unknown to them, there was a shadow watching them. Just when it was about to move, it accidentally stepped over a branch, making Gusty´s ear twitch. The shadow froze as it noticed Gusty slowly turning her head to see eye to eye.

“There´s one of them!” she pointed at the shadow.

Everypony turned their heads to the shadow, making it run away.

“Hey!” Gusty yelled as she ran after the shadow.

“It´s getting away!” Lancer said as he followed Gusty.

“But if it was a diamond dog why isn´t it underground?” Glory wondered.

“Maybe it´s not a diamond dog but it could be anything else. And dangerous.” Buttons said.

“Like one Grogar´s monsters or a bounty hunter!” Fizzy suggested. “Who knows, the only to find out is following it!”

Fizzy joined the chase before Buttons and Glory.

Lancer tried to zap it but failed at all his attempts.

“My attacks can´t reach it, it´s too far!” he exclaimed.

“Any ideas?” Gusty turned to Fizzy, Buttons and Glory.

Fizzy looked at her shield.

“Want to join forces?” she asked Gusty as she showed her the shield.

The unicorn nodded. Fizzy threw it like frisbee and Gusty pushed it with a gust of wind towards the shadow. After hearing a sound of metal, Gusty and Fizzy high hooved.

“Alright, alright.” Gusty said as she approached the shadow. Let´s see how you look like you-”

Nopony expected what they saw next. What they were chasing was not a diamond dog or a dangerous creature. They gasped when they saw what the shadow looked like.

“Unicorn?!” they asked in chorus.

Comments

[The Background Conquerer]

Well, that went well between Gusty and Lancer. At leas things are forgiven.

I'll bet that Majesty and those with her will be going through some forms of torture!

Can't wait for the next chapter to know what a unicorn would be doing with Diamond Dogs!

[Dianabel]

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Shows you that communication is the key to solving problems.

Let´s find out!