Hole Hearted

by Akashic Brony

Chapter 2 A Late Date

Under Celestia’s rule, there had been one thousand years of peace; not since Nightmare Moon’s rebellion had the capital come under assault, much less fallen to an invader. The invasion was a dark mark upon the Royal Guard. Nothing stung more, not even his rejection from the Wonderbolts.

The shame destroyed his father. Suicide for pride. He realized however it was vanity that had lowered their guard in the first place. He would not make the same mistake. He would understand his enemy to their very anatomy.

The Changeling was a foe from foreign lands, capable of magical mind manipulation and shape-shifting. Nature could not design a more insidious agent of sabotage and subterfuge. The thought of something that assumed the form of a loved-one sent shivers to his wing-tips.

Den reached the last of the books on the library table. The aged text was the highest authority on the present matter, quilled by Star Swirl the Bearded himself. He sighed and opened the dusty tome with a flip of his wings.

---

It was the age of magic, in which prevailed the Unicorn Kingdom, a power unmatched by any. King Amethyst the wise and learned ruled with benevolence, his scepter of light was a torch for the world.

It was then a mysterious mare was found at the doorstep of his kingdom. King Amethyst became smitten with the foreign mare, with her fur of ebony and eyes of emerald. She quickly became his Queen. However, the new Queen was mired in melancholy.

Her happiness being his, the King offered gems and all the material riches of his domain to satisfy her heart. She refused all, asking only for his scepter of light. It was her greatest wish, every night.

She betrayed his love, for ambition was her lust. As his kingdom’s light faded, and as his lover plunged a dagger into his heart, King Amethyst declared:

You with emptiness within:

I curse you with all my hate—

May food and drink never sate—

And may your children inherit your sin!

The next chapter concerned the rocky turmoil of Griffin and Pegasus relations. Disappointed by the lack of further information, Den set aside the dusty tome.

“The Hidden History of Equestria, is it? Remember, reference books aren’t to be taken from the library. However,”—the bespectacled turquoise Unicorn mare fluttered her chartreuse eyes at Den—“an exception could be made for a Vice Captain.”

“Thanks, but I’m done with this book. It has no more use to me. Have you got any more books on the subject?”

The librarian sighed. “You’ve read them all; I watched you. I’ve never known a Pegasus that enjoyed reading so much.”

Den chuckled. “I wouldn’t say ‘enjoy.’ I’d probably reserve that word for Daring Do novels. This is research.”

“Daring Do. I see. Did you read the new—?” The librarian looked about to find Den gone and a window open. She sighed and went about re-arranging the many books he had left scattered about, smiling when she saw a note with some bits scattered on top.

“Quill Heart, buy yourself lunch, on me,” read the note.

The librarian laughed lightly at the note. “You intend to have me for lunch? Perhaps I shall have you.” A brief green glimmer shone across Quill Heart’s eyes, before returning to yellow an instant later.

---

Den walked the capital streets whistling, for he had a date. He stared at his reflection in a shop window to make sure his armor was shiny and saluted himself with one of his wings. He walked a bit further before arriving at the Grape Café and noticing, as he always did, its obvious purple motif.

From the waitress, he ordered two juice drinks to start off. He scanned the room as he tapped his hooves together and waited.

There she was, the mysterious mare, black of hair with a gray coat. Her green eyes shimmered like rare gemstones. “Hi, Dent,” said Echo.

Den winced but accepted the shortening of his name. He supposed “Den” was too casual and “Dented” was too formal.

“Hello, Echo.”

“I admit,” said Echo, “I am most surprised you are a guard.”

“Well, how else would I be able to get you into the palace?”

“A spy might be able to slip past—or a Changeling,” Echo suggested.

Their drinks were delivered with tiny umbrellas and straws.

“Yeah, Changelings,” said Den. “I know the Royal Guard hasn’t been held in the same esteem after the invasion,”—he took a nervous sip from his beverage—“but that was because we were unprepared and didn’t know our enemy!” Den determinately stamped a hoof on the table.

“And what have you learned?” asked Echo, casually sipping her grape juice through a straw.

“That’s classified,” said Den, smiling smugly.

“I see,” said Echo. She smiled back.

Den abandoned his caution and threw up his hooves. “Well, honestly not much. The most promising lead was that they are the result of a curse.”

“Really? The poor creatures.”

“I wouldn’t say that. It sounded like their queen really deserved it.”

Echo frowned. Den began to think he was losing her attention.

“Hey, I’m sorry for boring you,” said Den. He rubbed the back of his mane.

“No, I find the subject… deeply fascinating.” Echo licked her teeth.

“Really? I guess it is.” Den smirked. “Imagine, monsters hiding amongst us, waiting to pounce!” Den dramatically raised his front hooves.

“I could be one.” Echo delivered a chilling and hauntingly hollow laugh.

