“Azure? Is that you?” a feminine voice called out.
“Yeah,” Azure replied after closing the front door.
“Come on into the kitchen, dinner’s ready.”
Those were the words Azure Storm had been hoping to hear. The trek home had been a long one, and created a hunger that only a heavy meal could sate. Just like every evening when he decided to climb up into the Foal Mountains.
The scent of vegetable ad potato stew wafted across his nose, and he quickly trotted into the kitchen. His parents and sister were seated at dining table and were already eating their meals. Without pause, he hopped onto his seat and began to scoop mouthfuls from the bowl that had been already filled for him.
“How was your day sweetie?” his mother asked.
“Fine,” he replied between bites.
“Did you see anything interesting today?”
“No, but I did catch a breeze from Dodge Junction. I think their almost done with their harvest from what I could tell.”
“Is that so?” his father spoke, not surprised in the least at his sons unusually heightened nose. “Guess that means I should head over in a few days to pick up some supplies.”
“Can I do it instead,” his sister quickly said.
Her father raised a brow. “Let me guess, want to see if they got the latest brand of some perfume?”
“Well yeah, it’s not like we have any of the latest things,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“Actually, would you mind getting me a bottle as well?” her mother said to her.
“And what makes you think she’s going, Sun Flower?” he asked.
“Why can’t she, Red? Sun Petal is a young mare now,” Sun Flower replied.
“Please dad?” Sun Petal pleaded.
Red Stone gave the two mares a stern expression in response. His wife whose yellow coat matched her namesake’s, gave a knowing smile that he would give in and allow their daughter to make the trip. Sun Petal on the other hoof, who had a green coat like the stem of a flower, silently begged her father to allow her to go. Red Stone held his gaze as long as he could against the combined force of the two mares that whittled his defenses with each second. He quickly looked over at his son who as usual, was paying no mind to the conversation. Coloration wise, he took his wife’s father coat, an alabaster white but with a messy Azure mane, just like his namesake.
Seeing no offer of help from his son, or any interest for that matter, Red Stone eventually yielded to the mares. But, he did so with bit of dignity he could muster. “Well, I guess it might be better if you go in my stead. The other stallions mentioned they were heading over to the Pie rock farm to pick up some coal for the winter.” Red Stone shifted his eyes back to his food and began to scoop another bite. “I suppose it would be better if you haul back the hay from Dodge. That is, if you think you can handle it.”
“Of course I can handle it!” Sun Petal said.
Sun Flower looked on to her husband with a loving smile, knowing full well that despite how tough of a face he put on towards them or others, he could hardly resist the requests of both his wife and daughter. Most of the time it was up to her to make sure that Sun Petal did not get her way with him, but it was almost always a sure fire win when she agreed with her daughters actions herself.
“Azure,” Sun Flower said. “Did you want to go with your sister?”
“No,” Azure Storm simply replied.
“Really?” Sun Flower said in surprise. “Don’t you want to see the crops being harvested?”
“Not really.”
Sun Flower exchanged a glance with Red Stone, both of them worrying about the same thing. While their daughter was as lively as they could come, their son always remained distant. In truth, Red Stone blamed some of it on his step father, Marsh Fen.
“Where’s grandpa?” Azure Storm asked almost on cue.
The seat that was normally reserved for the senior stallion remained empty, like many nights lately.
“I don’t know sweetie,” Sun Flower answered.
“Probably off with his crazy cult like friends,” Red Stone mumbled.
“Red!” Sun Flower exclaimed, followed by a scolding glare.
Red Stone only grumbled in reply and went back to eating, avoiding eye contact with her as much as possible.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Sun Petal asked sweetly to Azure. “If you do, I promise to get you something while I shop for some beauty products. I’ve been saving up.”
Azure Storm shifted his eyes to his sister briefly and considered the offer, but returned back to his food. “No, I’m good.”
“Well, is there anything I can get for you?” Sun Petal pressed, working her way past her younger brother’s shield.
“… a new saddlebag maybe?”
“One tough enough to survive a fall from a mountain?” she asked teasingly.
“… yeah,” he replied, recalling the incident he had some months ago.
“Alright, one durable saddlebag it is,” she said before ruffling his hair with a hoof.
“Hey!” he shouted before waving off her hooves, watching her with spiteful eyes at her giggles of getting him flustered. With a grunt similar to his fathers, he shouldered down and went back to his bowl. But in truth, it was to hide the small smile that he covered with his forelegs.
His sister didn’t judge him for always wanting to remain on his own like their parents did. They always were worried about him and how he was growing up, his father especially whenever he spent long periods of time with his grandfather. But his sister seemed to accept the fact that that was who he was. That he preferred the company of the wilderness over that of other ponies like she did. In fact, she would always support his endeavors on going for long hikes that would keep him away for a day or two. He liked her a lot for that.
Besides his grandfather, she was perhaps the only other pony in town that understood him.
“Take care!” Sun Flower called out.
“Stick to the road,” Red Stone said afterwards.
Azure Storm watched down the road as his parents waved off his sister, waiting patiently for her to walk by him and the tree he sat under. Sun Petal waved in return to their parents before turning forward and looking to him expectantly. When she came closer she spoke in feigned surprise, “My little brother actually came to see me off?”
Suppressing a smirk, he replied, “Mom and dad made me. I’d be halfway to river by now if they didn’t.”
“Sure they did,” she said with a knowing smile.
“Well, since I’m here… good luck,” Azure said while looking away.
“Thanks. And good luck to you. Don’t go falling off the mountain while I’m gone.” She walked near him and flicked his ear with her tail as she passed.
“Yeah yeah…” he grumbled while he swatted her tail away.
She merely giggled in reply and headed off down the dirt trail. “Don’t let them get you down. I’ll be back in a few days. See ya then!”
“Bye!” Azure quickly replied with more energy than he intended. But she was already well on her way and waving back to him for him to try and re-correct his nonchalant appearance. But eventually the distant facade fell, and he let loose a heartfelt smile at his departing sister’s form.
Her warm and loving nature that she brought with her was like a blooming flower on a sunny day. It was a sight that was imprinted in his mind, a lasting image of sweetness and warmth like the breezes he enjoyed so much. It was something that he would never be able to forget about her since it was that day, would be the last time he would see her alive.
Azure Storm laid against his tree in the yard. With his alabaster coat and deep hues of purple for a main, he was a pale shadow in the trees shade beneath the noon sun. Keeping a keen gaze about him, he idly chewed on sunflower seeds from his bag, spitting their shells out into small but steadily growing piles around him.
As the days past, they had begun to pile above the grass around him, pyramid in structure. Two fell apart midway through, their shells sliding into a disorganized mess.
Swiping the two piles aside with a grunt, he began working on rebuilding them. It was all he could find himself doing. Munching away at seeds and spitting them out, all while eyeing the dirt road that vanished into the woods ahead, waiting for someone, anyone, to appear.
The last time that he had even left the yard was over two weeks ago, an unheard of feat for him as it was a chore in itself for anyone to keep him around the house for even a few days straight. But all it did was add to the worry that already beset everypony else.
The air about him was tense on the issue that Sun Petal had yet return.
The trip to Dodge Junction and back with a cart of hay should have only been a few days, a week at the most if she had spent time with some of her friends living there like everypony else had reasoned. She was a young mare, she had a life and her own desires. But it wasn’t like her to stay so long as to cause worry.
Eventually, they had become so worried that his father, Red Stone, chose to head to Dodge Junction himself to see if he could find her. He grumbled about how it was probably just the wagon breaking a wheel on the way, or that the road might have become blocked off by a landslide by Rambling Rock Ridge. He assured Azure and his mom Sun Flower that he would be back in no time with Sun Petal. He said that there was “nothin’ to worry” as he headed off down to road to find her, repeating it aloud to himself even after he had long left them.