“No, a sweet mare like you couldn’t possibly be,” said Den, laughing as heartily as Echo. This caught the attention of a few groups of perplexed café customers, who glanced at them for a moment then returned to their own conversations.

“You don’t know me,” said Echo seductively, with half-lidded eyes.

“I would like to,” said Den, leaning forward. He stared into her striking green eyes. The world seemed to melt away, save for the beautiful mare before him.

“How about you come over to my place and we get better acquainted?” asked Echo. There was a green glint in her eyes. To Den, her voice drowned out all the others and seemed like a lullaby.

The clanging of porcelain plates hitting the table snapped Den back to attention. Echo glowered at the waitress for some reason. Their daffodil sandwiches had arrived.

Den blinked several times. “Hey, let’s get to know each other first.”

“How is it that you know about the myth of the Changeling curse?” asked Echo.

“I read of it in a book.”

“You read?” Echo laughed lightly.

Den frowned. “Hey, Miss Unicorn—the stereotype of the illiterate Pegasus is unfair and untrue.”

Echo smiled but her questioning eyebrow did not lower.

“Okay, so I twisted my wings during training. I kind of became a bookworm in the summer it took for them to heal. It was many years ago. Ever since then I’ve been hooked on books.” Den recalled fondly his summer of pure reading. He missed that time.

“I love reading, especially horror-fantasy,” said Echo.

“You’re a dark one, aren’t you?” said Den.

Echo’s smile turned.

“Oh, I like it,” continued Den reassuringly. “Especially Frankenstallion by that mare Shelly. That gave me goosebumps for a week.”

“That one made me feel sorry for the monster,” Echo said. She stared at her sandwich; the two olives on toothpicks looked like eyes staring back. “All he wanted was a mate. He wandered the world looking for love, only to be rejected.”

“The monster destroyed ponies, didn’t he?” asked Den.

“Don’t you, Mr. Royal Guard?”

Den sipped his drink, thinking. “We mostly fight monsters that wander near the towns and cities. Anyway, it was a sad and tragic tale, but some monsters have to be destroyed.”

Echo pouted, changing the subject slightly: “You did not tell me you were a Vice Captain when we first met. I think an apology is in order. Take me shopping.”

This caught Den off guard. He tried to be smooth. “As you wish, milady.”

---

Den followed Echo throughout the Canterlot marketplace. He noticed that her stumbling and leading him about was taking them to the luxury goods district.

Many dresses caught Echo’s eye, all of them pretty, and all of them expensive.

“Wow, you’re determined to make me pay for that,” said Den, whistling at the price tags on the dresses.

“Don’t be cheap. I know your pockets are deep, Vice Captain.”

Den contemplated. How expensive could a dress possibly be? They were just bolts of cloth cut into shapes, weren’t they?

He was to be proven wrong. While Echo admired a gold-lined dress with many flourishes, Den shivered at the five digit figure of the price tag. And when she then turned to a diamond-encrusted dress shimmering behind a storefront glass window, he cringed.

After looking at all the dresses, she grabbed the simplest outfit available. It was a plain white gown with gold sequins on the frills. Den raised his brow, showing his surprise at her choice.

“I like simple,” explained Echo. “Sometimes it is easier to think that way: with purity and clarity of purpose. This dress is functional yet has enough flourish not to be ugly.”

“You’re anything but simple,” said Den, with a smile.

“Simple is not bad,” Echo clarified. “My situation is too complex for my tastes.”

---

Echo whimsically plopped her chosen dress onto the counter.

“That’ll be five—” The clerk’s eyes lit up when he saw Den in his Guard Officer’s armor walking behind Echo, and immediately cleared his throat.. “Fifty hundred bits please. Fifty hundred bits.”

Den grumbled, but gave in under Echo’s and the clerk’s expectant stare. He reached for his checkbook under his armored chest plate.

“Don’t worry. It’s a fine thing you’re doing treating your marefriend like this. She’ll look stunning in it. I’m sure you’ll get … something out of it.” The clerk gave Den a crooked smirk.

Echo protested. “Me, his marefriend? This is my brother, not my lover!”

“I didn’t mean to insult," said the clerk.

“I’m perfectly single. It’s rather lonely, wouldn’t you agree?” Echo stared deeply into the clerk’s eyes.

The clerk stammered. “Well, I assumed a pretty miss such as yourself would already be hitched.”

“Say, doesn’t this tag read fifty bits?” Echo showed the clerk the price tag on the dress.

Behind her, Den noticed a small end piece of the tag flittering toward the ground. It had a zero on it.

“Oh my, that must be mislabeled.”

“I think not. Fifty bits. I’d consider a personal favor. Pretty please.” She lingered on that last word. Her stare intensified.

“Very well,” said the clerk. He nodded dumbly. There was a green glint in his eyes.