His father’s reassurances however, did not quell the feeling of uneasiness that plagued Azure Storm. It was similar to the feeling that had appeared that day while he was atop the Foal Mountain’s edge, they day before Sun Petal had left. It was the faintest of breezes that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
The smell hadn’t been familiar in the slightest, yet it brought some old nostalgia that had made him become so worked up that he stood on the ledge for nearly an hour, flaring his nostrils as his scanned the wide land. It was a revolting smell, heavy and nauseating. If he had to describe it, it would be a mixture of what one would find in a hospital and in a morgue. The smell of the sick and the dead.
It was because of that day atop the ledge, mixed with his sister’s absence, that he had been spending nearly every moment of his free time beneath the tree in their yard, munching on seeds and waiting.
And it happened to be this day that something did come out of the forest.
Azure stiffened as he spotted movement between the trees, not entirely sure if he was imagining it, or that his father and sister had finally come home. But when his father’s burgundy coat became apparent between the green foliage of the forest, Azure Storm leapt to his feet and called out to his mother.
Sun Flower lifted her head from the garden she tended and turned her gaze to where he pointed. It had taken a few moments more before she could see Red Stone cross out from the woods, but when she did, she scrambled to her feet and dashed towards him, tears on the verge of her eyes.
Azure also began to move towards him, curious as to who the other ponies just behind him were that were still coming out from the forest along with the family wagon. He figured that his father was right, that it was just a broken wheel and they got it home with the help of the other ponies. But when his father lifted his head at the sound of their approaching hooves, the expression on his face was anything but joyful.
Sun Flower slowed as their eyes met, her frantic approach swiftly turning to a meek doorstop.
“Red?” she hesitantly asked, finding it hard to step forward. “What’s wrong? Did the wagon break?”
Azure Storm walked to his mother’s side, anxious to also learn what had happened. All the while his eyes kept searching among the ponies for the one that mattered most. But when Red Stone didn’t answer, instead tightening his jaw and tilting his head back the way he came.
“Red?” Sun Flower asked again, her voice becoming more hushed . “What happened? Where’s Sun Petal? Why are the guards here?”
After hearing her question, Azure looked at the ponies towing and escorting their wagon that approached. He didn’t know how he had missed it at first, but aside from the towns ponies nearby, many of the escorting group were guards. But instead of the polished armor, pure white coats, and authoritative postures that they normally carried, they looked instead worn, dirty, and as grim as his father. And Sun Petal wasn’t with them.
“Red, what is going on? Answer me!” Sun Flower suddenly shouted while reaching for him. “Red!”
“Mom…” Azure choked.
Sun Flower turned to him with wide, confused eyes, and then followed his gaze as the wagon passed them. In its back laid a white blanket covering something. There was no hay or perfume bottles, only the covered lumped form, and a dangling blonde tail that poked out beneath, stiffly swinging between the wagon wheels.
Sun Flower’s breathing stopped, Azure felt as if the world beneath his hooves had suddenly shifted, and Red Stone fell onto his rump as the tears he held back began to flow.
“I… I tried to come ahead to tell you…” Red Stone whispered in a broken voice. “I wanted to tell you before you saw... But I couldn’t..." He gritted his teeth as his nostrils began to flare. "What can anypony say… What can a father say about this!?”
“Red…” Sun Flower whispered. Her eyes couldn’t leave the covered form in the back of the wagon once as it approached the house, even when it became hard to even make it out as her own tears began to build. “Red… Please don’t tell me… Please don’t let that be…”
Red Stone slumped onto the ground and burrowed his muzzle into the dirt as he fought back the ragged breaths that came.
Sun Flower tried to move to his side, tried to blink away the dreadful sight like it wasn’t real, but her legs buckled beneath her, and she wrapped her arms around her waist as she cried out, “Sun Petal! My Petal!”
Azure felt his stomach drop as he looked frightfully at his parents, and then to the wrapped body in the wagon. Sun… Stepping backwards, he shook his head in denial. No… She can’t be… She…
The cart bounced over a rock, briefly showing her greens legs before the sheet settled back over her. Azure face contorted at its sight, and he ran.
“Azure!” he heard his father shout behind him, but he did not stop, could not stop. With trailing tears, Azure Storm ran towards the Foul Mountains.
The moon sat high in the sky, washing the land below with its golden glow. It was a beautiful sight, and it was one Azure hardly saw as he laid at the edge of his mountain cliff. He sat motionless on the ground, his eyes looking forward without movement. Instead of the vast scenery before him, all he could see was Sun Petal’s hanging tail at the back of the wagon, and her smile just before she had left.
A chill wind blew across the ridge, bringing all sorts of scents from far away, but none of it reached Azure. He hardly breathed at all as he continued to lay motionless. Though, perhaps because he didn’t let himself indulge in the breeze, he was able to catch one of the faintest sounds he had ever heard a pony make, one of the few times he had ever done so in his life.
Without looking back, he listened to the slow and quiet steps of the pony approaching behind him, which stopped just shy of his tail.
“Your folks are worried about you,” the old, gruff voice stated.
Azure didn’t reply.
“They’ve already lost one child, I don’t think they’re too keen on losing another.”
“I’ll be fine,” Azure whispered.
“Hmm,” the older pony said.
Azure heard his hooves scuff across the ground as he sat down, wheezing at the motion. “Either way, you should probably be home before sunup.”
Azure remained quiet, and the two of them sat together in silence for sometime on the ridge. The moon slowly crossed the sky as the stars glittered, and the winds buffeted the mountain top, yet still the two sat unbothered.
“You’re not thinking of throwing yourself off there, are you?”
“Of course not,” Azure quietly replied.
“Then what are you doing?”
“...”
“How are you feeling?”
“Honestly?” Azure said. He spent a moment reflecting on the question. He should have been feeling awful. Sun Petal was gone, and he should have been crying his eyes out. But out here on this ledge, away from everypony and now truly alone, he found…
“I feel like nothing.”
“Like you’re nothing?”
“No… Like I don’t feel anything.”
A minute passed as the two of them sat together on the ledge, then the pony grumbled from standing back up. “Come on, let’s get you home.”
“Okay, Grandpa…”
It was evening the next day, after the funeral.
Azure sat on the porch edge of the house, letting his mind wander as ponies made their slow departure. Many of them gave him sad glances, others brief words of support. Azure paid them little attention, for once, none of them took offense to it. Eventually, the last mourner disappeared from the road, leaving him and the rest of his now smaller family. Red Stone and Sun Flower were in too much grief to leave Sun Petal’s grave, and Azure couldn’t force himself to be there any longer.
His ears perked again at the sound of his normally quiet Grandfather’s hoofsteps, but he otherwise stayed still.
“Grandpa?” Azure asked. The ‘hmm?’ he heard return made him bring his hooves together. “Is there something wrong with me?”
“What makes you ask that?”
Azure tightened his grip, still searching for something within to prove his worries wrong. “I… I should be feeling bad, right? About Sun Petal and everything. I should be crying, shouldn’t I?”
He looked up to his grandfather with questioning eyes, and his grandfather stared back with a speculating gaze. By most ponies accounts, they said Azure was a spitting image of his grandfather when he was younger. The same white colored coat and purple mane, and the same wildness to their hair that let the wind play with it as it did.
Then, without a word or warning, his grandfather swung his hoof at Azure, and stopped within inches of his face.
Azure kept his unwavering gaze, having not flinched in the slightest at the action.