---

Den put his bits on the table. He threw the dress on his back. He was slack-jaw impressed as Echo walked out of the shop with him.

“You’re a shrewd negotiator,” said Den with a chuckle. “I don’t know the price of anything. You sure made a foal out of that shopkeep.”

“Who was the greater foal? You were willing to pay 5,000 bits for this table cloth to impress me. They don’t pay Vice Captains that much. Do they?”

“No,” said Den sheepishly.

“It is touching that you think I am worth a 5,000-bit dress.” Echo arched her neck towards Den.

“I’ve seen crazy prices in the capital. Canterlot isn’t a poor-pony’s place. I don’t like it here that much. Never been to these shops, til now.”

“It is the custom to take any would-be suitor to this street and make him buy her the most expensive dress. The ladies here will bleed you dry. I’m content with just a small bite. Have you never had a Canterlot marefriend?”

Den tripped over his words slightly and confessed: “Nope. Not nowhere. I had to be married to the job to get where I am. I’m not naturally talented. I didn’t make the Wonderbolts.”

“It is the strangest thing for someone to mention their failings during a date. Typically, big boasting is the norm.”

“Sorry.” Den looked away, ashamed.

“Don’t be. You’re honest. I find that sweet.” Echo pecked Den’s cheek with a light kiss, eliciting a small blush from him.

They walked a bit further under the now lantern-lit streets.

---

Before Den had even noticed that they’d walked into a small alleyway. In front of them, their path was blocked by three ponies. Den shot a glance behind them to see three more snapping shut the trap and closing their escape route. The half-dozen roguish types surrounded them, led by a yellow-coated Unicorn whose bulky muscles hinted at a partial Earth-Pony lineage.

“Look who it is: Dented Armor,” the Unicorn said. “I thought I recognized you in the market. It was good that I followed.”

“Yellow Tail, I see you’ve upgraded from school yard bully,” Den spat.

“I was the school yard boss until you told Principal Cheerilee on me. I got expelled, you bastard.”

“You broke a foal’s leg for fun,” said Den.

“You broke my dreams. I should be wearing that armor! They didn’t let me in the guard because of what you put on my record.” Yellow Tail scowled.

Den matched the yellow unicorn’s gaze. “The Royal Guard has no use for thugs.”

Yellow Tail threw up his hooves nonchalantly. “Anyway, business is business.”

“We’ll be having your valuables now,” cackled a hooded pony.

“I’m still Royal Guard,” announced Den with aplomb. “Leave now and I won’t arrest you punks.”

His bravado faded slightly when the thugs paid no mind to his boast.

“Yeah, we saw how well you guards fared against those bugs,” scoffed a brutish stallion.

“Bugs?” Echo huffed.

“Hand over your purse,” demanded a lean thug, a dagger hanging from the corner of his mouth, “and that lovely dress.”

“And your date too!” cackled Yellow Tail. “I’m going to make you watch!”

Den reared up and smacked a thug to the ground. He kicked back another to create an opening in the swarm of attacking ponies. “Run, Echo! I’ll hold them off!” Den noticed a dagger magically flung towards Echo, and he jumped in front of it. Den bit his lip as the dagger plunged into his neck. He collapsed, his head smacking the pavement.

There was a flash of green followed by screams. As he lay bleeding, his thoughts drifted to home: a grassy field, a cottage upon a hill, and a smiling family.

Comments

[IceQB]

dat ending. WHY. WHY?! D:

-reads on-

[Thebravenorse]

All your story's just have that awesome feel to them. I don't really know how to describe it. Great job on this chapter. I will read on.

[Laknock]

See what I mean? Love kills it's victims.

[Scribblesheet The Scribe]

THANK YOU!!! Finally someone who says foal instead of fool! I'n the show they always say Foal instead of fool much like how they say everypony instead of everybody! Thank Luna someone actually used that for once! I now give you a mustache.

[tsaukpaetra]

that escalated quickly!

[Amos Anon]

“Don’t be cheap. I know your pockets are deep, Vice Captain.”

Hmm... she seems a little... flat. As in, she has very little characterization, though I think that was done intentionally. It's clear that she's taking advantage of him, but she's pretty soulless about it. It's like she put very little effort into her disguise, and is only going through the motions to get his love.

[Amos Anon]

“That’ll be five—” The clerk’s eyes lit up when he saw Den in his Guard Officer’s armor walking behind Echo, and immediately cleared his throat.. “Fifty hundred bits please. Fifty hundred bits.”

Fifty-hundred... wouldn't that just be five thousand? Or did you mean fifteen-hundred, which is one-thousand-five-hundred?

[Amos Anon]

“You’re a shrewd negotiator,” said Den with a chuckle. “I don’t know the price of anything. You sure made a foal out of that shopkeep.”

Or an outright thief.