His grandfather withdrew his hoof, and nodded as if he had decided on something. “I’d figured as much. It’s strong within you.” A furrow appeared on Azure‘s forehead, and he opened his mouth. “No, don’t ask me anything just yet,” his grandfather said, cutting him off. “Right now you got a choice, and you need to make it fast. Do you want to stay with your family, or do you want to avenge your sister?”
The furrow on Azure’s face deepened.
“Whatever your decision will be is what you’ll be stuck with,” his grandfather pressed, eyeing him with a curious but otherwise non-expectant expression. “I don’t have time to pick you up later, or take you home if you change your mind. If you stay here then you don’t get to ask me about this again. If you come then you’ll do as I say when I say it.”
“Why are you asking me this?” Azure finally managed to say.
“Because I also have a few choices to make and less time to do it in,” he replied. “I wasn’t going to miss my granddaughter's funeral, but I’ve somewhere to be now. So what’s your answer, little Storm?”
Azure stared at his grandfather with a blank expression. He was being asked something important without knowing any of its details, forced to decide between two very life altering choices. He felt if he said no that his grandfather would stay true to his word and never bring it up again, which left Azure the image of what would happen to him then. Wander about the house, unable to feel the same loss as his parents and not knowing why. He was relieved to know that some part of him felt awful for the pain his parents were going through. He at least was feeling something.
But if he said yes, then Celestia knows what would happen.
He had thought through all of this and decided within moments. With a tightened glare he softly answered, “Avenge my sister.”
“Good,” his grandfather replied as he stepped down from the porch. “We’re leaving now. Take a look at your folks, it might be the last time you’ll see them.”
Azure followed his grandfather a few steps until he cross enough distance to see back field of the house. At the forest’s edge lay a stone pillar, rectangular in cut and adorned by many flower petals. His parents silently huddled in front of the grave, their heads beside one another with their downard gazes at the single picture placed at the center of the flora.
A wind swept down the Foal Mountains towering above the treeline, ruffling branches and sending loose leaves into the air. Some of the petals from the grave were swept away, and they gently past Azure’s face with a soft touch.
For the first time since the funeral, the edges around his eyes hurt, and tears did finally fall from his cheeks. And with it, a chilling burn within him.
Azure had only learned about the word surreal recently, and he found himself in the best situation that could describe it. He and his grandfather had left the house immediately, and after hours of continued walking, they were far away from the town. Night had already settled, and Azure could only wonder what his parents were doing after they learned he had left without a word.
With often nothing but moon and starlight between the trees to guide them, they walked on.
Periodically he looked up to his grandfather, searching for some sign of why they were doing this or where they were going. But his grandfather's gaze remained fixed on the road ahead, and he had already stated that they wouldn’t be talking while travelling.
Eventually, they came upon another town, and they entered without a pause. It was Mountain Groove, a town on the western edge of the Foal Mountains and the last one before Canterlot that was still far away. The house lights were still on as ponies went about their evening routine, unaware of the the pair passing by their lights that stretched to the road.
His grandfather lead them deeper into the more populated town, turning without warning down streets and bends. Soon the houses were becoming more spread out as they made their way through, and the darkness of the surrounding forest was beginning to cover the road in front of them.
Azure had to squint to make out the path ahead of them, but he found his steps never faltering in the slightest at the unknown before him.
His grandfather continued into the darkness until he took a sudden turn from the main path, and went straight into a small trail that lead towards the mountain. Azure kept close behind, all while glancing back at the distant lights from the town they’d passed through.
Azure had been unable to see a single thing in front of him as they walked the winding path, but he found himself being able to somehow narrowly avoid each stray branch or jutting rocks that might have tripped it. He was feeling surreal and a heightened sense of awareness as the two of them silently trudged forward into the darkness. His hestiant steps on the loose, earthern terrain began to turn into more stable footing, and he steadily kept close to his grandfather as the last light from the town faded within the woods.
His grandfather still hadn’t said a word since their departure, and Azure wondered just when they would arrive wherever they were going.
It wasn’t until an hour later on the strange journey before a dim light appeared between the trees, and Azure watched in passive curiosity as they drew closer to it. Stepping out from the forest, he found that they were high up on the mountain's side, just below the point where it became rocks and cliffs. Here was a field of inclining grass, and at its center stood a two story cabin fashioned from large hewn logs. It’s indoor lights shined across the trimmed lawn, an odd sight given how wild the surrounding woods were. The windows would darked from the bodies of ponies passing now and then.
Without pause his grandfather approached the house with Azure close on his heels, approaching the double front doors marked with a gem symbol. Swinging the doors open they entered.
Azure’s pupils dilated at the flood of light, but his vision returned very quickly, and he looked about the cabin with intrigue. The floor was tiled stone, cut in rough and uneven shapes. The walls were thick logs piled on top of each other, decorated in weapons, armor, paintings of Equestria.
While there were two large open door ways to their right and left leading to what looked to be open chambers with other ponies, the large staircase in front of them and the ponies that stood at their base held their attention.
An older mare and a stallion having paused their conversation as they turned to Azure and his grandfather’s entrance. “Ah, Ash Shield, you’ve arrived,” the mare said with a motherly voice. She was wrapped in a grey dress and a knitted cloak red. Her deep purple mane was wrapped in a bun above her grey colored coat, and her amethyst eyes glistened behind her spectacles. “Please, come in. How was the journey?”
“Just fine,” Azure’s Grandfather replied. “Ember Hearth, I want you to meet my grandson.”
The mare turned to Azure, and with a soft smile spoke, “So, this is Azure Storm? What a pleasure to finally meet you. Please, do come in and have some food. You must be ravished after such a walk.” Turning to the stallion beside her, she said, “Soarin, would you please guide this young lad to the mess room?”
“Sure thing, Granny,” Soarin replied, and with a smile and a flex of his wings, he motioned for Azure to follow him.
Azure looked to his grandfather, who gave a nod in return.
“Come on, kid, I don’t bite,” Soarin joked. “Granny’s got the best food, and the fire’s still going.” He then turned to the doorway on the right base side of the staircase, with Azure Storm trailing some steps later.
Azure looked about the interior as they passed into a hallway. The base of the walls were made with stone, while the rest above were wooden and decorated with armor and tapestries.
“So, you’re the grandkid of Ash Shield, huh?” Soarin said, flashing a smile behind him as he lead. “That must be something.”
“Something as in not around often. Even when he visits, it's not for long.” Passing a mounted skull of a manticore, Azure finally did feel his unease wriggle within him. What am I even doing here?
Soarin looked back and gave him a knowing smile. “Ah, I get it now. You don’t know, huh?”
Azure stopped. “Know what?” Frowning at Soarin who also paused, Azure motioned to the nearby adornments with his head. “About why my grandfather would apparently spend time at a place with a bunch of hunting gear and paintings of monsters?”
“And I guess that’s what they meant when they said ‘private’,” Soarin replied. Before Azure could speak Soarin turned around and cut him off, “Okay, kid. Let me tell you what’s up. Believe it or not, you and I have ancestral roots.” Soarin walked over to a painting of a pony clad in a white cloak and holding onto a cross with magic, poised atop a hill overlooking a glen.
“Our clan dates back nearly a thousand and a half years, and during all that time, we’ve stood watch over Equestria. And today, your grandfather is a big deal within the clan for all the mentorship he’s provided to recruits and keeping the traditions alive.”
Soarin turned to Azure and poked his chest with a hoof. “But it seems family was more important than tradition, and he kept you out of it. I can respect that.” Soarin then flashed him a wide smile. “But it seems tonight you’re decided to join us after all.”
“Join what?” Azure asked.
“The Hunters,” Soarin replied with a toothy grin. "Equestria's most ancient and vigilant order, the keepers against the dead."